Elements of a 21st Century Movement for Excellence with Equity

This article asserts the necessity of a twenty-first century movement for achieving excellence with equity. For most of our nation's history, it was taken for granted that academic skill levels among some groups would be lower, on average, than for others. Indeed, a culture of White supremacy maintained a division of labor that relegated people of color disproportionately to jobs in which academic skill was not a requirement. Now, several contemporary trends warrant birth-to-career changes in how the nation prepares all children for life in the twenty-first century. I describe those trends and propose key elements of a movement befitting this moment in history.