The Equity Line contains original analyses, commentary, and “on the ground” stories of students, parents, educators, and activists all over the nation striving to improve education. It chronicles our efforts, as well as those of partners and friends who are working toward the shared goal of closing gaps.
From the Classroom to the Polls: The Importance of Student Voting
by Samantha BayneAs the 2020 presidential election comes closer, the stakes are especially high to get out the vote. While voter turnout in the 2018 midterms hit a 50-year high…
Why I Teach Where I Teach: To Open Up a World of Possibilities
by Jennifer R. WahlIn order to get students outside of their comfort zones, they must have role models and teachers who are willing to do the same. Rural America is often starvin…
Why I Teach Where I Teach: To Show That the American Dream is Indeed Possible
by Marc BeitiaWe are each a sum of our life experiences. Opportunities chosen and those passed up. Chances taken, or not. Risks accepted. Fears overcome. And passion found. …
Why I Teach Where I Teach: Because My Students’ Future is Full of Promise
by Robert HandI teach Family and Consumer Sciences and Leadership at Mount Vernon High School. Mount Vernon, Washington is located in the heart of the Skagit Valley in the n…
Why I Teach: To Make Black Boy Success Not the Exception But the Expectation
by Jessica DuenasGrowing up in East New York, when I was still surrounded by the innocence of youth, I had no idea how many odds were systemically stacked against me. My parent…
Why I Teach Where I Teach: To Fulfill a Sense of Community
by Kareem NealFor the past 12 years, I have taught students with severe cognitive delays at Maryvale High School in Phoenix. Maryvale is one of the largest high schools in A…
Reconciling Your School’s Racist History
by Coleman EvansAs a White woman progressing through college and my internship at Ed Trust, I have come to understand the extent to which systemic racism permeates every aspec…
Free and Reduced-Price Lunches Are Essential to a Child’s Education
My kid’s elementary school was located in an affluent part of town. But in a nondescript building about a mile away, there was a homeless shelter. So, unbeknow…
Profiles in Education Equity: Kyle Strickland, the Kirwan Institute
by Ed TrustKyle Strickland is the senior legal analyst at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity. His work focuses on local and national civil rights …
What Happens When Incarceration Meets Education
by Luis Mattei Jr.Lifting the ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students is one of Ed Trust’s policy priorities for higher education reauthorization, and we are proud to advoc…
What It Means to Be Nonbinary and How to Be an LGBTQ Ally
by Charlie ScottI often tell people that my English pronouns are they/them and that I identify as trans (specifically nonbinary). This is much more accessible than explaining …
Higher Education Behind and Beyond Bars: A Father and Son Story
by Darryl Epps Jr. and Darryl Epps IIII sat with my back pressed into cold, hard wood as I stared into the big brown eyes across the table. He looks so much like me, I thought. Eight years old and …
Getting To & Through College: Tiffany Jones
In the first installment of our new series, an African American, first-generation college graduate recalls the struggles of going to and paying for college whi…
Broken Mirrors: 6 Takeaways on Black Student Representation at Public Colleges and Universities
It’s commencement season. As we honor the thousands of graduating students getting their diplomas, we should pause to consider those who didn’t get the opportu…
6 Ways to Make Dual Enrollment Programs Equitable
Dual enrollment programs — which are partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education that allow high school students to enroll in co…
ExtraOrdinary Districts Special Edition: The Milford 11
In the summer after the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Delaware’s first African American attorney, Louis L. Redding and local mi…
Special Edition: Segregation, Integration and the Milford 11
Delaware’s first African American attorney went before the state’s first Catholic judge in 1952 to ask that Delaware’s schools be desegregated. The judge agree…
Sharif El-Mekki: Leading With Equity and Justice
by Robin HarrisOn the first day of school at Mastery Charter Shoemaker, principal Sharif El-Mekki welcomes students and staff not only back to school, but “back to nation-bui…
Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week
by Emily HerdIt’s Teacher Appreciation Week — a time to celebrate the amazing educators across the country who work tirelessly to challenge, support, and nurture our younge…
Student Voices: Hearing and Supporting Native/Indigenous Students
by Charlie ScottI was born and raised in the central part of the Navajo Nation in a town called Chinle, which is near the Canyon De Chelly national monument in Arizona. For mo…
