Equitable Access and Opportunity Resources

On March 20, LPI held the second webinar in a series that explores why deeper learning is crucial for students in today’s innovation economy and how we can achieve greater equity in access to deeper learning. This webinar explored how performance assessments are providing all students, including those who are farthest from opportunity, a vehicle to show what they know in a way that matters.

As states, districts, and schools are expanding instruction to include the competencies associated with college, career, and civic readiness, they are also developing ways to measure mastery of higher-order thinking skills. These measures include performance assessments that show what students know and can do through demonstrations of their thinking, writing, research, and products. During this briefing, speakers shared information on how performance assessments can inform teaching and learning, advance educational equity, and be used to inform the postsecondary admission, placement, and advisement process in ways that increase access.

Over the last year, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) and EducationCounsel have convened leaders in k-12 and higher education to explore how both systems might benefit greatly from more authentic and holistic ways of assessing students’ competencies and mastery of 21st-century skills. In this webinar, we explored the emerging recommendations from the Reimagining College Access initiative and engaged participants in a discussion of where the work is heading.

This forum was designed to spur dialogue among stakeholders—parents, education experts, community advocates, researchers, legal advocates, policymakers, and school leaders—in order to shift the public narrative on school choice from one that is politically polarizing to one that is focused on evidence-based solutions that can help ensure all children have access to quality educational opportunities, regardless of race, income, or ability.

In this webinar, co-hosted by the Learning Policy Institute and the National Urban League, we shared strategies that advocates and policymakers are using to tackle teacher shortages that disproportionately impact underserved communities.

On Thursday, February 21, the Learning Policy Institute and EdSource co-sponsored the forum, Reaching for Equity and Excellence: California’s Educational Progress and the Path Ahead. The event was designed to highlight education exemplars in California and spur dialogue among stakeholders about progress, challenges, and next steps for California.

On February 28, 2019, the Learning Policy Institute hosted a forum examining where we stand today with regard to realizing the promise of educational equity outlined in Brown v. Board of Education. The forum featured experts who shared lessons learned from efforts to fulfill Brown’s promise and analyze approaches being taken to ensure that school system design helps prepare students to be effective participants in our diverse democracy.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Data Collection demonstrate that students of color, students with disabilities, and other historically underserved students are disproportionately impacted by zero-tolerance school discipline policies. During this briefing, panelists highlighted alternative, research-based school discipline policies and practices which create safe, inclusive learning environments for all students. LPI also released a new report, Protecting Students’ Civil Rights: The Federal Role in School Discipline.

LPI hosted leading researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at a September 10, 2019 event which focused on several “positive outlier” school districts achieving extraordinary results with students across racial and socioeconomic groups.

More than half a century after the passage of Brown v. Board, the nation’s schools are becoming increasingly segregated by race and income. And yet, a large body of research shows that school desegregation benefits all students. At this briefing, speakers discussed the research and polices on integration and school funding and how they impact students during school and later in life.