Equity Scorecard - Overview

 

 
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Photos by: Jeff Miller and Michael Forster Rothbart

 
The Equity Scorecard, a learning approach to institutional change, enables educational institutions to take institutional responsibility for narrowing the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers.

Overview of the Equity Scorecard (pdf for printing)

The Equity Scorecard was developed by Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon at the Center for Urban Education, University of Southern California in order to:

• Foster institutional effectiveness by increasing its capacity to interpret and share existing institutional data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender.
   
• Expand institutional knowledge about the specific underlying factors that result in inequities for students of color or other underrepresented students in access, enrollments, retention, achievement, and graduation.
   
• Enable institutions to conduct "fine-grained" analysis to develop equity-oriented goals and benchmarks to achieve equity for students of color and other underrepresented populations in all measurable areas.
   

The Purpose

• AWARENESS: Engage in institutional self-assessment to provide a clear and unambiguous picture of inequities.
   
• INTERPRETATION: Analyze and integrate the meaning of the inequities.
   
• ACTION: Develop strategic actions to achieve equity in educational outcomes based on data, not assumptions.
   

The Process

The focus of the Equity Scorecard is on creating equitable outcomes in student achievement by engaging institutions in a four-step process of institutional change:

Step 1:  Create Campus 'Evidence Teams'

• Include Provosts, Deans, Administrators, Faculty, Institutional Researchers.

Step 2:  Analyze Data Disaggregated by Race and Ethnicity within the Framework of the Four Perspectives:

• ACCESS: enrollment, financial aid, majors, departments/schools, internships, fellowships, courses, undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools
   
• RETENTION: persistence, course-taking, success, degree completion
   
• INSTITUTIONAL RECEPTIVITY: diversity of faculty, staff, and administrators; climate
   
• EXCELLENCE: grades, GPA, honors and awards, participation in high-demand programs
   

The Equity Scorecard Framework

Step 3:  Develop the Scorecard

• Select goals, measures, and benchmarks where unequal outcomes have been identified in each of the four areas.

Step 4:  Report to the Chancellor

• Share the Scorecard with the Chancellor to inform decisions about strategic actions.
   

What Is Unique About the Equity Scorecard?

• Actively engages faculty, staff, administrators, and students in a process of institutional change that is uniquely tailored to the institutional context.
   
• Empowers institutions to ask better questions, and make better use of their data for more equitable outcomes.
   
• Provides institutional know-how for continuous improvement and fosters accountability.