Measuring Access to Learning Opportunities

Since 1968 the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report (known as the ES survey) has been used to gather information about possible disparities in access to learning opportunities and violations of students' civil rights. Thirty-five years after the initiation of the ES survey, large disparities remain both in educational outcomes and in access to learning opportunities and resources. These disparities may reflect violations of students' civil rights, the failure of education policies and practices to provide students from all backgrounds with a similar educational experience, or both. They may also reflect the failure of schools to fully compensate for disparities and current differences in parents' education, income, and family structure. The Committee on Improving Measures of Access to Equal Educational Opportunities concludes that the ES survey continues to play an essential role in documenting these disparities and in providing information that is useful both in guiding efforts to protect students' civil rights and for informing educational policy and practice. The committee also concludes that the survey's usefulness and access to the survey data could be improved.