Toolkit for Assessing and Promoting Equity in the Classroom
The Equity in the Classroom Project (EIC) was designed to increase the participation, academic achievement, and retention of girls and other marginalized children in primary school. EIC is comprised of three main components that include technical assistance, training, and results monitoring. The training involves a series of workshops (varying from 2-5 days each) over a period of 1 year that introduce tools and other strategies, reinforce their application, and evaluate the actions of participants to promote equity at the school level. This toolkit is designed to orient educators to issues of equity and to help them begin a process of research and inquiry to identify factors in schools and classrooms that limit equitable participation and achievement of girls and other disadvantaged learners. By identifying gender biases and sensitizing stakeholders at the school level of the need to ensure equity, this can promote improved practices that will contribute to the overall quality of education. Achieving equity in education is not an easy process that will occur rapidly because it requires a change in attitudes, behavior, and practice that are learned through continuous reinforcement of equitable teaching and learning strategies.