Toward Equity Through Opportunities to Learn Literacy

To identify actions, teachers and school leaders can take to ensure equity in terms of opportunities to learn literacy. We reviewed the professional literature in four major areas, including opportunity to learn (OTL), student mobility and its impact on learning, grade-level retention and its impact on equity and future success, and systems that can provide students access to complex text. We note the value of each of these four constructs (OTL, mobility, retention, and access to complex texts) in ensuring that schools become increasingly equitable such that all students develop as literate members of society. We provide classroom and school-based examples for readers to consider as they work toward equity. Far too many schools are inequitable and some students fail to develop their literate lives. We provide ideas and actions that teachers and school teams can take to ensure that diverse students have the best chance possible to learn.