Educational equity, or equity in education, is the study and achievement of fairness

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 in education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

. The study of educational equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity

Excellence and equity

A key goal in education reform in many states is excellence and equity. Education leaders such as Washington's Terry Bergeson have stated that these goals are necessary to build in which all students earn a meaningful high school diploma. These goals will break the link between race, poverty and...

. Fairness is often equated with equality

Social equality

Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...

, but equity deals with accommodating and meeting the specific needs of specific individuals. Such needs-based accommodation will not result in equal treatment of all students.

Dimensions of Educational Equity

Educational equity has two interrelated dimensions. One is the issue of fairness, in that achievement ought to be based upon ability and application, and not on factors such as gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

, socio-economic status or ethnicity. The second dimension is that all individuals have a right to basic functioning literacy

Literacy

Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...

 and numeracy

Numeracy

Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts. A numerically literate person can manage and respond to the mathematical demands of life...

 (OECD, 2007).

Solutions

Addressing the issue of educational equity is a complex challenge that needs to involve education policy

Education policy

Education policy refers to the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems.Education occurs in many forms for many purposes through many institutions. Examples include early childhood education, kindergarten through to 12th grade, two and four year colleges or...

, classroom practices and resourcing

Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

(OECD, 2007).