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Despite efforts to increase accountability in higher education, racial/ethnic disparities in student outcomes are a reality at most colleges and universities in the United States. Although most states have accountability systems, equity has not been incorporated as an indicator of institutional accountability. Recognizing that data and campus-level practitioners are at the heart of organizational learning and change, researchers at the University of Southern California's Center for Urban Education (CUE) created the Equity Scorecard, a multifaceted approach to institutional accountability that involves practitioners in data practices designed to create new knowledge and bring about change within themselves and their institutions. The Equity Scorecard is a tool and an established process to develop evidence-based awareness of race-based inequalities among practitioners and to instill a sense of responsibility for addressing these gaps. This entry defines equity, delineates the multiple facets of the Equity Scorecard, and describes the Equity Scorecard process.

Equity in Higher Education

Equity in higher education refers to creating opportunities for equal access and success in higher education among historically underrepresented student populations, such as ethnic and racial groups who have been systematically disadvantaged by exclusionary practices. Within the higher education community, equity is further defined by (a) representational equity, or the proportional participation of historically underrepresented student populations at all levels of an institution; (b) resource equity, which accounts for how educational resources are distributed to close equity gaps; and (c) equity mindedness, which is the capacity to interpret institutional structure, culture, and practices through the lens of critical race consciousness.

A Picture of the Equity Scorecard

The Equity Scorecard can be understood as a data tool, an inquiry process, a theory of change, and an approach to academic leadership.

The Equity Scorecard as a Data Tool

The Equity Scorecard provides tools that help evidence teams of administrators, faculty, and staff organize numerical data on key indicators of student outcomes (in access, retention, completion, and excellence) so that progress toward racial equity can be systematically and routinely monitored, and gaps can be identified and addressed.

The Equity Scorecard as an Inquiry Process

The Equity Scorecard process guides campuses to go beyond the common practice of simply finding and reporting student outcome gaps and recommending a best practice that may or may not fit the institution's unique needs. Instead, the Equity Scorecard brings together administrators, faculty, and staff from various campus departments to examine their institution's data, identify racial inequity in educational outcomes, and design an inquiry plan to understand how racial inequity is or is not addressed by institutional policies and practices. The Equity Scorecard provides protocols for observations, interviews, document reviews, site visits, and other kinds of qualitative research that make it possible for practitioners to interrogate their own practices.

The Equity Scorecard as a Theory of Change

The goal of the Equity Scorecard is to assist practitioners to develop new funds of knowledge that empower them with the expertise, know-how, and self-efficacy to produce equity in outcomes within their classrooms, departments, and institutions. The Equity Scorecard draws from multiple disciplines and theoretical frameworks, including sociocultural theories of learning, organizational learning, practice theory, and critical theories of race to form a unifying theory of change.

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