Scholars: Equity, Competitiveness Agendas Can Be at Odds

Washington

Given the choice between policies promoting economic competitiveness or educational equity, politicians will almost always choose the former, two prominent policy analysts say.

Efforts to improve mathematics and science instruction are supplementing what schools already do, they say, while equity-driven efforts are trying to force schools to change radically. Politicians trying to court voters are more likely to choose the easier approach.

“It’s disruptive. It’s unpleasant. People don’t want to do it,” Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said of accountability measures in the federal No Child Left Behind Act that are...