CUE Equity Model
Pictured above: Tia McNair and Estela Mara Bensimon
The CUE Equity Model incorporates numerous equity-based assessment instruments and processes, most prominently the Equity Scorecard and the collection of inquiry tools included in the California Benchmarking Project’s Equity-based Assessment Toolkit. Today, the Equity Model can be used to guide a complete cycle of action research involving problem identification, problem contextualization, informed interventions, experimentation, and problem solving.
What is “Equity”?
In higher education, “equity” refers to creating opportunities for equal access and success among historically underrepresented student populations, such as racial and ethnic minority and low-income students, in three main areas:
- Representational equity, the proportional participation at all levels of an institution;
- Resource equity, the distribution of educational resources in order to close equity gaps; and
- Equity-mindedness, the demonstration of an awareness of and willingness to address equity issues among institutional leaders and staff.
How does CUE help institutions create equity-mindedness and equity in student outcomes?
To match the many facets of the issues, institutions and participants involved, the CUE Equity Model draws upon a broad spectrum of theoretical frameworks, grounds them in proven principles and applies them through a highly customized institutional effectiveness model.
CUE’s groundbreaking action research helps two- and four-year colleges and universities create teams of instructors and staff who inquire into institutional practices and become experts in the experiences and outcomes of their students. These campus, or evidence, teams teams learn how to frame unequal outcomes as problems of practice well within their realm of influence and expertise. The CUE Equity Model enables practitioners to reframe daunting problems - too often viewed as the inevitable result of student deficits - as solvable challenges.
CUE’s collaborative approach is far from an “off-the-shelf” application. Under the leadership of its co-directors, Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon and Dr. Alicia C. Dowd, CUE works intensively with an institution’s evidence team to gather and disaggregate data by race and ethnicity. From academic and transfer readiness to retention and student excellence, they probe into why the data looks the way it does and set benchmarks to measure improvement.
Also within CUE Equity Model
Equity Scorecard
- Equity Scorecard helped practitioners at over forty two-year and four-year campuses see for themselves inequities reflected in their own institutional data....
Benchmarking
- Benchmarking contextualizes the problems of equity with qualitative data obtained unobtrusively in classrooms, advising centers, and through interactions with peers ...
Transfer Focus
- Transfer directed campuses have used the CUE Equity Model to focus intensively on the barriers to successful transfer...
STEM Focus
- A STEM focus of particular concern is the striking absence of Latinas and Latinos from the ranks of educated professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics...
Basic Skills
- Basic Skills CUE is identifying potential entry points into California’s efforts to improve the skills of students entering community colleges and the state’s universities...