Equity in the middle grades

Equity means fairness, justice, or impartiality. In education, equity means providing equal access to a standards-based education. California policymakers have taken great strides in providing equal access to education by developing a coherent system of standards-based education that includes reliable state assessments to measure student achievement. Students across grade levels are making gains in English language arts and in mathematics on the California Standards Tests (CSTs).

However, equal access alone does not automatically ensure equal outcomes in terms of student achievement, which may be affected by more variables than the school can control. Some communities that have high levels of poverty and/or gang violence, however, still face huge odds in providing standards-based, grade-level education.

One way to provide equity is to recognize how the school’s culture and climate affect learning for students from various ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Culturally responsive instructional practices help students connect to learning because it is more relevant to their daily lives. According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), culturally responsive educational practices have the following attributes:

Curriculum content reflects the cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity of society and the world.
Instructional and assessment practices build on the students' prior knowledge, culture, and language.
Classroom practices stimulate students to construct knowledge, make meaning, and examine cultural biases and assumptions.
Schoolwide beliefs and practices foster understanding and respect for cultural diversity, and celebrate the contributions of diverse groups.
School programs and instructional practices draw from and integrate community and family language and culture and help families and communities to support the students' academic success.

The Williams case (Eliezer Williams et al. v. State of California et al.) attempts to make the playing field level by calling for public schools to provide students with equal access to instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified teachers. These three components are an important part of providing equal access, but they do not cover all aspects of social equity. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform (Outside Source) is a national nonprofit organization that established the Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage program to highlight effective middle grades strategies. The forum’s criteria for high performance, detailed in its School Self-Study and Rating Rubric (DOC; 413KB; 9pp.), identify the following factors that promote social equity:

To the fullest extent possible, all students, including English learners, students with disabilities, and gifted and honors students, participate in heterogeneous classes with high academic and behavioral expectations.
Students are provided with the opportunity to use many and varied approaches to achieve and demonstrate competence and mastery of standards.
Teachers continually adapt curriculum, instruction, assessment, and scheduling to meet their students’ diverse and changing needs.
All students have equal access to valued knowledge in all school classes and activities.
Students have ongoing opportunities to learn about and appreciate their own and others’ cultures.
The school community knows every student well.
The faculty welcomes and encourages the active participation of all its families and makes sure that all families are an integral part of the school.
The school’s reward system is designed to value diversity, civility, service, and democratic citizenship.
Staff members understand and support the family backgrounds and values of the students.
The school rules are clear, fair, and consistently applied.

Equity is critical for California’s economic future. Studies indicate California jobs that require higher education are growing faster than overall employment. Demand for jobs requiring a college degree will grow by 48 percent, while jobs not requiring a degree will grow by 33 percent. Technical services, education, and health care will require the largest number of highly educated workers. However, the fields of finance, manufacturing, and information will face significant economic impacts if California schools do not provide an adequate number of highly educated workers. "The increasing demand for highly educated workers combined with the loss of the retiring highly-educated Baby Boomers is equal to more than 3 million new workers, which is more than the population of the cities of San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco combined."1

As noted above, 33 percent of new jobs do not require a college degree. However, automotive technicians, sheet metal workers, computer repair technicians, plumbers, electricians, and agricultural managers are a few of the skilled tradespeople who will need reading and comprehension skills. Many of these professionals will also need moderate to advanced computational skills.

In spite of the sometimes global challenges educators face in improving student achievement, many schools are making gains. The content for this Recommendation looks at the strategies that help students excel by promoting fairness and equal opportunity.

Taking Center Stage – Act II (TCSII)

A Portal for Middle Grades Educators

Equity in the middle grades

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