Equity and Student Competitions

The excitement of a school competition- many of us remember the feeling.
In grade school, that usually meant a science fair. In today's age, it may shift into a STEM Fair, as it has in a local school district. I had the honor of serving as a judge for this event recently.

Each elementary school sent their winners from different grades. I was assigned to judge fifth grade projects. They were amazing! The level of critical thinking skills was very impressive. A working model and a presentation board was included, and the students had to give us a presentation about their project. The rubric had to be followed closely for the most points.
Midway through the competition, I came across a project winner that did not match the 'gloss' of the other projects. It was awesome that this student won their school contest; the student was very proud of their work, knowing their material very well, and their project worked fine. What was missing was a clear level of parent involvement; no pictures on the board, no computer printed paragraghs or graphics; the student had drawn circles with markers to fill in blank spaces on the board.
It brought up a glaring problem to me about competitions; equity. At this elementary level, it was easy to see which students had help (and the amount of help) from parents, and which did the work on their own, which students had an abundance of outside resources (such as tools, multiple supplies, technology) and which had not many.  If a student does not have any access to technology to do research or to print anything out, they are not starting at the same base level as the other students. A rubric can help, and some students are internally driven to overcome lack of support or resources and still do quite well. But when students do not start at the same level, it is hard to judge a competition such as this on the same level playing field. Perhaps if all students were given an opportunity during school time to use school computers and resources, that would bring more of a level playing field for all, which brings equity.