Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
equity in education	AhmadBalkhi	05/14/04
Hello! I belive this is an ethical question as much as it is educational. In the U.S schools (elementary to college), students come from a very wide and diverse population. They come from different social, ethnic, language, religion &/ value backgrounds. What are some of the things that teachers MUST do to promote equity among their students, and be fair to all? What would be some of the things that a school must consider for the same reason?
Answered By		Answered On
Jim.McGinness		05/15/04
It's an interesting question to consider whether teachers must place a higher priority on promoting equity among their students than on, say, seeing that their students master the subject matter. There was a segment on NPR today about how, 50 years after the Brown v Board of Education ruling, you can go to a supposedly integrated school and find an extreme degree of de facto segregation in the classes. Track 4 classes will be full of "white kids". Track 1 classes will be full of "black kids". Providing group equity when there is such a resilient history of cultural inequity is a very tough problem. I'd like to say that a teacher's obligation is to set objective standards for student performance but tailor their treatment of students to suit the individual's background and potential. There's no way this would be seen as "fair", however, and the subjective aspects of evaluating students will likely make the reality inequitable.

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