As the organization that litigated Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case ended segregation in American public schools. In addition, the LDF has spearheaded a decades-long struggle for equal access to education.
The struggle continues, both in and in communities and school systems. Yet, LDF staff keep working to remove barriers to ensure that all African-American students can pursue a quality education.
Education reform is also part of the struggle to eliminate inequality in outcomes and bias in schools. Progress in this domain will policies and programs explicitly designed to eliminate gaps in access to resources.
Reform will also require that educational leaders embrace individualized learning and create a culturally sensitive environment.
The World Health Organization defines equity as “The absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people.” This definition has parallels outside of healthcare.
Equity in education would mean there are no inequities in educational quality and resources among groups of students. For example, low-income areas get the same funding as affluent areas.
Rural and urban students, students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds, have the same supports, financial or otherwise. Equity is a key component of an equitable and fair society.
Equity and equality are not synonyms. Equality implies everything is the same, including the curriculum. Equity is about resources being the same. Education policy has focused on equality, on making things look the same.
Ensuring students in public education get the same level of material support regardless of socioeconomic status (SES) creates equity.
Equality means all students are the same in terms of educational needs, so resources should be allocated regardless of SES, gender, language barriers, disabilities, and cultural context.
Treating individual students like they are individuals also furthers the goal.
Things are not equal, though. Research from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that students who attended urban schools were 65% more likely to be in “high poverty” districts.
Many of those districts were majority African-American, where poverty creates a lack of funding which disadvantages students.
Many students from poor households have other challenges aside from underfunded schools. Students of color are also more likely to drop out or underperform.
A focus on equity in education implies closing the gaps between, for example, African-American students and White students in high-poverty districts.
Closing those educational gaps will require money, but it will also require commitment from teachers, leadership from the government, and engagement by community members.
A good education system provides a foundation for future success, which means any differences based on race or class have implications for people throughout their lives.
Closing gaps in education based on race is critically important for that reason, so the pursuit of educational equity between African-American and White students is part of the NAACP LDF mission.
Social class differences show up in education in myriad ways. For example, affluent parents can pay for tutoring, computers, educational software, SAT prep classes, and private K-12 education.
A parent from a privileged background will intervene in their child’s education by talking to their teacher or moving their child to a better school district.
A real difference may appear early in a child’s education and build up over time. For example, children from privileged backgrounds are more likely to complete high school and are more likely to complete a university degree if they continue their schooling.
More schooling translates to more earning power over a person’s lifetime. More earning power also leads to more wealth.
Education equity has been linked to better physical and social-emotional health in children and better social cohesion in schools. Social cohesion refers to connections between people.
The better the connections, the more social cohesion there is. Every student should experience clear benefits from an equitable school environment. Every child will have the same support throughout their schooling.
How can we improve the educational environment for all backgrounds, including English and second language (ESL) learners?
Creating equity for African-American students in the American school system goes beyond the matter of financing alone—changes in teaching methods, policies, and parental involvement help.
American University recommends the following practices:
Cultural responsiveness – Tailoring the educational experience to the experiences of diverse students should be standard practice by educators. This approach will also help students feel respected.
Personalized instruction – Using individualized lesson plans to give each student the best chance of succeeding. Our current education system assumes all students are the same regardless of gender and economic circumstances.
Early intervention – Starting early with personalized support can be crucially important to a student’s academic success. In addition, teachers can improve outcomes more easily at an early stage.
Community engagement – Getting parents and communities more involved in the learning process is important because educational achievement depends on things outside the classroom.
Educational equity goes beyond simply providing the same resources, instructional materials, and technology to all school districts to include personalized learning as part of a systems approach to educational attainment.
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On December 9, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court once again reviewed the constitutionality of UT Austin’s undergraduate admissions policy, which considers race among many other factors in order to admit a student body that is both exceptionally academically qualified and broadly diverse.
The Legal Defense Fund has been involved in Fisher from the outset. On behalf of the UT Black Student Alliance, LDF presented oral argument in the court of appeals in support of the University’s admissions policy. In August, 2012 and again in November 2015 LDF filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Supreme Court.
