Equity Audit Summary

Equity traps in education are ever-present dangers/temptations for faculty and administration alike. Since these traps involve placing blame on others or other organizations, they are very seductive. However, the tools of high-quality teaching can help instructors avoid—or free themselves—from such equity traps.

The first equity trap included in Equity Audits (2009) involves teachers/administrators only acknowledging deficits in students and student-performance. A solution to avoiding/eliminating this trap is for educators to change their viewpoints from one of a deficit view to one of an asset view. Through the actions of actually getting to know a student, their family status, and their background, educators can begin to see there is

A solution to avoiding/eliminating this trap is for educators to look within themselves in order to determine why they feel such a need to erase a student’s race or culture. Through actions that make educators more racially and culturally-aware, acknowledging and appreciating these differences can improve student and teacher performance. Along with this, the high-quality teaching skill of using an asset model to respond to students’ varying cultures, described in Equity Audits (2009), can help counter the trap of erasing or ignoring race and culture. In my classroom, we read To Kill a Mockingbird. This novel is very descriptive concerning racism in the Depression-Era South. My colleagues and I make a point of explaining how the lives of the characters are different because of their race and culture…but how the characters still have admirable—and dishonorable—qualities. We are then able to connect these same issues with racism

A solution to avoiding/eliminating this trap is for educators to look within themselves in order to determine why there is such a strong need to make excuses for rationalizing poor behavior and unsuccessful practices. Through self-reflection, educators can begin to see what it is that is holding them back from being better teachers. Along with this, the high-quality teaching skill of stimulating students with high-level and complex tasks, described in Equity Audits (2009), can help counter the trap of rationalizing the negative. At SGHS, many teachers used to only show movies during finals week; they used the rationalization that students were “done” with school and that a movie was the only way to keep the teachers sane. However, in recent years, our administration made a rule that teaching was to continue, even during finals week. Of course, new material is not added during this testing week, but high-level review activities are