This paper is part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Practice within Organizational Contexts. Shifting instructional practices in elementary schools to include more equitable, reform-based pedagogies is imperative for supporting students' development as science learners. Teachers need high quality professional development (PD) to learn…

In the midst of current environmental and social crises we--educators and educational scholars--have been called to prepare our youth with the skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to face and solve such crises. While mastery of academic content and relevant skills remain key educational goals, teachers need to be prepared and equipped to…

In the current K-12 educational system, there is a lack of mentoring programs for novice principals, and as a result, a substantial number of principals are not well prepared to do the complicated job of a principal. The nation's report card shows how United States students have regressed in reading and math and which states experienced the most…

This second brief on learnings from career education (CE) opportunities in the California Community Colleges (CCC) focuses on what college personnel described as barriers to designing and implementing programs with features that students find helpful, as described in the first brief of this series (ED610768) (e.g., cohorts, consistent course…

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Latina school administrators in their career pathway--specifically, the influences, resources, and supports they leaned on to navigate challenges as they pursued and persisted in educational leadership roles. The study also focused on the personal, professional, and spiritual…

This final brief in the series focuses on policy options that can foster more innovation and address challenges in career education (CE) program development. It is based on earlier research for a series of reports called "Career Opportunities," aimed at identifying ways that state and system policy can best support the CE mission of the…

The United States is experiencing a tremendous shift in the composition of its population. For the first time in history, the overall number of Asian, Latino, and African American students in K-12 public education classrooms is projected to surpass the population of Non-Hispanic whites. The number of Latinos in educational leadership positions in…

Hiring people who have served prison sentences has never been a priority in the United States. For men and women who were once incarcerated, finding any job is difficult; finding a sustainable, family-supporting job is nearly impossible. Today the country is at a critical crossroads on this issue, and it's time for change. As the nation works in…

This study examined the perspectives of school staff who have direct contact with foster youth across four school sites with high foster enrollment in one California district. This fills a research gap for studies involving elementary school aged foster youth, as well as for studies involving the perceptions of school staff. Using the lens of…

Workforce development in the K-12 educational setting, including the preparation of new teachers, faces multiple challenges today. These challenges include an ongoing teacher shortage and the lack of a coordinated educational preparation pipeline. Also problematic are the numerous obstacles on the path to teacher credentialing in states like…

The Latinx population in California surpassed 15 million in 2022, constituting 39% of the state's residents. Despite Latinx students making up nearly half of the California Community Colleges (CCC) student body in 2019, there remains a notable lack of Latina representation in CCC leadership. To understand this disparity, a qualitative study…

The U.S. college presidency remains predominantly white and male. However, trend data over the past several decades have documented increased diversity by race, gender, and race and gender (Green, 1988; Melidona et al., 2023). Still, LGBTQ+ college leadership has not been included in instrumentation resulting in a paucity of literature, with only…

Burnout has become a prevalent issue in workplace environments, significantly affecting individuals' mental, emotional, social, and physical well-being. This qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of burnout among community college counselors in Southern California, a group often overlooked in existing research. While…

Using structural equation modeling, this study identifies the direct and indirect relationships among campus diversity climate, faculty attitudes, student--faculty interaction, and cognitive skills development, examining how the relationships differ by students' race/ethnicity. With data from the University of California Undergraduate Experience…

In 2019 more than half of the nation's population under age 16 identified as a racial or ethnic minority. As of 2014, Latinx in California surpassed whites as the state's largest ethnic group and today, more than 200 different languages are spoken. This makes California home to one of the most diverse student populations in the world. However,…