Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: A Liberatory Approach to Building an Ecosystem For Equity

Abstract

There are vast disparities in educational outcomes along the lines of race and socioeconomic status in the American PreK-12 education system. One of the contributing factors to this discrepancy is the enrichment gap. Put simply, racially marginalized and low-income students are less likely to participate in enriching, supplemental learning experiences than their wealthier, white peers. Outschool.org, a non-profit organization with roots as an edtech company, aims to eliminate this gap and create the conditions so all students love learning. This project documents the development and implementation of Outschool.org’s newest program, the Ecosystem For Equity (E4E), piloted with a homeschool collaborative, Engaged Detroit. The E4E provides families with direct access to funds and a community to share information to navigate an ecosystem of high-quality educational experiences for their children. Research supports the underlying philosophy behind the program design: families need both access and information to exercise agency. One principle, without the other, would be insufficient to empower families to close the enrichment gap. In designing the program, it was essential to use a liberatory approach responsive to the unique needs of the homeschooled families in Detroit. Collectively, the families valued the agency to choose resources and relied on the broader community to support their journey. During the study, the program successfully launched, and families began to spend their funds and organize robust enrichment experiences for individual children. However, some families did not spend any funds, indicating that despite having access, there were insufficient systems to share information enabling parents to exercise their agency. It is too early to measure the overall outcomes and impact this program had in closing the enrichment gap, though initial results are promising.