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.
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…
What Purpose Does Your Dress Code Serve? Why Inclusive School Policies Matter
When Tvli Birdshead, a senior at an Oklahoma high school was denied the freedom to wear his Native American regalia to graduation this spring, he decided to fi…
The Forgotten Children: Students Who Have an Incarcerated Parent
by Ivy MorganThere are 1.5 million people in federal and state prisons and another 600,000 in local jails. More than half (54 percent) of these incarcerated adults have chi…
Strong Link Established Between Student Achievement and School Leadership
The impact of having a great teacher is well-known. But what about school principals? Turns out that students learn more when their schools have principals who…
Profile in Education Equity: Operation Restoration
Syrita Steib-Martin and Annie Freitas cofounded Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based organization that helps women who have been impacted by incarceratio…
How Education Can Better Serve the Modern-Day Student
For nearly six years, Reid Setzer has been at Young Invincibles, where he most recently served as director of public policy. Now, this one-time Jeopardy! runne…
Serving Healthy School Food While Preparing Young Adults for Culinary Careers
Tucked away in the back of a dilapidated, blue and gray building in downtown Washington lies DC Central Kitchen. It may not look like much, but the bustling so…
Leggings, Tank Tops, and Short Skirts: How Dress Codes Affect Girls of Color
It all started when a Catholic mother of four sons wrote a letter to the editor of the University of Notre Dame newspaper criticizing a group of young women wh…
Profile in Education Equity: Nancy Huante-Tzintzun, Stockton Schools Initiative
Nancy Huante-Tzintzun, Ph.D., is a scholar-activist and education equity policy advocate. Currently, she is interim director for Stockton Schools Initiative (S…
The Incredible Whiteness of Higher Education
While the U.S. becomes less White, and Black and Latino segments of the population rapidly expand, state economies are increasingly relying on a well-educated,…
Profile in Education Equity: Myra Jones-Taylor, Chief Policy Officer, ZERO TO THREE
As chief policy officer, Myra Jones-Taylor leads the development, strategy, and implementation of ZERO TO THREE, the national leader on infant-toddler policy a…
