An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity

The term equity is being used a lot these days in education circles, certainly more than when i began teaching in 2006. On the surface, that seems like a good thing. A lot of us would like to prioritize equity. But, the more it gets thrown around, the more it seems like it's being used in ways that are so superficial that they actually perpetuate inequity.

Understandably, some folks, having seen this happen over and over again, are beginning to lose hope for the possibility of equity to move us in the direction we want to go, namely the direction of justice.

In this blog post, I'd like to attempt a somewhat complex but extremely important argument concerning the way school districts and educators are approaching the concept of educational equity in 2019. I believe that in order to understand what's required for educational equity, we have to a) significantly broaden the way we talk and think about what equity truly demands, and b) we must identify and understand the roots of equity.

Let's begin by looking at a common definition for equity. This one comes from an EdWeek article on equitable education funding from 2014 written by Marin Gjaja, J. Puckett, and Matt Ryder. They write:

"Equity should require that every student receives sufficient resources to have the same chance to succeed, rather than that every child gets the same level of funding."

This is pretty typical of the way i think equity is being discussed in school districts across our country, the idea being that equitable treatment of students and families is different than equal treatment. And this doesn't just go for dollars. Educational equity is also about culturally responsive curriculum and instructional practices, proper and appropriate special education evaluation and services, socially and emotionally supportive learning environments, and much more.

In other words, the basic premise of our current equity conversation encourages us to understand CONTINUE READING: An Urban Teacher's Education: What We're Not Talking About When We Talk About Equity