This paper chronicles the journey of how our educational studies department answered student demands for change and engaged in a departmental inquiry into antiracism and abolition that continues to this day. We conceptualize what emerged over this three-year journey as a framework and process for Collective Racial Literacy Development (CRLD).

Bold interventions are needed to change racial disparities and unacceptably low STEMM completion rates at historically white institutions that have the resources to train a new generation of scientists with diverse backgrounds. Three university case studies were conducted on the Meyerhoff Adaptation Partnership, which sought to develop…

New teachers need time, support, mentorship, and experience to build racial literacies that will transform teaching. In response, this article explores the potential of book-club-style professional development to promote racial literacy among "mainstream" teachers of multilingual learners. In presenting a qualitative inquiry of…

Undergraduate research offers a significant avenue for enhancing the engagement and skill development of underrepresented students, particularly those from BIPOC backgrounds. This study conducted at Penn State University aimed to illuminate the challenges faced by BIPOC students in their pursuit of undergraduate research opportunities and promote…

In this paper the author compares the impact of two proposals: one in the Shapiro administration's budget plan and one by the PA Schools Work (PASW) campaign for a down payment on fair and full funding of K-12 schools regarding how far they go in reducing the state's inequitable and inadequate school funding for school districts on the basis of…

In this study, researchers investigated the library experiences of Black undergraduate students at Penn State in University Park, a predominately white institution. Their goal was to improve services and spaces and to highlight and validate experiences with race, racism, and microaggressions on campus and in the library. Twenty undergraduate…

Although Pennsylvania legislation promoted dual enrollment as a pathway to postsecondary credits, from 2017 to 2021, postsecondary enrollments declined and dual enrollment (DE) participation rates remain understudied. The purpose of this ex post facto, correlational study was to discover and examine the relationship between student demographics…

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the enrollment trends of racial minority and low socioeconomic enrollment, and the equity of higher education access at a four-year private institution in western Pennsylvania. The study concentrated on two student populations over a five-year period at a four-year private institution…

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between perceived weight change since high school and perceived factors contributing to weight change, or lack thereof, among college students. Students from a large university in the Northeast of the United States self-reported socio-demographic characteristics, and perceived factors…

Targeted school funding is a potentially valuable policy lever to increase educational equality by race, ethnicity, and income, but it remains unclear how to target funds most effectively. We use a regression discontinuity approach to compare districts that narrowly passed or failed a school funding election. We use close tax elections in 9 states…

America is a very diverse country, with over 40% of the population identifying as people of color, and the proportion of public school students of color rising to 55% by the year 2027. Although the face of students in schools has changed, the ethnic composition of the educators has not. These race/ethnicity differences between school staff and…

The question of how to engage undergraduate students in global learning is even more imperative given recent shifts in the global landscape and in higher education. Utilizing the value rubrics established by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, this analysis considers the importance of the humanities in realizing integrative,…

For 25 years, starting in the early 1990s, Pennsylvania had no fair funding formula for distributing state school funding based on the number of students in each district and other factors that research shows impact the cost of delivering a quality education that meets state standards. Basic education funding in Pennsylvania remains both…

Critical literacy is an appropriate learning outcome for social studies courses because it has the potential to teach students how to critically evaluate sources of information relevant to historical texts and current news media. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the process through which students learned to apply critical…

The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about the possibility of increased staff attrition from the public school sector, as it did for other occupations during the Great Resignation that followed the pandemic's onset. Recruiting and retaining education staff were pressing challenges even before the pandemic began. Since March 2020, education staff…