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The majority of this country's educational system uses standardized testing to measure student performance but there is a lack of equity and inclusion for all school communities.

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One issue is that the data from testing does not give the whole story. How tests are administered and how data is divided among student subgroups varies across school districts which leads to a lack of visibility. Current data does not address inequities and lack of resources for various student groups that factor in race, disabilities, socioeconomic status. etc. This leads to a lack of improvement in test structure and how educational institutes view certain students and their performance.

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School choice and charter schools are an apparent solution for the underperformance among public schools. However, there still remains a lack of accessibility especially for Families of Color and/or families who struggle financially.

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Rather than addressing the lack of resources and funding within a school that results in "underperformance," cities will shut schools down and open new ones that are presented as better options for students. This just displaces many Students of Color because they no longer have a school accessible to them and these "better options" are harder to reach due to selectivity and location.

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Today's society values academic success and argue that an individual will be successful in the economy once they further their education. It is clear though that academic achievement is expensive and college educations are not accessible to different socioeconomic classes. Schools do not teach students or provide resources for them for other options outside of college.

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Middle and Upperclass families are able to afford the necessary resources for their children to make connections with selective colleges. The ability to have counselors, tutoring, and academic plans for college are privileges that not every family or school has access to.

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Due to class inequities, that are ignored, there are disparities in who gets into college and how Students of Color are seen in education. There is this myth that wrongly labels Students of Color and/or low SES are inherently not as smart of wealthier families. The reality is not that they do not try hard enough in school, but that the system is setting them up for failure.

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The pandemic and transition to online learning has deepened inequities because living and learning at home is different for every student but not all of their individual needs are met.

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Something that I have also experienced is struggling to adapt to online learning from home. At the start of quarantine, many students, including myself, had to make the decision to move back home and do classes online. Unstable wifi and lack of quiet study space are just few of the ways academic performance had been inhibited for many students.

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Resource inequities were deepened when many families struggle to adapt to remote learning. Students struggled to understand the classes either because they did not have access to it in their native language or did not have proper resources to connect with teachers and tutors.

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The structure and subject areas for standardized testing should be improved to accommodate for more students. The language and directions in testing don't have to be complex for them to promote critical thinking in students. With the pandemic changing the ways that students learn, traditional testing should not be used to measure their performance.

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This form of teaching includes a diverse range of practices to guide rather than limit student learning. It gives more opportunities for students to find study and learning habits that suit them by being less traditional and more accommodating.

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The purpose of this model is to promote communicative and welcoming classroom environments so students feel comfortable speaking with their teachers and peers. It is important to promote inclusivity for students especially when they have not learned beforehand how to express themselves properly. This way, they feel a sense of belonging in the classroom and they are not punished when challenges arise.

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Teachers that have more support from the system will be able to better support their students. This could mean better training and resources for teachers to meet students' individual needs and understand different cultural perspectives.

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The traditional structures of educational institutes do not accommodate for every type of student; thus schools should move to newer models. It is essential to see differences in students not as just disabilities or barriers to learning. Instead, schools need to have more room for creativity and less strict forms of learning so that student performance is not limited.

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Especially with doing school from home, it is important that parents and other family members have better resources to support their children. The educational system needs to recognize caregivers as also educators for students along with the cultural values that they use to promote learning.

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With all these various inequities and discrimination against students and intersecting identities, it is important to not blame the students. Any setbacks during their educational journey are not "about inherent flaws but different sets of abilities and a mismatch with the current environment" (Kinghorn, 6:24 - 6:34). Barriers should be addressed as failures and problems within educational institutions and not on lack of students' skills.

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Kinghorn, Brian. “Educating a Neurodiverse World.” TED x TeachersCollege, Jul. 2014, www.ed.ted.com/best_of_web/DkvMWO46#watch