University
Book Examines Racial Equity in Higher Education
By Andrea Bennett on January 25, 2012 8:19 AM
A new book by USC Rossier School of Education professor Estela Mara Bensimon examines equity issues at institutions of higher education.
Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice (Stylus Publishing LLC) details the scorecard’s model of organizational learning and change. The Equity Scorecard™ process identifies and rectifies systemic problems that lead to educational inequities.
Bensimon, co-director of the Center for Urban Education (CUE) based at USC Rossier and co-editor of the book, said a key component of the process is the focus on the institution and its responsibility to change.
“Rather than focusing on what students do … we decided to focus on what institutions can do … to produce equity in outcomes for racially marginalized populations,” Bensimon explains in the introduction. “Rather than doing research to describe problems and prescribe solutions, we were interested in creating the structures and tools that would help leaders and faculty view themselves and their everyday practices through the lens of racial equity.”
Using data and benchmarking tools, the scorecard process creates conditions that enable higher education professionals to implement sustainable change at their institutions.
The process has been used at a number of higher education institutions, resulting in an increase of retention, transfer and graduation rates for racially marginalized populations. That, in turn, has helped the institutions meet the Obama administration’s ambitious college completion goals.
Confronting Equity Issues on Campus was co-edited by Lindsey Malcom PhD ’08, assistant professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
TAGS: education, equity issues
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