This qualitative study applied a college readiness framework to address the academic needs of urban students and to better understand the individualized college-readiness experiences of students of color. The study's aim was to provide a voice to the voiceless and to discuss ways to close the college-readiness gap for urban students. With a focus…

The corequisite support model is a promising developmental education reform effort that is helping students transition into college-level coursework more quickly. The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the critical leadership that has enhanced student success in corequisite courses and hold promise in enhancing equity within developmental…

Examining linked academic transcripts from urban community colleges and their feeder high schools, we identify math course-taking patterns that span sectors. We highlight stifled mobility and chronic repetition of math coursework in the transition to college, and we identify "math traps" from which students do not escape. Math mobility…

This qualitative study focuses on Director and Dean experiences during equity-focused program and initiative (PI) implementations at California Community Colleges (CCCs), as these leaders face the challenge of managing faculty, staff, and budgets, while also working toward the objectives of senior leadership. Despite a reliance on middle-level…

In California, dual enrollment refers to any high school student who enrolls in two systems at the same time, most commonly a community college and a high school--this student is thus concurrently enrolled in both high school and college. Students may receive credit from both systems for select courses. California Assembly Bill 288 (AB 288)…

Community colleges have a long history of providing entrance to higher education to minority students who enroll in these institutions underprepared and deprived of basic needs. With limited resources, community college leaders are expected to assist students in academic pursuits. The Center for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (Center for EDI)…

An across-the-curriculum (ATC) approach to undergraduate research (UR) is a productive addition to UR ecosystems at equity-oriented institutions. The ATC approach is differentiated from mentored UR experiences and laboratory course-based UR experiences by its ability to employ experiential, problem-based skills and practices for a broad variety of…

Realization of a multiracial democracy is challenged like never before by a new era of color-blind politics and postracial supposition, fueled in part by the election of our first black President in 2008, but contradicted by the chronic persistence of racial segregation and social inequality.

This is a story about urban students becoming urban teachers. It begins with the 1988 U.S. Department of Education funding of a bold idea: attracting multicultural/multilingual students to begin their teacher preparation at a two year college, preparing them to continue at a 4 year college. This is how the Milwaukee Area Technical College became…

Understanding how educational practitioners make sense of and subsequently implement policy has been an increasingly important objective of the K-12 research community. This study extends this research into higher education via an in-depth case study of an urban public 2-year technical college. Drawing on sensemaking theory and critical policy…

This study was a developmental evaluation that investigated whether practitioners' involved in an action research project experienced changes in their attitudes, assumptions, knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs by engaging in practitioner inquiry. The problem of the study revolved around the pressing issues of access, retention and degree completion…