Equity, Diversity, And Accountability
One of the biggest problems facing the American educational system is equity in regards to the diverse student body, and how public schools should be made accountable for providing a quality education to all students. Bensimon, Polkinghorne, and Bauman's article "The Accountability Side of Diversity" examines the relevance and effectiveness of an accountability system that is designed to measure schools' response to diversity. The hypothesis is that such an accountability system, while difficult to design and implement, would promote equitable education for American students. This research and the article based on it are optimistic, encouraging, and should help American educational institutions pay greater attention to their treatment of minority students.
This article in large part describes the "Diversity Scorecard," a project of educational accountability experimented on several Los Angeles-area colleges. As the authors state, the Diversity Scorecard was designed not to promote diversity -- for these schools' student bodies were already diverse -- but how to ensure that all students have access to the same educational options and outcomes. The underlying assumption is that American universities, even those that boast as diverse student bodies as those found in urban centers like Los Angeles, may not have altered their curriculum sufficiently enough to enhance the education of people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The subject matter of this article is poignant and meaningful, and the authors' willingness to examine the accountability side of diversity is inspiring. The goal is to increase awareness of differences in cultural, racial, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds and to investigate the varied needs among these communities. While American schools have increased the diversity of their student bodies, they have not necessarily altered the curriculum or approach to diversity. Based on their research the authors conclude that higher educational institutions have not sufficiently accounted for the needs of their diverse student bodies. Because developing accountability systems for diversity and not just academic performance is a relatively fresh subject, the Bensimon, Polkinghorne, and Bauman article indeed increases awareness of this topic.
Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gap Trends: Reversing the Progress toward Equity? By Jaekyung Lee. This article discusses setbacks in the achievement of racial and ethnic minorities, and identifies some of the key factors affecting these setbacks. The author believes variations in the data are not fully discussed, and there are strong implications toward future setbacks. Reflective Review The United States has always been a melting pot, and this blending of cultures
Diversity Audit The Coca Cola Company is well-known for its commitment to diversity. The Company has a workforce where almost half the employees are women. However, their representation on the senior management levels is only 26%. The company also recruits racial minorities and members from the LGBT community. The company has institutional mechanisms to ensure that workforce diversity is respected and appreciated throughout the organization. Senior managers demonstrate their commitment to
We must "establish expectations for the outcomes that the agency will achieve, the consequences that it will create, or the impact that it will have" (p.10). But unlike accountability for finances and accountability for fairness, the authors write that it is impossible to establish these expectations with rules, procedures, and standards. Instead, specifying the quality of performance expected from a public agency necessitates a performance benchmark -- a transparent,
Diversity is increasingly becoming a serious HR issue for companies in the 21st century marketplace. Organizations have been forced to develop strategies for increasing the representation of minority groups and making their workplaces more favorable for them. General Mills was recently named one of the most inclusive companies in the world. This text examines the company's diversity program with the aim of determining what it does differently from competitors and
Social equity is a key issue of public administration and forms the basic theme of the 2013 "Social Equity Leadership Conference," in June. This white paper discusses the key goals of the conference based on the conference issue for social equity as global engagement and local responsibility. These are the issue facing social equity among domestic and global public leaders in public and private agencies in the education, immigration,
Undocumented Students Equity to in-State Tuition: Reducing The Barriers There exist policy ambiguities and variations at federal, state, and institutional levels related to undocumented student access to and success in higher education and this has created problems for these students. This study investigated specific policies and procedures to provide the resources and capital to assist undocumented students as well as reviewed key elements of showing the correlation of these difficulties with ethnic
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