Lesson 1: Major Issues of Equity Faced by U.S. Students
Learning Objectives
The participant will be able to:
- Define equity and inequity
- Identify specific examples of inequities that affect children and communities across the U.S.
Introduction
It is important to be aware of the various obstacles that our students may be facing both in and outside of the classroom so that we as educators may provide them with the tools and support they need to be successful. These obstacles can be related to socioeconomic status, political issues, gender, race, education, and many other factors.
What is Equity?
The National Association of Colleges and Employers defines equity as a term relating to fairness and justice and "means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place" (NACE, 2024). Equity is different from equality because equality means everyone gets the same, but equity is an ongoing process that requires us to "acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances" (NACE, 2024).
From this definition of equity, we can understand that inequity is synonymous to unfairness or injustice, and occurs when people and/or groups do not have their needs met.
Prevalent Issues of Equity
Some examples of equity issues that our students may be facing in their home lives:
- Learning to speak/read/write in English
- Being unhoused, living in a shelter, or living with many friends/family members
- Experiencing abuse and/or neglect
- Having to take care of siblings
- Lacking adequate food
- Living in poverty
- Lacking access to resources such as healthcare, technology, finances, or transportation
- Feeling unsafe in living situation
- Living with a disability and not having adequate services or accommodations
All of these issues directly impact how our students are coming in to our classrooms and are able to learn.
Reflection: Did you or someone you knew ever experience these issues during childhood? How did it impact your/their educational experience?
Equity and Education
Many of these issues of equity present themselves in our education system as well.
- Students attending schools in lower-income communities do not always have access to the same opportunities and resources than students attending schools in more affluent areas for a variety of reasons, which can include funding, staffing, or district priorities.
- Children from low-income backgrounds are more likely to fall behind in school compared to their peers from higher-income backgrounds (Slater et al., 2014). Bolon in 2001 found a strong correlation between community income and test scores, where children living in low-income communities had lower test scores than their peers living in communities with higher median incomes.
- As students from low-income families grow older, this can translate into not being able to graduate school, not being accepted to a college or being able to afford higher education, which sets them even further back from those with more socioeconomic resources.
- School segregation still exists today- racist housing and zone policies and school choice policies cause some schools or school districts to have higher percentages of students of the same race.
- “The new segregation also combines race and class segregation... Wealthier households (in which White families are overrepresented) can afford to relocate to residential zones with more political clout... and invest their political capital in securing advanced curriculum and other educational resources for their schools, but not for others” (Roziek, 2019, p. 9).
- Lower-income school districts often have a high teacher turnover, meaning that teachers do not stay in one job for long periods of time, which could create turmoil and inconsistency in the school environment.
Review
Lesson 1 Quiz: Use this link to access the review quiz for this lesson.
References
Bolon, C. (2001). Significance of test-based ratings for Metropolitan Boston Schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 9, 42.
Conkling, S. W., & Conkling, T. L. (2018). I’m the one who’s here: an experienced music teacher, a low-income school, and arts participation as a reform strategy. Music Education Research, 20(4), 517–530. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2018.1445211
Guin, K. (2004). Chronic teacher turnover in urban elementary schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(42), 1–30.
Interaction Institute for Social Change. (2016, January 13). Illustrating equality vs equity. https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/
National Association of Colleges and Employers. (n.d.). Equity. https://www.naceweb.org/about-us/equity-definition
National University. (2023, September 20). Equity in education: Understanding equity in the classroom. https://www.nu.edu/blog/equity-in-education/
Roziek, J (2019). School segregation: A realist’s view. Kappan, 100(5), 8-13.
Slater, J., Strait, D. L., Skoe, E., O'Connell, S., Thompson, E., & Kraus, N. (2014). Longitudinal effects of group music instruction on literacy skills in low-income children. PLoS ONE, 9(11), 1-9
Next lesson: Lesson 2: How Do Inequities Affect School Experience?
Unit 2 Homepage: Unit 2: Issues of Equity in Music Education
Course Homepage: Supporting Cultural Responsiveness & Equity in the Music Classroom