Disciplines
Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership | Other Education
Abstract
The convergence of the health, racial, and economic crises resulting from COVID-19 has exposed long-standing inequities among New York State’s Black communities. The recent, brutal and senseless killings of Black men and women (e.g., George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, among an exceedingly long list of names) have ignited growing national public protests and increasing agreement about the existence of deep-seated racial injustice within systems and institutions and how it has been compounded over time. Taken together, the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of senseless killings of Black people are providing a magnified reflection of the nation’s historic flaws.
Additionally, all available data indicate that Black communities are bearing a disproportionate burden of COVID-19’s impacts; more people nationally are observing firsthand how structural and institutional racism results in inequities in the very systems that are supposed to help them. According to many researchers, inequality begins with a deficient education (Aspen Institute, 2002; Carnevale & Desrochers, 2003). Conversely, a high-quality learning experience can open doors from every other aspect of inequality, whether political, economic, racial, judicial, gender or health-based (Bond et al., 2020). Resolving educational inequity is an essential step to addressing systemic inequality (O’Day & Smith, 2016; U.S. Department of Education, 2000a, 2000b).
Recommended Citation
Smith, Phillip; Gassaway, Bernard; Dunkley, Karen; Bryant, Dia; Lesane, Hope; Darrisaw-Akil, Monique; and Yearwood, Trina Lynn, "Blueprint for Excellence and Equity in the Education of Black Children and Youth" (2021). GSE Faculty Publications. 17.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/gse_facultypubs/17
Included in
Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Other Education Commons
