What is Equity?

According to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, equity is defined as: “justice according to natural law or right.  specifically: freedom from bias or favoritism” 

The term equity has been utilized in many spaces, including academia, to describe the principle of moving away from equality, or giving everyone the exact same thing, towards providing differentiated and intentional support resulting in equal access to opportunity and success. Rather than giving everyone the same thing, we strive to give everyone what they need. This not only includes creating scaffolds to reduce the negative impact of disadvantages caused by historical and systemic oppression but also removing institutional barriers that make it difficult for traditionally underserved students to make it through the college maze. 

History of Student Equity at Long Beach City College

Since the passing of California’s 2012 Student Success Act, LBCC has worked diligently to expand student equity in terms of access, support, and success, particularly for traditionally underserved populations. Through close analysis of student success metrics or data, we identify student populations that are disproportionately impacted (over/under-represented when compared to overall LBCC enrollment) across several key success indicators:  access, course completion, ESL, and basic skills completion, degree and certificate completion, and transfer. Through that process, we identify disproportionately impacted (DI) student populations and build intentional support to reduce gaps in achievement. Student success indicators are disaggregated and analyzed across many identity markers, including ethnicity, gender, age, disability status, economically disadvantaged (socio-economic status), veterans, and foster youth (Title 5, §54220).  

Long Beach City College Submitted our 2019-2022 Student Equity Plan outlining goals and activities to ameliorate gaps for DI populations across success indicators.

This page is intended to serve as a resource highlighting current efforts at Long Beach City College to move towards equitable student outcomes.

LBCC Student Equity Plan

The California Community College Chancellor’s office requires all colleges to submit a Student Equity Plan designed to address specific success indicators: access; course completion; ESL and basic skills completion; degrees and certificates awarded; and transfer rates. Through the process of compiling, disaggregating, and analyzing this data, LBCC identifies Disproportionately Impacted (DI) student populations and builds intentional support to reduce gaps in achievement. The analysis is conducted across many identity markers, including ethnicity, gender, age, disability status, economically disadvantaged (socio-economic status), veterans, and foster youth (Title 5, §54220). You can view the current Equity plans below: 

Student Equity Plan, Executive Summary 2022-2025

The Student Equity Plan submitted to the Chancellor’s office is just one manifestation of our commitment to cultivating equity-mindedness and creating space to interrogate current practices, policies, and culture to surface drivers of inequity on our campus.