On Doing an Analysis of Equity and Closing the Opportunity Gap

Abstract

Is public education equitable and does it provide an equal opportunity to all children and youths? Equity in public school funding is a critical issue facing all communities and has been addressed by the courts in all but five states. A key focus is on funding gaps between rich and poor school districts. Recently, attention has turned to the relationship between funding gaps and the opportunity gaps that have real and important impacts on student outcomes. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of equity in a western state of the U.S.A. Fifteen quantitative statistics, weighted for high-cost students, sparsity, district population, and the cost of education, are calculated and discussed. It was found that there are large opportunity gaps among school districts and they are linked to local wealth. This makes the quality of education a function of local wealth that abridges equal opportunities to learn and to be successful, for children and youth in schools and classrooms. Implications for closing the opportunity gap are discussed in the final section.

Teacher Policies, Incentives, and Labor Markets in Chile, Colombia, and Perú: Implications for Equality

“…Various indicators have been proposed in the literature to measure horizontal and vertical equity (Nina et al, 2006;Verstegen, 2015;Kelly, 2014). In this paper we use two measures of statistical dispersion (range and coefficient of variation) and two inequality indices: the Gini Index, widely used in the literature, and the General Entropy Index ( ( ))To decompose the variance of teacher attributes between and within local governments, we estimate a multilevel model (linear mixed-effects models).…”

What are they talking about when they talk about equity? A content analysis of equity principles and provisions in state Every Student Succeeds Act plans

“…There has been a long history of and an ongoing debate among educational researchers and policy makers about what constitutes an equitable education, what it looks like in practice, and how to achieve it (Jordan, 2010;Verstegen, 2015). While there is a much larger body of literature examining equity from a variety of philosophical, sociological, historical, and economic perspectives (e.g., Anderson, 2007;Bourdieu, 1986;Coleman, 1968;Howe, 1997;Rawls, 1971), most definitions of equity in education literature include equity in access to educational resources (input, such as funding and educators) and equity in learning outcomes (output, often measured by high stakes test scores); and with a lesser extent, equity in process, e.g., pedagogy (Bertrand, Perez, & Rogers, 2015;Bulkley, 2013;Jordan, 2010).…”

“…Cook-Harvey et al (2016) further contend that such an equitable education requires "competent and caring educators…who are supported by adequate resources" so that "each student can develop his or her full academic and societal potential" (p. 1). In education policy research, however, much of the discussion on equity has centered on (in)equitable access to educational resources (Bulkley, 2013), in particular funding disparities and unequal distribution of high-quality educators, across schools and districts and among student groups (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Goldhaber, Lavery, & Theobald, 2015;Knight, 2019;Rivera & Lopez, 2019;Verstegen, 2015). For instance, Knight (2017Knight ( , 2019 reports that schools and districts serving high poverty and high minority students on average receive less funding but are disproportionately impacted by state funding cut.…”

“…Additionally, students of color and low-income students are repeatedly found to be taught by experienced, certified-in-field, and effective teachers at a lower rate than their White or more affluent peers (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Goldhaber et al, 2015;Knight, 2019). Verstegen (2015) notes that a principle of equity focusing on providing equal opportunity for all children to learn has been upheld in U.S. education policies. Berne and Stiefel (1984) distinguish between horizontal and vertical equity in distributing educational resources.…”

“…The consensus of the reviewed literature is that while advancing equity is repeatedly presented as an important goal for education policy reforms in the United States and consistently highlighted by policy makers at all levels (Cohen-Vogel & Hunt, 2007;Darling-Hammond, 2007;Saultz et al, 2017;Thomas & Brady, 2005), answers to the questions of what educational equity entails, to what end, and equitable for whom remain contentious among educational practitioners, researchers, and policy makers (Bulkley, 2013;Jordan, 2010;Kornhaber et al, 2017). This body of literature also shows that while an understanding of equity centered on equal access and opportunity remains prevalent (Bulkley, 2013;Verstegen, 2015), outcome equity has been given more attention in recent education policy in the era of standards-based, consequential accountability (Bulkley, 2013;Cochran-Smith et al, 2018;Thomas & Brady, 2005). From a policy history perspective, ESSA maintains NCLB's equity commitment by improving the educational experiences and results of historically disadvantaged student populations yet shifts the policy making power back to the state education agencies to develop policies and accountability measures in enhancing equity in their schools (Cook-Harvey et al, 2016;Egalite et al, 2017;Knight, 2019).…”