Welcome to the Educational Equity Professional Learning Network (PLN)! This is a place where people who share an interest in equity in education can share resources, ideas and discuss relevant topics. Have a look around, leave a comment, ask a question or join a conversation!
What is educational equity?
Equity as inclusion means ensuring that all students reach at least a basic minimum level of skills. Equity as fairness implies that personal or socio-economic circumstances, such as gender, ethnic origin or family background are not obstacles to educational success. Equitable education systems are fair and inclusive and support their students to reach their learning potential without either formally or informally pre-setting barriers or lowering expectations. From the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) |
Equality vs. Equity |
Racial Equity |
Equality and equity are often used interchangeably. However, they have different meanings that have different implications when it comes to education.
Equality means giving the same resources to everyone, or every school. Equity, however, means allocating resources according to needs. It means an unequal distribution of resources in order to achieve equal opportunities and outcomes for all. Socio-economic EquityGenerally lower income students are at a disadvantage to those from wealthier families. They are educated in inferior facilities, with fewer resources, less experienced teachers, fewer advanced courses, and fewer extracurricular opportunities. They have lower educational aspirations and attend college at lower rates than their higher income peers.
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In the United States racial inequity often goes hand in hand with socio-economic inequity, as black and Latino students are more likely to attend high poverty schools. In addition to the inequities associated with socio-economic status, children of color are disciplined more often and more severely, are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, have higher dropout rates than their white counterparts, and score lower on standardized tests.
Gender EquityWhile gender inequity in the United States persists in our public education system, girls have made significant progress in the past 40 years.
There are greater problems in many developing countries, where girls are still still denied or discouraged from attaining an education. Disablilities & Other Types of EquityThere are other forms of inequity in education including those based on (dis)ability, sexual orientation, cultural and language background.
In particular, students with disabilities are disciplined more often and more severely, have lower academic achievement and perform more poorly on standardized tests. |
What is a Professional Learning Network (PLN)?
A professional learning network, or PLN, is an online community of people with a shared interest or passion. They come together to connect and interact with each other, share information, experience and expertise, and to collaborate on projects and issues.