Education and Equity

In this month’s Nation, education expert Linda Darling-Hammond outlines her views on No Child Left Behind and how to implement meaningful education reform. She offers an interesting perspective from Gloria Ladson-Billings, who argues that the “achievement gap” is not the real issue.  The real issue is “an educational debt that has accumulated over centuries of denied access to education and employment, reinforced by deepening poverty and resource inequalities in schools.” Darling-Hammond’s essay challenges educational policy-makers to begin to “repay the debt,” by addressing these fundamental inequalities.

(For more on Darling-Hammond’s views on reforming NCLB, see her “Marshall Plan for Education.”)

In their responses to her essay, sociologist Pedro Noguera, National Urban League VP Velma Cobb, and education scholar Deborah Meier expand on the idea of equity as a fundamental goal of education policy.

Noguera:

If we want to insure that all students have the opportunity to learn, we must insure that their basic needs are met. Students who are hungry should be fed, children who need coats in the winter should receive them and those who have been abused or neglected should have counseling and care. Expanding access to healthcare, preschool and affordable housing, and providing more generous parental leave policies should be included on the education reform agenda.

Cobb:

It is no small coincidence that poor schools are in poor neighborhoods. If we are to get serious about education reform for the twenty-first century, we must talk about community development. Only a full-empowerment agenda will address the unequal access to quality education.

Meier:

There are two important areas in which we could work toward narrowing the achievement test gap aside from directly through schooling: narrow the health gap (as Richard Rothstein argues) and narrow the income gap. Both paths would positively affect test scores as well as real learning. Since NCLB has been in effect, we have instead widened such gaps. Although we claim to be worried about our poor international standing on tests, we might better worry about the fact that we rank nearly last in measures of childcare. These data lead me to be somewhat suspicious about our will to upgrade educational outcomes.

In the classroom I felt a tension between wanting to believe that really good teaching could counteract the effects of poverty and knowing deep down that long-standing inequities would continue to impact my students no matter what I did.  Is it enough to be an excellent teacher...or do teachers need to also find a role as activists for social justice?

Labels: Conversations