• by Bradley Scott, M.A. • IDRA Newsletter • March 1998 • 
The IDRA Desegregation Assistance Center – South Central Collaborative has expanded its name by adding the word “equity.” The center is now the Desegregation Assistance Center – South Central Collaborative for Equity (SCCE) . The change is intended to capture one of the goals of school desegregation that is more difficult to achieve than merely creating racially balanced schools. Educational equity speaks to the need to create quality, effective learning experiences and to provide access to those experiences for all students regardless of their race, sex or national origin. The learning experiences must empower students with knowledge, skills and competencies to expand their life options.
This focus and the range of activities that the center has undertaken in school districts throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas (federal region VI) is not new for the center or for the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA).
Several articles in the IDRA Newsletter have described educational equity as one of the goals of school desegregation (Johnson, 1997; Scott, 1997; Scott, 1996; Scott, 1995; Scott 1990). The Desegregation Assistance Center – SCCE assists school districts in implementing equity plans that open access to curriculum for all students. An example is the work the center has done to implement the Playtime Is Science curriculum at the early childhood and early elementary levels in schools (see Scott, 1994). This equity-based curriculum in hands-on science is undergirded by the philosophy that, according to Educational Equity Concepts (the developers of the curriculum), “Science is for everyone, not just a chosen few.” This philosophical position is shared by IDRA.
IDRA’s work in making math and science more accessible to girls, particularly to minority girls, has been well documented in several articles (Yánez-Pérez, 1996; Bauer, 1996; Mahoney and Gchachu, 1996; De Luna and Montes, 1995; De Luna, 1995; Salas, 1994; De Luna, 1994; Sosa, 1992).
IDRA’s Engineering, Science and Math Increases Job Aspirations (ES-MIJA) project helped middle school minority girls become and remain excited about math and science. It addressed a serious educational concern about the low number of girls and minorities pursuing math and science related careers. The Desegregation Assistance Center – SCCE is concerned about this issue and has made it a specific focus of the center’s equity planning and school reform agenda for this program year. The center is currently producing a training video on young girls and science that is designed to assist schools in addressing these concerns.
Clearly, we must be pro-active in making schools work for all children, including in math and science. We should make no mistake, the goal is equity, not just legal desegregation.
Resources
Bauer, H. “Scientific Literacy is Child’s Play,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, April 1996).
De Luna, A. “Discovering Minority Females in Math and Science,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, March 1995).
De Luna, A. “Recognizing and Eliminating Barriers for Minority Girls in Math and Science,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, September 1994).
De Luna, A. and F. Montes. “MIJA Girls Getting Excited about Math: Assessing the Outcomes of the MIJA Program,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, February 1995).
Johnson, R. “Equal Access to Quality School Facilities,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, March 1997).
Mahoney, K. and K. Gchachu. “Making Math and Science Relevant,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, June-July 1996).
Salas, C. “Gender Equity in Math and Science Education,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, March 1994).
Scott, B. “A Different Kind of Will: Educational Equity and the School Reform Movement,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, January 1997).
Scott, B. “Everything Old Seems New Again…Or Is It? Recognizing Aversive Racism,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, February 1996).
Scott, B. “The Fourth Generation of Desegregation and Civil Rights,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, January 1995).
Scott, B. “Playtime Is Science: Parents and Children Have Fun Building Science Skills,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, June-July 1994).
Scott, B. “In Pursuit of Equity: An Idea Whose Time Has Come,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, September 1990).
Sosa, A. “MIJA – Aiming for Higher Ground,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, September 1992).
Yánez-Pérez, A. “IDRA’s MIJA Program Expands,” IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, March 1996).
Bradley Scott, M.A., is a senior education associate in the IDRA Division of Professional Development and director of the IDRA Desegregation Assistance Center – South Central Collaborative for Equity (SCCE) . Comments and questions may be sent to him via e-mail at?feedback@idra.org.
[©1998, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the March 1998 IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]
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