This chapter recounts the story of how I came to design a Research Apprenticeship Course at UCLA--what we call the RAC. I lay out the origin story of the RAC dating back to early collaborations with Arturo Madrid of the Tomas Rivera Policy Research Center and the Ford Foundation Family of Fellows in the mid to late 1980s. These collaborations…

To promote health equity, it is crucial to educate the next generation of healthcare workers about disparities early on during their education. We developed a virtual research program at a medical school in the United States of America with the goal of increasing the awareness of youth about the complexities of health inequities. The program was…

The long-recognized disconnect between research and practice is reflected by social work students who often report significant apprehension about their research classes, likely at least in part because of a poor understanding of the research-practice interface and an unfamiliarity with larger professional social change initiatives like the Grand…

The benefits of undergraduate research experiences are well documented, yet few studies focus on programs designed to support students conducting research in the fields of humanities, arts, and social sciences. In this study, the authors examine learning experiences of students participating in the undergraduate research programs (URP) at UCLA,…

Purpose: This paper is concerned with the impact of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) on regional productivity in California agriculture. UCCE is responsible for agricultural research and development (R&D), and dissemination of agricultural know-how in the state. Method/methodology/approach: We estimate the effect of…

With support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Merced Anomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) was launched in the summer of 2015 at the University of California Merced (UC Merced). MACES is a research and education center, focused on creating innovative materials-enabled solutions for energy and…

Moreno Valley College, a two-year community college in Southern California, experiences an annual migration of cliff swallows. The presence of these birds inspired the development of the undergraduate research program Flying with Swallows. The assessment of the project indicated significant increases in qualitative student outcomes such as…

The past decade has seen a resurgence of interest in career and technical education (CTE) as a way to engage students, help people build the skills necessary to succeed in a technologically advanced economy, and meet employer demand for workers. MDRC--which has a three-decade history of developing and evaluating CTE programs, including a landmark…

This article assesses the accuracy of the assumption that undergraduate research leads to better student outcomes. In particular, it examines whether research involvement by undergraduates predicts subsequent academic success, as measured by grade point average (GPA). Consistent with predictions, results from a series of multiple regression…

Although educational research indicates that undergraduate student participation in research, fieldwork, and/or community engagement has great value, there remains a dearth of information on student outcomes from participation in these activities. Drawing on high-impact educational practices as the conceptual framework, this article examines…

A multi-year study investigated the impact of incorporating student-directed discovery projects into introductory statistics courses. Pilot instructors at institutions across the United States taught statistics implementing student-directed projects with the help of a common set of instructional materials designed to facilitate such projects.…

This chapter captures the mission and spirit of the California State University in its efforts to institutionalize undergraduate research and support the success of students traditionally underrepresented in higher education.

This study investigates the relationship between the designated research project system independent variables of Labor, Travel, Equipment, and Contract total annual costs and the dependent variables of both the associated matching research project total annual academic publication output and thesis/dissertation number output. The Mahalanobis…

This study examines how, if at all, multiple subjects and administrative services credential preparation programs are changing in response to California's newest grade, Transitional Kindergarten (TK). We analyzed interviews from university faculty in early childhood education and credential programs in five institutions of higher education and…

There is wide consensus among educators that participation in authentic research is valuable for undergraduate science students, and incorporating research into large-enrollment courses is one way to provide that opportunity to many students. There is substantial variation in the documented impacts, however, particularly between males and females.…