serving all students

Leadership, March, 2001 by Karen Humphrey

As educators pursue an aggressive reform agenda, how do we ensure that low-achieving students aren't pushed out of the education system altogether?

The spotlight on education at the federal, state and local levels has seldom been brighter, as a reform agenda built on standards, assessment and accountability is implemented in California and many other states. As that agenda progresses, some of the hottest controversies and toughest questions center on educational equity.

Do students in the poorest schools get the worst facilities and least experienced teachers? If students' futures are based on tests and schools are held accountable for the results, how do we make sure students have the opportunity to learn the curriculum on which they are tested? What happens when we give high-stakes tests in English to students with only a year of English immersion?

Does shifting more students with disabilities into regular classrooms help or hurt them? Are boys really more at risk of failure now than girls are? If we build a system around the belief that all students can learn, who bears the responsibility for failure when some do not learn? How can we really assure that vitally important reforms improve education for all students and all schools?

A core value of public education is that the system will serve all students -- and that "all" means "all." No student should be denied a quality education because of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, limited English ability or any other characteristic that may lead to differential expectations and unequal conditions.

For years, educators have worked to build a system in which all students, with very few exceptions, can achieve high standards in academic content and performance. But this high-minded ideal is not yet a reality. The "achievement gap" persists, with some groups of students consistently scoring lower on tests than others. As we pursue an aggressive reform agenda, how do we ensure that the system is equitable -- that we are not just pushing low-achieving students out of the system altogether?

Educational equity is not a new topic. The reform course we are on in California gives it a greater sense of urgency, and suggests that we need a more comprehensive and holistic approach to equity -- a systemic approach that links it to the overall goal of better quality schools.

After years of varied professional pursuits marked by an interest in equity and diversity, I have developed a few notions about equity in education that I offer here. They are not necessarily original, and I don't offer them as "magic answers" that guarantee equity. My objective is to help reframe some of these critical issues in a way that is helpful to educators; I include with them some possible strategies for action.

Notion #1: Equity is indivisible but not indistinguishable. The phrase "serving all students" sometimes seems like a huge, fuzzy cloud in which the unique needs of unique student groups -- and individuals -- can get lost. A generic commitment to all students that is not backed up by specific knowledge of who is and isn't succeeding, why differences exist, and what we are going to do about them may be little more than a "feel-good" platitude.

Developing such knowledge requires understanding the unique concerns of each factor differentiating students, yet being consistently aware that a focus on just one issue in isolation from others (as often happens in categorical equity programs) limits our ability to respond to multiple issues that may affect students.

We must learn more about the complexities of student identity characteristics, especially how they overlap and intersect in students' lives and affect educational outcomes differently. Improving educational equity requires that we distinguish among specific issues like race, ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic status, language ability and others, but not to the exclusion of any important issue. These individual issues are part of a complex whole.

Some strategies to consider:

* Elevate the use of student data as an analytical tool. Look at what it consists of, how it is reported, how you use it, what you can do to gather more and better data. Disaggregate data to identify specific student issues and inform planning and program design. Feedback loops that allow administrators and teachers to better understand data and incorporate it into program evaluation and improvement are also critical.

* Create opportunities to discuss a variety of equity issues on a recurring basis -- in staff meetings, professional development workshops, school site and parent advisory committees and other arenas. This can build a common base of knowledge and involve more people in a comprehensive approach to problem-solving.

* Make the community a central player in the discussion. Involve business, labor, local government, parents, community-based organizations and any other stakeholders you can identify. Schools cannot attack equity issues in isolation, nor are they able to resolve all the impacts of inequity on students' lives. Community partnerships and resources are essential to eliminate inequity.