Upward Bound (UB), created in 1965 to provide educational enrichment for low-income youths, had to be racially integrated. In 1966, I was among three White northern teens sent to integrate UB at Xavier University in New Orleans. My family had lived in North Carolina in the early 1960s, participating in civil rights actions, so I had had some…

This qualitative, multi-site case study across three McNair Scholars Programs uses interviews to explore Black students' aspirations to attend graduate school. While the undergraduate students in this study faced various personal and academic challenges at their predominantly white institutions (PWIs), all the 13 students used community cultural…

In July 2025, President Trump signed the Republican-led H.R. 1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) into law. The new law is a sweeping tax and spending package that forgoes trillions in federal revenues to award tax cuts to the wealthy while stripping essential care and protections from women and families. While implementation of the…

The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of Race to the Top (RTTT) on test scores, both overall and in terms of narrowing demographic achievement gaps--a central focus in the original RTTT applications. We draw on student-level NAEP data in reading and mathematics for fourth and eighth graders from 1996 to 2019. An event-study…

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…

International Baccalaureate (IB) is an international educational program for students with higher aptitudes and can manage an accelerated curriculum rigor. International Baccalaureate has a rich history in progressive academics with courses designed to offer international students a standard curriculum that colleges and universities worldwide…

This study examined the literacy trajectories of 185 Head Start-eligible Black children from preschool to first grade enrolled in a high-quality early learning program physically connected to an elementary school where they attended kindergarten and first grade. Social emotional, language, and literacy skills were assessed in the fall and spring…

This qualitative study investigated the persistent K-5 opportunity gap faced by Black males from low socioeconomic backgrounds in achieving literacy proficiency. Despite efforts to address literacy rates, Black males continue to experience significant disparities, hindering their academic success. The research aimed to evaluate systems and…

Only 11% of students who are Pell-eligible and the first in their family to attend college graduate with a bachelor's degree. Upward Bound is a federal-funded project that seeks to: (1) improve the motivation and skills of disadvantaged students; and (2) increase students' likelihood of success at two- and four-year institutions. The study sought…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify which student groups Black students perceive as needing food assistance, to explore how Black students' perceptions of students in need impacts their decision to utilize the on-campus food pantry at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), and to identify the circumstances that…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established primarily in the post-Civil War era to meet the educational needs of Black Americans. They provide pathways to upward social mobility and have a long-standing commitment to promoting both academic success and students' health and well-being. But persistent funding inequities at…

Background/Context: Law students of color have been struggling to recover from the heightened challenges they endured during the first two years of the pandemic. Struggles with food insecurity, financial anxiety, and emotional strain contribute to declining academic success for populations that were marginalized on law school campuses long before…

Background: Numerous studies have observed a significant and unique relationship between children's use of nonmainstream dialect and reading outcomes. We aimed to examine the relationship between nonmainstream dialect and reading at its roots by completing a preliminary evaluation of the relationship between African American English (AAE) dialect…

Students from higher-income households have more advantages related to access to a quality education and educational opportunities. These advantages give students from higher-income households many opportunities to achieve academic and career success. Low-income African-American students, on the other hand, encounter many challenges as they aspire…

Background: Scholars in the fields of early childhood education (ECE) and multicultural education have argued that preschools are key sites in which children learn about race and racism. However, there is little research on how teachers negotiate conflicting tensions and enact antiracist approaches within Head Start (HS) classrooms that use…