Conceptions of Educational Equity

“Educational equity” is universally lauded but equally ill-defined. At least five contrasting meanings of equity are in current use: equal distributions of outcomes across populations; equal outcomes for every child; equal resource allocations across students, schools, districts, states, or nations; equal experiences for each child; and equal levels of growth by each child. Furthermore, these conceptions are themselves often subsumed to concerns for benefiting the less advantaged, ensuring educational adequacy, or prioritizing short-term benefits versus long-term structural change. Researchers, educators, and policy makers alike will benefit from understanding these distinctions and trade-offs, not least in order to reimagine and restructure the unjust conditions that make some of those trade-offs unavoidable in the first place.