An Agenda for Equity: Responding to the Needs of Diverse Learners

The vast numbers of new educational policies, programs, and practices being implemented as educational reform in American public schools have not been analyzed for short or long-term effectiveness or impact on students and their learning. Not only are conditions for many learners still a concern, new information about conditions for students who are not under-performing informs us that they are falling short of the desired mark. This calls for expert educators, researchers, school leaders, teachers, families, students, and interested others to determine the degree to which policies and practices have a positive impact on student outcomes, and the aims of public education. Using Response to Intervention as an innovative model, An Agenda for Equity contributes to filling the void by analyzing the essence of educational reforms for increasing enduring, equitable effectiveness, and improving conditions and teaching and learning for both teachers and students.