Given the growing Latina/o population, increased representation of Latinas in undergraduate engineering disciplines and in leadership roles must occur if the U.S. economy is to remain economically competitive (Franchetti, 2012; Trenor, Waight, & Zerda, 2008). The current lack of Latinas in engineering fields and leadership roles globally is an…

This dissertation explores the ways in which preservice science teachers enact a critical race curriculum in majority-Latinx elementary classrooms. Even though Latinx students represent the majority in public schools, their ability to move forward in their curricular experiences are limited if teachers do not provide equitable opportunities to…

The humanities continue to witness a decolonial turn. The decolonial project is radical and dangerous because it is an epistemic, political, and ethical project that marches toward a vision of humanity-in-difference. The exhaustion of the episteme, border, and oppositional consciousness politics, though, exposes limitations and indicates the…

Researchers interviewed higher education professionals, asking: How do professionals working in higher education equity and access sectors, both public and private, assign responsibility for improving access, and what solutions do they propose? Informed by Kingdon's multiple streams framework and Guajardo et al.'s theory of change in action,…

Although recent research has reported equity gains in the university-level physics classroom, there remains evidence of significant inequities by race. We conducted a series of multiple linear regressions to examine the magnitude of these inequities in introductory mechanics final exam scores. When we followed a common method of grouping students…

New York City's universal prekindergarten (pre-K) program, which increased full-day enrollment from 19,000 to almost 70,000 children, is ambitious in both scale and implementation speed. We provide new evidence on the distribution of pre-K quality in New York City by student race/ethnicity, and investigate the extent to which observed differences…

Ensuring equitable access to high-quality early education for families from all racial, ethnic, and income backgrounds is a critical component for addressing systemic racism and inequality within the public education system. This study examined one piece of this issue by investigating access to public Montessori pre-K, as well as barriers that may…

This study uses the Ideology, Pedagogy, Access, and Equity (IPAE) tenets of critical self-examination (Alfaro & Hernandez, 2016) and the construct of critical consciousness (Darder, 2018; Darder, 2015; Freire, 1973; Freire, 1970; Watts, Deimer, & Voight, 2011; Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Adil, 1999) as a conceptual framework to explore…

The goal of this study was to address disparities of academic achievement and school-based factors to help ameliorate them. The study sought to examine the relationship bet ween school climate and the achievement gap between Latino and White students. Achievement gap was defined at the school level as the difference in percentage of White and…

The academic field of Disability Studies (DS) offers theoretical tools to understand how social practices intersect with embodiment, long a critical issue in DS because disability is a category of human difference that is always already embodied. I review two theories that seek to resolve this dichotomy between the body and social worlds: complex…

This study explores the experiences of transnational Latina mothers whose children are enrolled in hyper-gentrified dual-language programs. Drawing upon transnationalism (Sánchez & Kasun, 2012) and differential consciousness (Sandoval, 1991), I explored how these mothers' own complex identities informed their navigation of conflicting…

Two years ago, the Heritage Foundation "Backgrounder" "Equity Elementary" (ED616087) first examined the extent to which the idea that educational institutions should have Chief Diversity Officers (CDO) had spread from higher education into public school districts. That "Backgrounder" also examined whether there was a…

To maintain its dominance as a leader in STEM, as well as to disrupt persistent economic and social inequalities, the United States must invest in Black and Hispanic students who are among the largest subgroups who have been historically underrepresented in STEM spaces. Research has shown that science self-efficacy facilitates students' interest,…

How do Catholic schools create inclusive, equitable environments that embrace the identities of their students, including their race, ethnicity, and culture? What does Catholic theological spirituality say about diversity, equity, and inclusion to address racism? What is the connection between Catholic theological spirituality and equitable school…

Access to gifted and talented education (referral, identification, and classes) and advanced classes has been challenging for two student groups of color--Black and Hispanic students. More than 10 years of data from the Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection and numerous reports reveal that discrimination is in operation and gravely…