Ensuring Education Equity

The quality of one’s education has a significant impact on both their access to opportunity and life outcomes. Yet, many Black and Brown children lack the access to a quality education within and across communities. Equity in education is the pursuit of creating an educational system that caters to students of all kinds and develops their educational experience accordingly. This means that no matter what a student’s background, language, race, economic profile, gender, learning capability, disability or family history, each student has the opportunity to get the support and resources they need to achieve their educational goals. There have been significant and purposeful barriers to an equitable education for communities of color and thus it will take intentional changes to policies and practices to close the education gap. The essayists in this series attempt to name the historical and current barriers to an equitable education and outline some steps to move toward greater equity in K-12 education in Richmond and beyond.

Discussion Questions

Read through the following questions and answer them based off what you learned from the readings:

1. Ben Campbell proposes what he calls a “Rich Education’’ through “Rich Schools,’ that “contribute to the genuine health, wealth, literacy, interest, and human capacity of students”. What are your thoughts on some of the past/current barriers to a Rich Education/Schools he presented? On the funding solutions he proposed?

2. Taikein Cooper and Geneive Siegel-Hawley present Real Integration as one of the solutions to educational inequities our communities face. What is your relationship to integration? What kind of schools (demographically) did you go to K-12? How did this shape your perspectives and opportunities?

3. Dennis Williams argues that the central barrier to advancing racial equity in education is white backlash? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? Are there examples of white backlash to racial equity that you can identify in your community?

Exercises

If you live in Virginia take a look at this article and this report to see the disparities in educational outcomes and funding. Can you find another organization that is doing work to close educational gaps? If you live outside of Virginia, what are the educational disparities that exist in your community? Can you find and follow 1-2 organizations that are trying to close the gaps from a funding reform and policy level?

Check out this report on Real Integration and read one of the sections related to the 5 “R’s” of real integration that interests you. Identify one thing you can do to support that solution locally.

Listen to an episode of Nice White Parents Podcast and discuss it with a friend or colleague. What resonates with you? What challenges you? What are some practical takeaways you can incorporate?

Continue to Section

Introduction

Message from the Authors

The Richmond Racial Equity Essays launched in 2021 with the goal of promoting thought leadership and public dialogue toward advancing racial equity in Richmond, Virginia, but also as a multi-media model for other cities grappling...

Section I

Introduction

Planning for Inclusive Communities

Urban planning concerns itself with the design and uses of space (or land) that focus on the physical form, economic functions, and social impacts of the built and natural environments in cities, towns and places in our communities. Although...

Section II

Introduction

Section III

Building Sustainable and Affordable Housing

Housing is a basic need around which our health and stability is built, our neighborhoods are centered and housing (through homeownership) is a cornerstone for wealth building. Thus access to...

Section III

Ensuring Education Equity
The quality of one’s education has a significant impact on both their access to opportunity and life outcomes. Yet, many Black and Brown children lack the access to a quality education within....

Section IV

Section III

Section IV

Advancing Economic Empowerment

The link between capitalism and systemic racism has been with us even before the founding of the United States, as using people for profit is one of our country’s original sins. The compounding...

Section V

Section III

Section IV

Shifting Power and Reimagining Partnerships

Central among our ongoing reckoning with racial justice is the question of how power is shifted and shared through partnerships. Historically marginalized communities...

Section VI

Section VIII

Section VII

Lifting Up Latino Leadership and Language Access

Latinos will soon be a majority in many cities across the U.S., yet the numbers of Latino leaders continue to lag across sectors as compared with other groups. This inequitable distribution of power...

Section VII

Section VIII

Section VII

Creating Community, Healing, and Justice

In the journey to dismantle structures of white supremacy there must be attention paid to community rebuilding and healing. Trauma from racism has negatively impacted Black and Brown people, and...

Section VIII

Building a Healthy Environment

Most U.S. localities are legally tasked to make decisions that protect the health, safety and general welfare of its inhabitants. While environmental health should be provided for all populations, communities...

Section IX

Section VIII

Summary

Thank you for reading, watching, and listening to the content from the Richmond Racial Equity Essays. We hope this guide helped you delve deeper into the material and furthered your learning and...

Ensuring Education Equity

Featured Essays and Media

Discussion Questions

Read through the following questions and answer them based off what you learned from the readings:

Exercises

Examples

Integrate NYC

Virginia Can Choose Equity for School Funding Report

Here is What School Integration in the US looks like Today

Additional Resources

Download this Section

Continue to Section

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Section I

Introduction

Introduction

Section II

Introduction

Section III

Section III

Section III

Section III

Section IV

Section III

Section IV

Section V

Section III

Section IV

Section VI

Section VIII

Section VII

Section VII

Section VIII

Section VII

Section VIII

Section VIII

Section VIII

Section IX

Section IX

Section VIII

Subscribe

This website uses cookies.