The issue of equality and equity has been a long debated issue in education. It still seems as though there are many still clamoring for equality as if that assures a school and, in turn, the students that they will make it.
The idea of being equal largely means that a classroom or school is provided with the same supplies or resources as another class or another school. So, in the CPS system, for example, one school in North Lawndale has the same student to teacher ratio as a school in the Pullman neighborhood.
Equity, on the other hand, realizes that the classrooms and students in North Lawndale have different needs, backgrounds and circumstances that are different from those of the Pullman neighborhood schools. That in turn would dictate which resources/supplies should be afforded to each to hopefully arrive at a relatively equal outcome.
My simple point is this...equity is what is worth striving for. Making something, in this case a classroom or school equal to another doesn't assure one of quality.
Dick
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