Standards
One reform that could help students is for them to have a more constant standard. Current standards that are set locally lead to a large variation in students knowledge at different stages. This often creates issues for students who travel to different schools. With a constant standard, students in the same age groups would have the same expectations (Stewart, V., 202). These standard-based reforms would be to objectively assess student performance and teachers effectiveness by instructional materials and testing. Individual performance would be measured by common criteria rather than other students (Stelitano, L., & McEachin, A., 207). With the addition of constant standards, there is a greater possibility of a more equity based education.
Equity
Equity is much different from equality, though thought to be the same when broken down it is quite easy to see the difference. At a track event, there are X amount of runners, each in their lane. Equality would mean that each runner starts in the same spot in each lane. Though see
ming equal, because the track is an oval, the innermost runner would have less distance to run than the outermost runner. The innermost runner would have an advantage. That is why the track has each runner from outside to inside, set back more, and more (Shelton, N., 209). This is what equity looks like. Schools are currently set up more towards equality, though seeming fair for all students, the outermost students (low-income) have a much further distance to cover than the inside students (high-income). For schools to truly become fairer for students, the gap between technology at high and low-income schools would have to close. The way this gap would close is by giving all schools equal funding, rather than the higher-income school earning more. With a system that funds all schools equally, lower-income students would be able to receive better technology that would better the education experience of those students (Stewart, V., 202). Similarly to how equity makes the education system fairer, more qualified teachers would do the same.