Considering Equity Issues

“… be your name Buxbaum or Brisby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,

You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

You’re mountain is waiting.

So…get on your way!”

—–Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go

“Educational equity means that every student has access to the educational resources and rigor they need at the right moment in their education across race, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, family background, and/or family income.” (Dixon-Kraus, pg. 3, 1996) “There are other things to do without new resources. You can include, in a sensitive way, children’s backgrounds and life experiences. One way is through interviews with parents and with community people, in which they can recount their own stories, especially their interactions with institutions like schools, hospitals, and employment agencies. These are things that don’t often get heard.” (Dixon-Kraus, pg. 13, 1996) “But I do sometimes ask teachers to identify the students who are considered the most problematic in their class, for whatever reason, be it behavior or be it academic areas, and to write down 10 ways in which they are exhibiting difficulty or challenges. Then I ask the teachers to look at those challenges and see if they can be redefined as strengths in those children.” (Dixon-Kraus, pg. 19, 1996)