Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity: Addressing Success Gaps. White Paper. Version 3.0

This white paper outlines factors in the general education setting that contribute to equitable success for all students. The paper addresses elements of equity, inclusion, and opportunity that can minimize or eliminate success gaps that exist among groups of students. Success gaps are those differences in a variety of educational factors and outcomes that affect the likelihood of success for some groups of students compared to their peers. Some key areas of success gaps include test scores, disciplinary actions, placement in special programs, graduation, and post-school outcomes. When a school or district shows success gaps, it means that it may not be serving all groups of students equally well. The white paper provides the research-based background that supported development of a complementary rubric that school or district teams can use to systematically examine the root causes of success gaps that may exist among groups of their students. The white paper has been updated and now includes include considerations for children as young as preschool. [This is a republication of the document originally published by the Disproportionality Priority Team (DPT) of the Regional Resource Centers Program (RRCP), in collaboration with the Data Accountability Center at Westat and the National RTI Center at AIR.]