How can we move toward real educational equity? How do we define what that means? What does social and emotional learning have to do with it? And why are some advocates cautious of the push for SEL?

This recent thought leader session featuring the Forum for Youth Investment’s Karen Pittman and the National Urban League’s Hal Smith explored these questions. This call highlighted 12 equity indicators that were used to evaluate state-level education plans, highlighted in the recent National Urban League report titled “Standards of Equity & Excellence: A Lens on ESSA State Plans.” This conversation shared data on inequities, and profiled some examples of how these inequities can be addressed.

The Forum is committed to increasing access to high-quality, equitable learning environments, and is working closely with the National Urban League to move these ideas forward and develop a more interconnected and actionable definition of educational equity.

Browse this page for the session recording, further resources, and the transcript for the session.

Full Session Recording

Selected Excerpts:

Early in the conversation, Karen Pittman asked Hal Smith to explain what, at the Urban League, is meant by the terms equity and education. This served as a helpful grounding point for the conversation.  Listen to Hal’s response.

Midway through the conversation, Karen asked Hal to explain the background and goals of the Equity and Excellence project. His response with visuals.

Karen asked Hal, in conclusion of the session, where and how do we take these messages out into communities. Karen specifically asked “Who should we be taking these messages to and what’s the best way to do that? How do we get to parents and communities? How do we move this forward?” Listen to Hal’s response.