The Promise of Educational Equity

Conference Speakers

Conference Organizers

Faculty Organizer:

Student Organizer:

Conference Overview

The Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity at Touro Law Center will host a conference to examine present and future concerns related to educational equity in the K-12 setting and in higher education. The symposium will take place on March 21, 2024 over Zoom.

Educational equity measures the ability of all students to access the resources they need to meet their full academic and social potential. Parents, activists, scholars, policymakers, students, and so many others have labored for years around the common goal of improving educational outcomes, in particular for those in marginalized groups who are most vulnerable to institutional failures. The effort to achieve equity in education has included a focus on shifting resources to the places where they are needed most; valuing and adapting to the unique characteristics that students bring to the classroom and which impact their learning process; the closure of achievement gaps; the disruption of inequitable institutional practices; fair treatment among traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools; and so much more.

Its value notwithstanding, key aspects of this equity project are on shaky ground or are explicitly under attack. Reformers struggle to secure the resource allocations that would benefit children in under-served schools. Expanded efforts to prioritize school choice have undermined already-weakened public schools and disadvantaged the children who attend them. Noncompliance and limited compliance with laws like the IDEA threaten the right of students with disabilities to a free and appropriate public education. Laws and policies in many jurisdictions let parents weaponize their objections to diversity by silencing teachers and penalizing unwitting transgressors. The Supreme Court has substantially curtailed the use of race in university admissions and activists are moving to a new set of attacks: facially neutral policies meant to address racial disparities. This is an opportune moment to examine educational equity, the challenges it faces, and the role that law and legal actors can play in addressing them.

Register Here

Registration: $25
Registration is free for judges, students, and Touro Law faculty.

For full program schedule and details, please visit www.tourolaw.edu/journalrge/journal-event-educational-equity.

CLE Credits

(6) NYS CLE credits in Professional Practice available to participating attorneys.

Attorneys wishing to attend CLE Courses at or through Touro Law Center may apply for tuition assistance.

For more information, please contact cle@tourolaw.edu or call (631) 761-7006.