This article describes the change process at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) to address the unique barriers that Latinx students face in transferring to 4-year institutions. Since 2014, California Community Colleges have had an unprecedented opportunity to target disparities in academic outcomes through the Student Equity Policy (SEP) and its…

As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we…

We highlight how community colleges implement equity-oriented reform to address inequities facing Latinx students. Through counterstorytelling, we provide lessons learned on the implementation and impact of equity-oriented reform in community college. Key findings revealed that the reform is necessary, but not sufficient to improve racial equity…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to use Victor Ray's theory of racialized organizations (TRO), and multiple applied exemplars, as a framework and call to action for community college researchers and policymakers. In doing so, we provide a meso-level analytic view on how and why the most accessible postsecondary pathway for minoritized…

California policymakers passed the Student Equity Policy, requiring all community colleges to develop a "student equity plan" that identified outcome disparities for select student groups, including racial/ethnic students. Through an instrumental case study, I examined Huerta College because their equity plan stood out for its focus on…

Policy implementation research tends to document the failures of reform, describing the myriad ways implementers miss the mark in translating intent into impact; or in the words of Derrick Bell, policy scholars are left with examining the "unfilled hopes of racial reform" (2004, p. 185). In contrast, this article presents an intrinsic…

Recent years have brought an increasing amount of attention to the educational experiences and outcomes for men of color. As a group, these students experience some of the lowest rates of success in community college. These inequities in education start early, fueled by racial/gender dynamics, stereotyping, and growing up in under-resourced…