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A path toward racial equity

By Tanji Reed Marshall
Categories: Reaching all students
June 2021
K-12 education is that rare thing in the United States open to everyone. But, while states and districts have language around excellence for all, inequities persist, particularly along racial lines. Test score outcomes continue to be disparate between races. Districts continue to face uneven funding with so-called urban districts receiving less than their so-called suburban counterparts (Morgan & Amerikaner, 2018). Students with diagnosed disabilities, those whose families are experiencing measures of economic distress, and those adding English to their language repertoire continue to experience school differently than their white, wealthier peers. Such inequities were firmly in place and widely accepted before the COVID-19 pandemic, but once schools were forced to switch to remote learning, these inequities exploded, taking center stage in conversations across the country.

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References

Morgan, I. & Amerikaner, A. (2018). Funding gaps 2018. The Education Trust. edtrust.org/resource/funding-gaps-2018/

Starck, J.G., Riddle, T., Sinclair, S., & Warikoo, N. (2020). Teachers are people too: Examining the racial bias of teachers compared to other American adults. Educational Researcher, 49(4), 273-284. journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3102/0013189X20912758

TNTP. (2018). The opportunity myth: What students can show us about how school is letting them down — and how to fix it. Author. opportunitymyth.tntp.org/

TNTP & Zearn (2021). Accelerate, don’t remediate: New evidence from elementary math classrooms. Author. tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP_Accelerate_Dont_Remediate_FINAL.pdf


Tanji Reed Marshall
Director of P-12 Practice at The Education Trust | + posts

Tanji Reed Marshall (treedmarshall@edtrust.org) is director of p-12 practice at The Education Trust and a guest editor for this issue of The Learning Professional.


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