The first step to addressing equity gaps is to identify them. How can community colleges determine, with some degree of certainty, whether one or more student groups on a campus is in need of assistance in order to succeed? This paper tackles this question by delving into the three methods typically used to identify equity gaps, comparing and…

The Board of Regents appointed President Thomas to the helm of Nuestra University, a large and urban Hispanic-Serving University. In the first years of his presidency, Nuestra achieved important milestone in its quest to better serve and graduate students from underrepresented populations. However, Thomas's hiring and presidency has faced critical…

California has embraced transfer between the state's community colleges and universities as a key mechanism for ensuring a diverse and qualified workforce while simultaneously closing equity gaps and promoting economic mobility for its residents. Yet the RP Group's "Through the Gate" transfer study finds that each year, nearly 60,000…

This practitioner brief is the first in a series highlighting concrete strategies that educational leaders can use to increase equity in education, by building supportive learning environments that meet all students' social and emotional needs. This introductory brief starts by laying out the aspects of a student's social and emotional well-being…

Schools work continually to keep students with challenging and difficult behaviour engaged in education. The message of this book is that more can and needs to be done. The audience of this book includes all those who work with excluded children: school, health and justice personnel; school trustees, parents and community workers. School exclusion…

Culturally responsive positive behavioral interventions and supports (CRPBIS) is a statewide research project designed to renovate behavioral support systems to become more inclusive, adaptive, and supportive for all. The CRPBIS methodology, called "learning lab," provides a research-based process to bring together local stakeholders and…

Discriminatory discipline practices in the nation's schools disproportionately impact students of color; students with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive disabilities; and youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ). Large numbers of these students are removed from class, lose opportunities to learn, and…

This primer introduces 23 practices designed to support students inside and outside of the classroom and increase their community college success. These case studies illustrate the five themes for effective student support that emerged from Student Support (Re)defined--a multi-year study performed by the Research and Planning Group for California…

This article focuses on the underrepresentation of African American males in gifted and talented programs, and offers a number of key recommendations to practitioners and researchers who seek viable strategies to circumvent this problem. Beyond the focus on underrepresentation, several additional topics for discussion are excogitated to provide a…

For as long as there has been special education, there has been racially based disproportionality in identification and placement coupled with the concern that some students may be inappropriately identified as disabled. This is especially true for Black students in the categories of emotional disability (ED) and mild mental retardation (MR),…

A series of activities were undertaken to understand the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers and increase their participation in these fields. "AccessSTEM" collaborated with key stakeholders to conduct a "Capacity-Building Institute"…

The disproportionate representation of students of color in special education is a critical challenge facing educators and school districts. This article helps educators understand and address this challenge by providing information on disproportionate representation and guidelines for delivering a wide range of effective culturally responsive…

Just within the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of a variety of literature, both academic and popular, regarding the underachievement and underrepresentation of African American males in U.S. schools. According to the literature, African American males have been disproportionately placed in special education classrooms and…

Using the results of model gifted and talented projects in Ohio (32 during Fiscal Year 1992-93 and 31 during 1994-95), this report provides information to local education agencies to improve the identification of and delivery of services to students who are gifted. Alternative identification strategies such as using a multifactored assessment are…

The paper reviews the literature on problems associated with the assessment and placement of language minority students in special education and the utilization of a prereferral system and describes the development of the "Prereferral Screening Instrument" (PSI). The review of the literature looks at: the disproportionate representation…