This dissertation examines the landmark case Larry P. v. Riles and its impact on addressing the disproportionality and overrepresentation of Black and/or African American students in special education within California. Despite the court's ruling, which prohibited the use of IQ tests for Black students for special education placement due to…

Guided Pathways is a systemic reform movement focused on increasing community college completion rates and student achievement (Bailey et al., 2015b). Within the California community college (CCC) System, every college is implementing Guided Pathways, and the California Community College Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) continues to use this framework…

Recent reform efforts to center issues of equity and social justice in mathematics classrooms have been under fire from the loudest sectors of right-wing media. The hysteria around incorporating social justice issues in mathematics classrooms is captured in the artificial binary: STEM or CRT. In our paper, we examine resistance to reform efforts…

California has witnessed substantial growth in multilingual programs over the past half-century since the foundational "Lau v. Nichols" decision, with one in seven public schools statewide offering such programs for students. Likewise, the rapid rise in California's Asian population, as well as the increase in both overall racial…

In a world where decisions are increasingly scrutinized to ensure fairness across legally protected groups, it is critical to apply such scrutiny in a manner that is consistent with the law. This dissertation attempts to reconcile the legal definition and empirical measurement of disparate impact, one of two forms of discrimination recognized by…

Background/Context: This study contributes to the theoretical development of Critical Race Theory and further advances its potential as a causal model for education policy analyses. Critical Race Theorists study the impact of American law and policies via critical social structures and resource allocations to test how they uphold white supremacy.…

Equity work can be deeply personal and may include unlearning and shifting individual biases, beliefs, and practices. This paper builds on the premise that ongoing self-reflection in equity work is critical, as failing to attend to this internal work may result in education leaders reinforcing the very systems they are seeking to disrupt. And yet,…

As immigrants account for an increasing proportion of American youth, understanding how these young people experience change in their citizenship status is an important, yet rarely examined area for research. There is a plethora of evidence that opportunities to participate in American society are stratified according to class, race and ethnicity.…

A court decision in California, Larry P. v. Riles (1979) case, ruled in favor of African American students who were disproportionately and wrongly placed in special education (E.M.R. -- educable mentally retarded) classes. Standardized intelligence tests were biased, discriminatory and failed to identify the academic need to support African…

Charter management organizations (CMOs) have increasingly had to respond to questions surrounding their organizations--particularly in the context of the broader social awakening around systemic injustices and evidence of their racially inequitable practices. This study investigated how CMOs counteracted criticisms and managed perception by…

Centered on superiority over a certain group or individual, discrimination becomes predominant in prestigious institutions that pride themselves on exclusivity. Collegiate honors programs tend to deepen this practice by creating highly elite spaces accessible only to a select few. This rigidity can lead to an underrepresentation of historically…

The bachelor's degree remains a fundamental path to economic opportunity in the United States. Critical for policymakers, then, is ensuring equitable access to such benefits--a task often constrained by long-standing structural barriers. One of the most obvious structural impediments for bachelor's degree-aspirants in California (CA) is the…

Background: In recent years, school districts have experienced a complex policy environment with myriad reforms aimed at addressing longstanding and historically entrenched disparities in opportunities and outcomes between racially minoritized students and White students. One such reform is standards-based accountability, with its emphasis on…

Objective: We assessed the impact of bearing multiple marginalized identities, experiencing discrimination and perceived social status on the prevalence of depression in college students using an intersectional approach. Participants: Public health students at a diverse urban public university in Northern California (N = 338, response rate = 85%;…

For decades, college tuition costs have been skyrocketing, yet state financial aid has failed to meet the increasing economic needs of college students -- leaving many young people with the choice of bridging the financial gap by taking out student loans or not attending college at all. This pressing issue of rising college tuition is not just a…