We examine access to high school Ethnic Studies in California, a new graduation requirement beginning in 2029-30. Data from the California Department of Education and the University of California Office of the President indicate that roughly 50 percent of public high school students in 2020-21 attend a school that offers Ethnic Studies or a…

For at least two decades, several California schools have embraced a community schools model that marries schools and community organizations to seamlessly provide a variety of supports to students and families in communities with the highest needs. But when the pandemic hit, those needs multiplied. Members of the California State Board of…

This study directs attention to an oft-overlooked group of students in higher education: formerly incarcerated Black men (FIBM). Specifically, we aim to generate knowledge about how FIBM experience the college-going process to inform policy and practice aimed at broadening their participation and increasing their persistence. Two research…

This report is the result of the participation of hundreds of students, families, school educators, and researchers who dedicated their time and energy to investigating the critical role that families and communities play in ensuring students and schools can flourish. It is a culmination of over two years of collaborative research and hundreds of…

Editor's note: In assembling this issue, I sought to compile compelling stories of arts education cuts and the responses of local communities. I invited National Council on the Arts member Dr. Bruce Carter to share such a story. The following article begins with Carter's narrativized account of informal research on the arts partnership in the…

Every community in the United States has the potential to transform itself into this kind of ecosystem that supports families and promotes digital inclusion. Resources for Digital-Age learning already exist in libraries, schools, multimedia spaces, and through parents' personal smartphones, but localities are not often tapping into them to help…

California is in the midst of a crisis of homelessness, with more than 1 in 5 of the nation's students identified as experiencing homelessness residing in the state. The incidence of student poverty and homelessness in California has been rising steadily both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total student population. Although the…

For more than a decade, the Foundation for Child Development, through the Young Scholars Program (YSP), funded studies about the early education, health, and well-being of children from low-income, immigrant families. Through YSP, the Foundation aimed to fill a gap in policy and practice-relevant research on young immigrant children. It invested…

At this moment, the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) has never been more important. The country is facing a dual crisis in youth unemployment and low postsecondary completion rates. Both are especially prevalent among low-income and minority young people. Across the nation, nearly 7 million young people are neither in school nor part…

Few Americans know the importance of community-based organizations, or CBOs, in helping tens of thousands of undereducated, underemployed young people find a job or go back to school. But the role of CBOs is growing more critical as the business, education, and philanthropic sectors increasingly recognize the need to enable the nation's millions…

Education is a $600 billion-a-year enterprise, but the investments states make in education will not benefit students unless they are physically and mentally present in the classroom. Too many students are not. In this report, the National Association of State Boards of Education asks policymakers to promote student engagement through a suite of…

Through a Multiple Marginality Framework, this exploratory case study highlights how African American male youth in an urban high school setting perceive the opportunity structure during the historic election of the first African American President. Youth optimism generated by Obama's election gives students a sense of hope despite the persistent…

When the five-member Board of the Alameda Unified School District selected Kirsten Vital as the new superintendent in 2009, they chose someone from outside their tight-knit community. Board Trustee Margie Sherratt thought Vital was chosen to "get us moving," to be a change agent on closing the achievement gap. Vital, in her initial…

Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, history, and performance studies to challenge deficit interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu's cultural capital theory and to analyze Culture Clash's play Chavez Ravine. The play recounts a decade of Los Angeles history through the perspectives of displaced…

Among the causes of boredom among Hispanic youth which sometimes leads to the formation of juvenile gangs are the lack of jobs in the barrio, the stereotyping of Chicano youth as delinquents, the lack of educational opportunities, and the practice of police authorities of tracking Hispanic youths and creating "records" for them. (NQ)