Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2014 V 44 No 2 | Page 8

Achieving

EQUITY
in education
ACSA’s Equity, Achievement and Diversity for Success Committee is taking an active role
in sharing ideas and solutions for meeting equity goals in education.

E

ducational equity is the study
and achievement of fairness in
education. While fairness is often
equated with equality, equity
deals with accommodating and meeting the
specific needs of specific individuals. Such
needs-based accommodation will not result
in equal treatment of all students.
In education, equity encompasses a wide
variety of educational models, programs
and strategies that may be considered fair,
but not necessarily equal. It has been said
that equity is the process, equality is the
outcome.
Some ref lective questions for leaders
might include:
• Why is it important to address equity in education? Would our students be
more inspired to learn and succeed if they
saw educational figures that looked like
them? Would our students attend school
and be actively engaged in their learning if
their basic and individual needs were met?
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Leadership

Would our students be more inspired to
learn and succeed if they saw themselves in
the books they read?
• Why is it so hard to have courageous
conversations? Are we afraid of what we
don’t understand or know?
• How do we lead and facilitate courageous conversations?
• Do we start with our own stories? Close
your eyes and envision your educational experiences as a kindergartner, middle school
student and high school student. What was
your educational experience? Who was
your favorite teacher/educator? Who was
your least favorite teacher/educator? What
characteristics did they display?
• Imagine our students today. What type
of educator do you aspire to be? What type
of educator would you want for your own
children? Again, what does educational equity look and sound like? Does your school
or district reflect this? How can you ensure
that it does?

ACSA’s EADS Committee
Behind the acronym – which stands for
the Equity, Achievement and Diversity for
Success – are a group of accomplished educational leaders who share a deep passion
for addressing equity and diversity issues
that exist within our educational systems.
These members have served in all walks of
life in the education world – superintendents, district directors, authors, researchers, principals, vice/assistant principals,
classified managers and many more.
These leaders worked together over the
years on behalf of ACSA to drive the work
around equity, and to ensure that action
steps are being implemented as we strive to
meet our goals. All members are encouraged to take an active role in this quest to effectively address equity and diversity issues.

By Nicole Anderson and Kim Hendricks