Recommendations
State and federal governments have responsibilities both for the quality of the nation's education and for equity in education. Current federal proposals to achieve a national systemic reform depend greatly on states' commitment and ability to restructure their educational systems for excellence. States also share with the federal government responsibilities for implementing both their own and federal equity mandates. While, in recent years, there has been "a rich variety of state educational equity activities...they fall into no consistent pattern from state to state" (Brown and Reid 1987), and have fallen far short of achieving educational equity.
Achieving educational equity across the nation still requires federal leadership. Unfortunately, nearly every federal equity program has suffered from neglect and decreased funding over the past decade, while the Department of Education's (ED's) own structures reflect a fragmented national approach to equity. Its specialized units work in isolation from and competition with each other in a patchwork of uncoordinated programs that·although individual programs accomplish worthy goals·have failed to achieve educational equity.
Federal equity support comes primarily as financial assistance for student groups identifled as in need of supplemental services, as anti discrimination laws, and as technical assistance to change discriminatory practices. Equal opportunity to learn is sought through programs to compensate educational "deflcits" of students disadvantaged or put at risk because of some social characteristic, most often poverty. It is also sought through "special populations" programs (e.g., bilingual education programs, special education and rehabilitative services) to benefit groups historically experiencing discrimination. But equity in regular programs and services, without which "supplemental" assistance means little, is the object of virtually no federal effort.
Both federal and state efforts for historically discriminated populations need to be maintained, not only to ensure that the special needs of each group are met but also to enable us to learn from the special strengths of each group. But much greater coordination within and across assistance programs is needed to make equity a fundamental issue of all education. No current federal or state program exists to assure the interconnections between educational equity and excellence. What is lacking is a coordinated strategy to lead and support state and local creation of schools that limit no child's opportunity to learn to the highest standards. Such a strategy must seek integration of fundamental components of systemic reform that includes the principles and actions presented below.
- Principles of Equity in Education
- Federal Actions
- State Actions
- Local Education Agency Actions
- Conclusion
Principles of Equity in Education
- Each student must be provided powerful curricula through adequate instructional and support systems to give him or her the opportunity to learn and the expectation to learn to the highest content and performance standards established for other students in his or her school, district and state.
- Each family and community within a local education agency's jurisdiction must have access to the information, health and social services, and the participatory opportunity ties necessary to assure their children's well being and contribute to their school success.
- Each school must have financial, material and programmatic resources adequate to provide each student an opportunity to learn to the highest standards established for the district, the state or the nation. Measures of resource adequacy must take into account student characteristics, the cost of relevant effective practices and geo economic factors.
- Teachers and other educational professionals must have the commitment, knowledge and skills to provide all students with an opportunity to learn to the highest established standards. This must include male and female students of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and those who are gifted, talented or have disabilities.
- Assessment and testing instruments and practices must be fair and unbiased, aligned with curricular content and learning opportunities, and used to inform instruction. They must not be used to foreclose students' opportunity to learn to the highest standards.
The absence of any one fundamental component of systemic reform can defeat any district or school's efforts to provide equitable high quality education. Action to create and integrate them is needed at the federal, state and local levels.
Federal Actions
- Include fundamental components of systemic change (school structures and curriculum; Opportunity to Learn Standards; family empowerment; school finance; teacher preparation; and fair student assessments) as inseparable and fundamental objectives for attainment of the National Education Goals.
- Include among the criteria for federal approval of state Opportunity to Learn Standards the extent to which other components of systemic change are addressed.
- Establish an inter Departmental (Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice) task force to identify areas and methods of collaboration for systemic equity in education.
- Require the National Education Goals Panel to include progress toward the objectives of school structures and curriculum, opportunity to learn, family empowerment, equity in financing, teacher preparation and fair assessment in its reports on national and state progress toward achieving the National Education Goals.
- Permit the use of grant resources to support equity integration efforts. Require state and LEA applications for federal education assistance and/or improvement grants to address how they will:
- Assure comparability of inter and intra district financial, curricular and program resource provision between assisted and non assisted schools and districts;
- Monitor and enforce district and school compliance with "supplement, not supplant" provisions of assistance programs;
- Integrate school structures and curriculum development, opportunity to learn standards, family empowerment efforts, teacher and professional staff development and fair assessment with other assisted program and improvement efforts.
- Support research, development, dissemination and technical assistance to states and LEAs for the creation and integration of effective programs for educational equity. These should include school structures and curriculum development, Opportunity to Learn Standards, family empowerment, equity in financing, teacher preparation and certification for settings of diversity, in service development and fair assessment.
State Actions
- Develop policies and standards that integrate equity concerns in curriculum content, student performance and opportunity to learn.
- Plan and implement state wide systemic educational improvement that includes equity objectives for school structures and curriculum, opportunity to learn, family empowerment, school finance, teacher preparation and development, and student assessment.
- Develop school finance formulas that provide for "vertical" equity according to district, school and student needs and effective services costs, and that assure both inter and intra district equity of educational resources.
- Develop and implement school assessment standards for assessing student/community characteristics and needs; schools' organization and management; curriculum, instructional strategies and classroom management; staff development and instructional support programs; parent involvement and school/community linking; and alignment of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development.
- Develop and implement inter agency and inter organizaffon (both public and private) collaboration to remove barriers to learning raised by social, economic and educational inequities.
- Encourage and support collaborative research and development programs by IHEs, LEAs, and advocacy and nonprofit educational support agencies to improve the effectiveness of teacher preparation for ssettings of diversity and of in service teacher and other professional staff development.
- Develop "whole school" improvement assistance teams to provide technical assistance to LEAs and schools on their request or when they have been identified as failing to provide equitable opportunities to learn. Available state technical assistance should include experts who can act as receivers for a failing school or district until it is successfully restructured.
Local Education Agency Actions
- Adopt policies that affirm high expectations of all students by requiring equitable school standards for:
- curriculum content;
- student performance;
- opportunity to learn;
- implementation of educational services.
- Adopt intra district policies and practices that require equity in financing, staff development, assessment and placement.
- Adopt policies and practices that support opportunity to learn through family empowerment.
- Collect, analyze and make public student outcome data in areas of assessment, participation and performance·disaggregated by race, gender, ethnicity and language background· and use that information to monitor institutional changes and to guide staff development.
- Collect, analyze and make public school/community organization data reflecting the progress toward school restructuring in:
- implementation of planned school programs and services;
- family empowerment;
- equity in school finance;
- staff development and its relationship to student outcomes.
- Require and support "whole school" cyclical improvement processes that include:
- Linking schools to community based collaborative programs for school support and family empowerment;
- Involvement of parents in school governance and assessment of needs for staff development; as student advocates, mentors and tutors; and as local culture/history resources;
- Ongoing teacher and other professional staff development;
- Equitable allocation of resources among students both for curricular and extra curricular activities;
- Regular, fair and systematic monitoring of student learning as necessary feedback for curricular and instructional improvement;
- Regular evaluation of the effectiveness of the school's implementation of student pro. grams and services.
Conclusion
Our recommendations for federal, state and local government action flow from a conviction that American education must be equitable if it is to be excellent. Government·federal, state and local·shares and reflects the growing national concern for the quality of American education. Therefore, in pursuit of educational excellence, it must also pursue educational equity. Those who are in government must not forget that educational equity is not only a necessary element of excellence, but is itself inextricably bound up with civil rights, which it is the duty of government to guarantee. Federal, state and local governments must vigorously enforce existing civil rights provisions of their constitutions, laws and programs, monitoring SEA, LEA, and local school compliance and strengthening citizens' access to redress when their rights are infringed (Gilhool 1991).
We believe that federal, state and local governments all must use their civil rights authority, their legislative power, their power of the purse and their "bully pulpits" to guide, support and assist school communities to accomplish systemic change that recognizes equity as one defining characteristic of educational excellence·and that ensures equality of opportunity and protection to all. Committed government action to integrate and implement the recommendations made above will provide bases on which schools can create excellent learning opportunities for all the children of our diverse society. In doing so, it will move the nation closer to fulfilling the American promise of civil equality for all.
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