Striving for Equity: What Our Choices Reveal About Our Beliefs and Values

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For Christmas, my wife and I bought our two kids ski lift tickets. Neither had skied before.

With their father as their teacher, they learned the basics until they each were able to go down the easiest run. Their next step: try that next hardest hill.

I am not going to name names; I will just tell you that one of my children took on the new challenge with abandon. He snowplowed the whole way down, almost running into other skiers, but he made it to the bottom safely. My other child was stuck. “That harder hill is too steep. I wish they had another easy one.”

To be clear, both of my kids are at roughly the same skill level (same teacher, yours truly). They both have similar physical capacity to take on that next harder run, even if it might involve a few tumbles. Equipment, support, environment: same, same, same.

The difference: One of them believes they will be successful and the other one believes they will fail.

This small story matters within the larger narrative in education. If our students don’t believe in themselves yet, then we need to build their confidence through excellent instruction. This is the key for equity, in which every child has access to what they need.

Resources, supports, and classroom/school culture have been the more common focus in education. We are told these elements should level the playing field.

So why haven’t we achieved this goal? Because we still believe that some children are more capable than others.

I don’t like writing this. I would prefer it untrue. Yet the outcomes are apparent.

Hitting Home

In my home state of Wisconsin, we have one of the largest gaps in achievement between white students and students of color: a 31-point difference in 4th grade reading proficiency and 39-point gap in 4th grade mathematics proficiency. Here is our state superintendent’s response to these results (Source: Wisconsin State Journal):

Wisconsin’s achievement gap is a crisis and closing it is imperative for our state.

One could reasonably argue that standardized tests are racially biased (short summary: bias is baked into the testing regime’s DNA). Anyway, let’s assume this is the case. Now, the federal government has offered states the opportunity to participate in alternative assessment trials that would allow districts to explore more innovative and effective testing approaches. For instance, in New Hampshire, schools are reducing standardized testing and replacing yearly exams with teacher-developed performance tasks. These authentic assessments could better reveal all students’ learning.

Considering the previous concerns and possibilities, what would you hope and assume would be Wisconsin’s response to this opportunity?

We didn’t participate. In fact, only four states applied for it. Openings were left vacant. When I reached out to ask why, this was the response.

DPI felt it was best to wait and see how the pilot goes for the states who applied.

So can you see how our choices are not reflective of our espoused beliefs? Our state does not really believe that this is a “crisis”. If they did, we would not be using a “wait and see” approach to this challenge. It would be “all hands on deck” - we own this, everyone on board now to develop a better assessment system, such as New Hampshire’s approach (my preference). As Dr. Pedro Noguera noted,

We can’t wait for permission to do what is right.

Responsive Instruction

Wisconsin just received a nice blanket of snow the past couple of days. “Do you want to go skiing this weekend?” I asked my more timid child. (I already knew the answer for their sibling.) “Maybe…” I shared that I would be by their side the whole way down, since my other child didn’t need me as much for support.

I had thought about purchasing lesson time with a professional ski instructor. They know the hills and the techniques better than I do. But I also remembered that I know my kids better than anyone with exception of my wife. I know their motivations, their worries, who they are as a person in addition to what they currently can and cannot do.

In the context of education, we too know our students better than anyone. Acquiring a highly-rated curriculum resource or designing a quality learning environment has its merits. But they cannot respond to kids. Teachers and leaders can through responsive instruction. Will we? You can't buy it. It will only happen if we believe that a) all students can be successful and b) it is within our capacity to make this a reality.

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