The Colorado Commission on Higher Education and Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) have made erasing these equity gaps—including for our fast-growing Hispanic population—a top priority, and institutions have myriad student support programs in place to enroll and retain students from underserved populations. In a 2014 initiative called Colorado Completes!, the Commission highlighted student support programs at institutions across the state with demonstrated achievement in retaining and assisting minority, low-income and first-generation students to succeed. From first-year intensive coaching to peer advising to community-focused engagement of students, these efforts are showing success.
1.4 The Achievement Gap
"National and state-level priorities to increase degree attainment and improve student success require the elimination of equity gaps experienced by African Americans, Latinas, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Southeast Asian students. Similarly, unless and until low-income and first-generation students experience equitable outcomes in degree attainment, the nation’s ambitious college completion goals cannot be realized."
-Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux & Estela Mara Bensimon, Center for Urban Education
Erasing Equity Gaps in Colorado
But the challenge still looms large. We must advance solutions that meet the scale of this problem. Erasing equity gaps is both challenging and essential.
What is an Equity Gap?
Also called “achievement gaps", these gaps demonstrate the persistent disparity in academic success or educational performance between different groups of students. Most notably, marginalized and historically underserved students experience challenges and barriers that result in lower completion rates and inequitable outcomes.
For example, data from the Lumina Foundation clearly shows that attainment rates (percentage of people 25-64 with at least an associate degree) for African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian students continue to lag behind those of Whites and Asian-Americans.
The gap in Colorado between the educational attainment of the white majority and Hispanic minority is the second largest in the nation, behind only California.1 Links to an external site. While the four-year high school graduation rate for white students in Colorado is 84 percent, for Hispanic students it is 70 percent. And whereas the postsecondary credential attainment rate for whites in Colorado currently is 64 percent, for Hispanics it is 29 percent. The past years have seen consistent increases in credentials awarded to Hispanic students, but those increases are a long way from keeping up with the overall growth of the Hispanic population or the needs of Colorado’s knowledge economy.
The CDHE’s recently launched Equity Toolkit, found at: http://masterplan.highered.colorado.gov/equitytoolkit/ Links to an external site., provides introductory strategies and techniques helping individual educators start to become more inclusive practitioners.
The Opportunity Gap
The equity gap is often situated within the broader context of the "opportunity gap." The opportunity gap refers to the ways in which race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, familial situations, or other factors contribute to or perpetuate lower rates of educational achievement.
Generally speaking, the opportunity gap refers to inputs - the unequal or inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities, while the achievement gap refers to outputs - the unequal or inequitable distribution of educational results and benefits. It is important to understand the interaction of both. For example:
- Due to prejudice or bias, students of color tend to be disproportionately represented in lower-level courses and special-education (opportunity gap). As a result, their graduation and college-enrollment rates are typically lower than those of their white peers (achievement gap).
- Economically disadvantaged communities may suffer from overcrowded schools, dilapidated facilities, and inadequate educational resources (opportunity gap). This can contribute to lower educational performance or attainment (achievement gap).
For additional information and powerful examples of these types of gaps, please see the 2017 Education Trust-West report, "The Majority Report: Supporting the Success of Latino Students in California Links to an external site.." This fascinating research documents how California's Latino students continue to face troubling inequities from early learning through higher education.
Textbox: Malcom-Piqueux, L., & and Bensimon, E. M. (2017). Taking equity-minded action to close equity gaps Links to an external site.. Peer Review, 19(2).
What is an Achievement Gap? adapted from "Equity & Culturally Responsive Teaching Links to an external site." by Arnita Porter and Fabiola Torres, for Online Network of Educators Links to an external site., licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.
Lumina Foundation. (2019). A stronger nation: California's progress toward the goal Links to an external site..
The Opportunity Gap adapted from "Opportunity Gap Links to an external site." in the Glossary of Education Reform, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Links to an external site.