Among the many inequalities associated with racial segregation in schools, one notable disparity is the unequal access to experienced teachers. Schools with high proportions of Black or Latinx students have a disproportionate share of inexperienced teachers, both throughout the nation and in California specifically (Clotfelter, Ladd, &…

Food insecurity is widespread among college students in the United States. Food benefits delivered through the CalFresh program, California's version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), can reduce hunger by helping students pay for groceries, but may not reach all eligible students. To date, higher education systems…

Conceptualizing and measuring trends in segregation in higher education is difficult as both vertical and horizontal sorting is prevalent and patterns vary across racial groups. In this paper, we measure various trends in racial segregation in California for 20 years. We find significant sorting by race both between and within sectors of higher…

Promise programs are proliferating across the United States, with wide variation in their design. Using national data on 33 Promise programs affecting single, 2-year colleges, this study examines program effects on first-time, full-time college enrollments of students by race/ethnicity and gender classification. Results suggest Promise programs…

Conversations about digital inequality in education often revolve around access to technology. However, research into youth culture has shown that many Black and Latinx teens are able to access technology and have developed the same digital skills as their white peers. Social scientist Matt Rafalow observed three California middle schools where…

Researchers have suggested that student group involvement during college is beneficial for students on various academic and psychosocial measures. Most research has not focused on how different student groups provide different environments and support that impact students' experience. This ethnography focuses on one Christian student organization…

Transfer from California's community colleges to its public universities has long been central to the state's higher education system. Though most of the 2.2 million community college students intend to transfer, fewer than half do so within six years of their initial enrollment. A low transfer rate is bad news for California. The state's economy…

This practitioner research study examines one critical race media literacy (CRML) activity that invited students to digitally redact deficit framings of youth from minoritized and historically marginalized backgrounds. I illustrate how Latinx and Asian students used the project to re-articulate deficit narratives of themselves, their friends, and…

Asian American students often report lower self-esteem than their peers from other racial groups even though they are doing better academically. The current study attempted to explore this paradox from an attributional perspective. Academic achievement, self-esteem and attributions for academic failures (i.e., low ability and low effort) were…

Many students are enrolled in segregated school systems with unequal access to resources. In this report, we present a measure that can help policymakers identify the schools in their system that are contributing the most to segregation. How our measure differs from traditional metrics: Much research on segregation relies on an absolute measure of…

Although research has shown that peer victimization is related to negative school outcomes, whether ethnic ingroup size alters victimization-adjustment links is unclear. This study examines whether smaller ethnic ingroup representation amplifies the negative associations between peer victimization and school adjustment. We also examine whether…

Are parental inputs complements or substitutes to education quality? Using variation induced by identification into a gifted and talented (GT) program, I find no aggregate effects on parental behavior as a result of their child's access to a higher quality education. However, there are heterogeneous effects. Non-minority parents decrease…

This companion document to "New Eligibility Rules for the University of California? The Effects of New Science Requirements" provides the following technical appendices: (1) Transcript Evaluation Service (TES) sample; (2) Cal-PASS Plus (CPP) sample; (3) Additional tables and figures; and (4) Qualitative interview questions. [These…

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…

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…