The purpose of this article is to examine the critical components to successfully serving on a school board or leadership roles, as a member of the Latino(a) community. According to a 2010 national school board survey, only 3% of the 900 board respondents identified as Latino(a) compared with almost 80% who identified as White. The first author…

This article illustrates the potential for hackathons to serve as an innovative educational tool in addressing the underrepresentation of minority communities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Using Merced, California--a region recognised for its agricultural economy, socioeconomic disparities, and diverse…

Workforce development in the K-12 educational setting, including the preparation of new teachers, faces multiple challenges today. These challenges include an ongoing teacher shortage and the lack of a coordinated educational preparation pipeline. Also problematic are the numerous obstacles on the path to teacher credentialing in states like…

With 1.8 million students, California Community Colleges (CCC) are often the primary point of access to higher education for low-income, Black, and Latino students. Given the role of community colleges in creating a strong pipeline of college graduates, improving transfer rates to four-year colleges has become an increasingly important policy…

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…

Home to the nation's largest Latinx (15 million), Asian American NHPI (almost 7 million) and the 5th largest Black (2.8 million) populations, California is the nation's most diverse and populous state. This diversity is one of the state's greatest assets, yet, representation of racially minoritized leaders in California's colleges and universities…

In the final month of 2024, a Newsweek article celebrated an apparent victory in the Lone Star State: "Texas' Teachers Are More Diverse Than California's." In Washington, D.C., the press was slightly more subdued, but still proud: "Teacher diversity is slowing down, but D.C, offers a bright spot." These and many other headlines…

This brief is rooted in the purpose and findings of a qualitative study that explored the experiences and perspectives of African-American/Black community college students in asynchronous online learning environments. A growing number of African-American/Black students are enrolling in California community colleges and online courses. However,…

To build educational capacity for the rapidly evolving science and profession of geocomputation, the American Association of Geographers piloted an Encoding Geography research-practice partnership (RPP) composed of geography and computer science educators and researchers. This commentary describes the process, known as Collective Impact, that was…

During the 2018-2019 legislative and budget cycle, the California State Legislature and Administration established the Student Equity and Achievement (SEA) Program, which was created to consolidate funding allocated for three distinct, but interconnected, categorical programs: (1) the Basic Skills Initiative; (2) the Student Equity Program and (3)…

Exploring Summer Youth Employment Programs: Increasing Access Through Career Pathways builds the case and provides actionable recommendations for state-led support in the intentional alignment of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) with career pathways and the work-based learning continuum, including through Career Technical Education (CTE).…

Preparation and professional development can help principals be more effective leaders, but little research has examined what specific approaches are most useful. A study of 462 California principals and the teachers and students in their schools shows that high-quality preservice preparation for principals is associated with stronger teacher…

To meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, leadership preparation programs must tackle the mutually-reinforcing goals of increasing the development of leaders from under-represented populations and cultivating culturally responsive leadership. This paper adds to the discussion of how best to improve leadership preparation by…

This Research-to-Practice paper, a work-in-progress, describes work supported by the First in the World program at three different universities in California. A consortium of three California State Universities (CSUs)- San Jose´ State University, California State University- Los Angeles, and Cal Poly Pomona - have a four-year grant from the U.S…

In dual enrollment programs, high school students can take college courses and earn both high school and college credit--but in the past, dual enrollment had been used mostly by high-achieving students. In 2016, the California Legislature passed a law that expanded access to students who had been underserved in higher education. The resulting…