Parents face varying degrees of difficulty with getting involved in their children's schools. Using data from a study of parent members of a community organization and structuration theory, I examined how and why parents encountered resistance to their attempts to be more involved and to advocate for their children. This work can broaden our…

There are substantial racial disparities in school discipline but little agreement on how best to measure them. The choice of metric can influence conclusions about the magnitude of racial discipline disproportionality and intervention effectiveness. This article describes 2 common (risk ratio, risk difference) and 3 relatively novel (standardized…

Demographic and income disparities may impact food accessibility. Research has not yet well documented the precise location of healthy and unhealthy food resources around children's homes and schools. The objective of this study was to examine the food environment around homes and schools for all public school children, stratified by…

Until recently, the vast majority of students, entering California community colleges were placed in developmental courses, and relatively few went on to complete transfer-level courses in English and math. Several colleges responded to this longstanding challenge by experimenting with placement and curricular reforms. In 2017, new legislation (AB…

Education is highly valued in the United States as a means to acquire skills and experience that allow individuals to realize greater earnings over the course of their working lives. The value placed on education is evidenced by the fact that 89 percent of people 25 years and older have completed high school, and 60 percent have studied beyond the…

Stereotype threat has been shown to have deleterious impacts on the short- and long-term academic performance and psychological well-being of racial and ethnic minority students. Psychological variables related to this identity threat represent significant sources of achievement and attainment gaps relative to nonstereotyped Asian and white…

"Bottom Line" provides intensive advising for low-income high school students, most of whom are the first in their family to go to college. The advising is designed to help students apply for college and financial aid and select a high-quality, affordable institution. For students who attend one of "Bottom Line's" target…

Although Black and Latinx students disproportionately face exclusionary school discipline, prior research finds that the likelihood of suspension for Black students decreases when they are taught by greater proportions of Black teachers. Little prior work, however, has examined whether these effects generalize to large, diverse, urban school…

Colleges across the California Community College (CCC) system have been preparing for changes to their assessment and placement processes associated with the required implementation of Assembly Bill (AB) 705. While many initiatives were already underway to increase students' completion of their education, including Guided Pathways and the Student…

Previous research has shown that people often engage in cultural-deficit thinking when reasoning about racial/ethnic achievement gaps. However, it is unclear whether culture-blaming explanations are best thought of as group-level internal attributions, expressions of prejudice against a lower status group, or self-serving bias. In this study,…

Teachers not only play a pivotal role in developing students' knowledge and skills but also can serve as role models, which may be particularly beneficial for youth of color and children of immigrants. However, it is unknown whether relationships vary across student racial/ethnic and generational groups. Moreover, the link between teacherstudent…

What are high school students thinking? The purpose of this study was to examine the degree that psychosocial attitudes affect academic achievement in mathematics for students of different races during secondary schooling. Based on a quantitative methodology, data was gathered from a nationally distributed survey involving over 16,000 student…

Early last year, the American Council on Education (ACE) released a comprehensive volume on the state of race and ethnicity in higher education. Borrowing from the findings of this volume, the authors highlight persistent equity gaps and observations for the field.

Students of Color Experience predominantly White institutions (PWIs) differently than do White students in terms of belonging, support, connecting, and success. While this topic has been explored broadly, there remain gaps in the literature about experiences of Students of Color in the context of residential communities, which provide the setting…

Analyzing the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal disparities in STEM career aspirations at the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES). Results indicated that female, Black, Hispanic, and low SES students were less…