Definition
The term equity in higher education has a critical dimension and an accountability dimension.
From a critical perspective, equity in higher education is the recognition that institutional racism (and sexism) is an entrenched characteristic of colleges and universities that has to be dismantled with strategies that are color conscious (Appiah and Gutmann 1998), informed by critical race theory (Bonilla-Silva 2014; Crenshaw 1995; Delgado and Stefanic 2001), and systemic.
From an accountability perspective, equity in higher education is the attainment of proportional representation of historically marginalized groups in terms of access, retention, degree completion, and participation in enriching programs, experiences, and activities that build students’ academic and cultural capital.
Defining Equity
Equity refers to the concept of moral fairness. A common objective of social and economic policy, the term “equity” is often used to describe the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Appiah, K. Anthony, and Amy Gutmann. 1998. Color conscious: The political morality of race. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bensimon, Estela Mara. 2005. Equality as a fact, equality as a result: A matter of institutional accountability. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
Bensimon, Estela Mara. 2007. The underestimated significance of practitioner knowledge in the scholarship of student success. Review of Higher Education 30(4): 441–469.
Bensimon, Estela Mara, and Frank Harris III. 2012. The mediational means of enacting equity-mindedness among community college practitioners. In Confronting equity issues on campus: Implementing the equity scorecard in theory and practice, ed. Estela Mara Bensimon and Lindsey Malcom, 216–246. Sterling: Stylus.
Bensimon, Estela Mara, and Lindsey Malcom. 2012. Confronting equity issues on campus: Implementing the equity scorecard in theory and practice. Sterling: Stylus.
Bensimon, Estela Mara, Robert Rueda, Alicia C. Dowd, and Frank Harris III. 2007. Accountability, equity, and practitioner learning and change. Metropolitan 18(3): 28–45.
Berrey, Ellen C. 2011. Why diversity became orthodox in higher education, and how it changed the meaning of race on campus. Critical Sociology 37(5): 573–596.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2014. Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Center for Urban Education. 2016. Policy Review Protocol for Equity-Minded Policy Practices. Center for Urban Education: University of Southern California. http:/cue.usc.edu.
Chang, Mitchell J. 2005. Reconsidering the diversity rationale. Liberal Education 91: 6–13.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1995. Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement. New York: New Press.
Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefanic. 2001. Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.
DesJardins, Stephen L. 2002. Understanding and using efficiency and equity criteria in the study of higher education policy. In In Higher education: Handbook of theory and research, vol. XVII, 173–219. Doredecht: Springer.
Dowd, Alicia C. 2003. From access to outcome equity: Revitalizing the democratic mission of the community college. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 586(1): 92–119.
Dowd, Alicia C. 2007. The community college as gateway and gatekeeper: Moving beyond the access ‘saga’ to outcome equity. Harvard Educational Review 77(4): 407–419.
Dowd, Alicia C., and Estela Mara Bensimon. 2015. Engaging the race question: Accountability and equity in U.S. Higher Education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Felix, Eric R., Estela Mara Bensimon, Debbie Hanson, James Gray, and Libby Klingsmith. 2015. Developing agency for equity-minded change. New Directions for Community Colleges 172: 25–42.
Gurin, Patricia, Eric Dey, Sylvia Hurtado, and Gerald Gurin. 2002. Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review 72: 330–367.
Hacker, Andrew. 2003. Two nations: Black & white, separate, hostile, and unequal. New York: Scribner.
Labaree, David F. 1997. Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal 34: 39–81.
Ledesma, María C. 2015. Walking the diversity rationale talk: A call to institutions. In Affirmative action and racial equity: Considering the Fisher case to forge the path ahead, ed. Uma M. Jayakumar, Liliana M. Garces, and Frank Fernandez. New York: Routledge.
Levin, Henry M. 1994. The necessary and sufficient conditions for achieving educational equity. In Outcome equity in education, ed. Robert Berne and Lawrence O. Picus, 167–190. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
Myers, Dowell. 2008. Immigrants and boomers: Forging a new social contract for the future of America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Pollock, Mica. 2005. Colormute: Race talk dilemmas in an American school. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rawls, John. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Stone, Deborah. 2012. Policy paradox: The art of political decision making, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Witham, Keith, Lindsey E. Malcom-Piqueux, Alicia C. Dowd, and Estela Mara Bensimon. 2015. America’s unmet promise: The imperative for equity in higher education. Washington: Association of American Colleges & Universities.
Wolfers, Justin. A family-friendly policy that is friendliest to male professors. New York Times, June 24, 2016.
Zwick, Rebecca. 2007. College admissions in the twenty-first-century America: The role of grades, tests, and games of chance. Harvard Educational Review 77(4): 419–429.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Malcom-Piqueux, L., Robinson, J., Bensimon, E.M. (2016). Equity in Higher Education. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_46-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_46-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education