Nationwide, Latinx students access dual enrollment (completing college coursework while still enrolled in high school) at lower rates than their white peers. Research on dual enrollment programs is limited and what does exist does not account for rural Latinx students' experiences. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to…

Access to high-quality teachers in K-12 schools differs systematically by racial group. This policy brief reviews the academic research documenting these differences and the labor market forces and segregation patterns that solidify them. It also presents new analysis of differential exposure in North Carolina of white, black, and Hispanic…

Over the course of a year, student authors in the Juntos NC Writing Project participated in the Literary and Community Initiative to write, publish, and share their lived experiences and identities as Latinx immigrants and first-generation high school students in North Carolina. Throughout the publication process of their collaborative bilingual…

The aims of this mixed-methods study were (a) to explore quantitatively the fit of the COPE inventory (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) for Latinx youth from immigrant families, and (b) to explore qualitatively aspects of coping in this population. Participants were 175 Latinx adolescents (51% female), most of whom were U.S.-born with…

Western Carolina University (WCU) enrolls students from many different backgrounds and demographic categories. While access to the institution has expanded over the years, equity gaps still exist relative to retention and graduation outcomes for students in different demographic groups. Several offices at the University offer programing and…

This research investigates whether teachers' unions influence student academic achievement in Southern states that prohibit collective bargaining. Our data are from the School and Staffing Survey and the Stanford Education Data Archive. We measure the strength of teachers' unions by union membership rate and meet-and-confer status of a district…

This study examines Mexican-origin first-generation college students' (FGCS) transformational impetus within the sociopolitical context of the Nuevo South. Authors investigate transformational impetus through students' perceptions of knowledge and tools for advocating for equity and social justice in their communities. Results suggest a greater…

This study aims to examine the performance of students who completed the North Carolina Math 1 EOC assessment. The provided test scores are for students in middle school and high school who identify as Asian, Black, Latinx, and White, and are specifically for the North Carolina Math 1 EOC assessment. This applied research study focuses on Math 1…

Objective: This study expands the literature on risk taking among college students by exploring anti-racism action as a form of positive risk taking. Participants: 346 Black (64%) and Latinx (36%) college students (85% female) ages 18-27 years (M = 18.75, SD = 1.31). Methods: Participants responded to questionnaires on anti-racism action,…

The authors of this study utilized data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement to conduct a critical examination of perceptions of institutional support among transfer-seeking community college students in North Carolina. We adopted an intersectional quantitative approach by centering racial and ethnic identity, and examining the…

This article details the process of recruiting and starting a cohort to prepare Latinx school administrators to fill impending positions in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School district. The authors provide the context and steps of establishing the administrator preparation program.

School discipline disparities within the U.S. P-12 public schooling system have been a staple issue for over four decades. The enforcement of out-of-school suspensions, in particular by inexperienced teachers, have traditionally impacted Black and Latinx students more than White students. Yet teachers are not the final decision-makers regarding…

The American demographic is constantly changing from the prominently white, Anglo-Saxon population to a diverse, multicultural, multilingual dynamic. According to the United States Census Bureau, the non-Hispanic white population is projected to shrink over the coming decades, from 199 million people in 2020 to 179 million people in 2060 -- even…

The American demographic is constantly changing from the prominently white, Anglo-Saxon population to a diverse, multicultural, multilingual dynamic. According to the United States Census Bureau, the non-Hispanic white population is projected to shrink over the coming decades, from 199 million people in 2020 to 179 million people in 2060 -- even…

The rapid expansion of charter schools has fueled concerns about their impact on traditional public schools. I estimate the effect of charter openings on traditional public schools in Massachusetts and North Carolina by comparing schools near actual charter sites to those near proposed sites that were never occupied. I find charter openings…