Project Rebound works to support currently and formerly incarcerated people to enter higher education. As Project Rebound continues to grow, gain national acclaim, and traction within California State University (CSU), it is critical that higher education practitioners reflect on the program's evolution, successes, and challenges not only to fully…

For decades Latinas have been mobilizing their communities to call out and address the injustices they have encountered as women and as students of color (Garcia & Marquez, 2011). Latinas are becoming the fastest-growing minority group in California, and projections indicate this trend is expected to continue (American Association of…

Since the efforts to be made in education equity follow the entire student pathway, this guide seeks to advance a public dialogue about and action toward racial justice across the state's public schools, colleges, and universities. In supporting dialogue and action, this guide also seeks to model it. The model used is borrowed from the California…

As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we…

California is at a crossroads. The state continues to battle a global pandemic, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, Asian, and Native American students. Meanwhile, communities of color are leading a movement to force the state's leaders to acknowledge the persistence of racism. However, rhetoric is not enough. On nearly every indicator,…

The California State University's Graduation Initiative 2025 has strengthened and renewed campuses' commitment toward supporting students on their educational journey to ensure they meet their ultimate goal of graduation. Of equal importance is the elimination of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic equity gaps in graduation completion, especially for…

If the state of California finds the funds, the Cal Grant Reform Act--as enacted in the 2022 Budget Act--is to be implemented in 2024 to support hundreds of thousands of Californians in affording, accessing, and succeeding in higher education. Instead, the state has proposed adding more funding to the less equitable Middle Class Scholarship (MCS)…

Centered on superiority over a certain group or individual, discrimination becomes predominant in prestigious institutions that pride themselves on exclusivity. Collegiate honors programs tend to deepen this practice by creating highly elite spaces accessible only to a select few. This rigidity can lead to an underrepresentation of historically…

While current higher education literature stresses the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusivity, these imperatives have been mainly absent from conversations related to boards of higher education. In this paper, the authors present a historical overview of the demographic landscape of trustee boards from inception to the present. Using…

For over 5 years, The Education Trust-West's #Data4ThePeople campaign has been a statewide effort to ensure California builds a data system that is designed with achieving equity and the needs of students, parents, and families at the center. Now with school and college closures caused by COVID-19 posing a real challenge to data accessibility and…

Trans-Indigenous education encompasses spaces, practices, and programs that allow diverse histories, cultures, and experiences to be shared among diverse Indigenous students. Trans-Indigenous education attends to the interpersonal and spatial dimensions existing in higher education settings that center diverse Indigenous knowledges to build…

The question of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic identity formation has been widely debated in area studies, ethnic studies, and the burgeoning field of Arab American Studies with scholars such as Sarah Gualtieri (2009), Nadine Naber (2012), and Neda Maghbouleh (2017) arguing that people of SWANA descent are racial minorities…

Across the nation, community colleges have expanded dual enrollment programs to increase college enrollment and completion, particularly among historically underserved populations. The California Community College system--the largest system in the nation--is no different and recently expanded its dual enrollment programming to include College and…

ePortfolios are considered the eleventh high-impact practice (HIP) by the AAC&U (now the American Association of Colleges and Universities). They have been widely implemented in the humanities but remain underutilized in STEM fields. The benefits of engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and professional identity development in those…

In 2015, College Futures Foundation brought together seven community foundations, centering the goal of transitioning traditional, merit-based scholarship programs to a more strategic, need-based approach. College Futures envisioned this transition as a vehicle to improve college completion rates for low-income, first generation students, seeking…