The COVID-19 pandemic and shifts to virtual learning drastically altered school environments, often leaving students without a say in the many changes happening in their lives. To understand how diverse adolescents experienced their school's climate during the COVID-19 pandemic and elevate youth voice in school decisions, we conducted a…

Using a positive psychological framework, Broaden-and-Build Theory, we investigated whether and how positive and negative emotions (affective factors) and cognitive flexibility are related to flourishing. Participants are 151 bilingual adults from diverse backgrounds enrolled in a local community college. Results showed that both positive and…

This qualitative study contributed new insights into the complex interplay between California Community College (CCC) campus climate and faculty-led diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) changemaking. Using focus groups and interviews with 22 full-time faculty, this study found that supportive campus policies and practices, such as…

The purpose of this study was to deepen understanding of faculty of color experiences with their community college campus police, use a systematic approach for exploring their feelings connected to these experiences, and identify alternative strategies to increase sense of safety among faculty of color. A critical race theory (CRT) theoretical…

The Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) launched in 2014 as a collaborative effort to help districts promote student success and improve their fiscal and operational effectiveness. The initiative focuses on four major aspects of institutional effectiveness: 1) student performance and outcomes; 2) accreditation status; 3)…

Objective/Research Question: Master narratives, as theorized using a critical race perspective, are stories of the majority that function to obscure and normalize the oppressive operation of power in society. Counternarratives are the stories of minoritized individuals which expose and challenge the stories of the majority. This study examined…

In 2016, California residents widely supported the passage of Proposition 58, which allowed non-English languages to be used in public education. This proposition was intended to benefit all students, especially the state's large Latinx K-12 student population, who tend to speak Spanish and English at home and in school. Yet educational resources…

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…

Research has illustrated the role visual design plays in effective communication and instruction. However, more research has yet to investigate how online course designers (i.e., anyone who designs online courses) add visual appeal to online courses. This study explored the visual design process in online course development. It examines how…

This qualitative study explored the decision-making processes of 13 diverse Chancellors, President/Superintendents, and Presidents from California community colleges during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how they navigated campus closures, the return to in-person work, and what or who influenced their decisions. Through interviews, three main…

Assembly Bill (AB) 1705 seeks to improve California community college students' progress in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. The law ensures that students begin math in the course that best positions them to complete their calculus requirement. A college has this obligation to all STEM students, regardless of their…

Since college, La Puente, CA has been the focus of my research and activism from bilingual education, sanctuary to by-trustee area school board elections. As a graduate student in the 1990s, I returned to live and research in this city of my childhood and where my immigrant grandparents eventually moved to in the 1950s from Nicaragua and Sicily.…

Statewide membership associations are comprised of trustees and/or district chancellors or college presidents (CEOs) whose primary professional responsibility is the governance and administration of local districts and colleges. The majority of these statewide community college membership associations are nonprofit entities--typically incorporated…

At a time when students of families living in poverty have experienced the worst of the economic trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, community schools have reemerged as a promising intervention for addressing lack of access to quality education and economic prosperity. Policymakers are making investments in scaling up community schools;…

With students, families, and the education systems that serve them still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a $3 billion state investment in community schools offers an opportunity for system transformation that can address urgent and persistent whole-child needs and their impact on teaching and learning. Although the possibilities…