Melding Excellence and Equity / David A. Bennett.

This document examines the issues of educational excellence and equity. The Milwaukee Public School System, Wisconsin, is cited as an example of a desegregation program that both exceeded court requirements of equity and also made a substantial contribution to the goals of excellence in education. The school effectiveness movement, like desegregation, has also made contributions to both equity and excellence goals in education. The document suggests that educators need to reach a point where the correlation between social class and membership in either adequate or excellent educational groups is zero. The document includes seven recommendations: (1) rivalries among educational subgroups must cease; (2) a study of major national, state, and local reports on education is needed; (3) school districts must concentrate their energies and resources at the high school level; (4) excellence strategies must be examined against an equity standard; (5) schools must guarantee adequacy for all and equal access to excellence; (6) educators must commit themselves to the expansion of alternatives in education and to the universal application of school effectiveness strategies; and (7) leaders at all levels must promote both the equity and the excellence agendas. (PB)

Executive Review, v4 n3 p1-6 Dec 1983. ericd

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Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.