Many school districts, particularly in inner-city communities, face numerous barriers to students' academic success. Unfortunately, the school paradigm is not constructed to address the glaring social/emotional conditions affecting millions of children (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2017). As a result, educators and social reformers have urged school…

Focusing on family and community partnerships in schools is an important aspect to culturally responsive education, yet it is often an overlooked area. Educators must consider new models to engage community and family members to become partners in schools. This study presents finding from a mini-ethnographic case study and explores various…

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice music educators' perceptions of how the culture of a music teacher education programme and its embedded communities of practice influenced their occupational identity development. Research questions were (1) What specific cultural influences and communities of practice, if any, did the…

Only a quarter of full-time U.S. students complete their desired goal from community college attendance, with the rate of success even lower for Latinx students. This panel-data regression study looks for evidence regarding the expected influence of increasing the presence of Latinx faculty or administrators on cohort completion rates for all…

This chapter recounts the story of how I came to design a Research Apprenticeship Course at UCLA--what we call the RAC. I lay out the origin story of the RAC dating back to early collaborations with Arturo Madrid of the Tomas Rivera Policy Research Center and the Ford Foundation Family of Fellows in the mid to late 1980s. These collaborations…

This Perspective builds on a related RAND Corporation report that describes the implementation of Findhelp at four North Carolina community colleges in 2021 and 2022. Findhelp is an online tool to connect students to resources in their communities to help meet their basic nonacademic needs. The North Carolina Community College System, with support…

While there has been a recent focus on developing programs to support educational research by community college anatomy and physiology instructors, there is not yet an established long-term community of practice (CoPs) in this particular area. Studies of long-term CoPs, particularly in STEM education, are few and far between. This study examines…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) students have unique needs when attending American community colleges. The purpose of this dissertation is to identify current policies and practices of community colleges when working with transgender students, explore best practices when it comes to serving…

This brief is rooted in the purpose and findings of a qualitative study that explored the experiences and perspectives of African-American/Black community college students in asynchronous online learning environments. A growing number of African-American/Black students are enrolling in California community colleges and online courses. However,…

In October 2023, more than 100 practitioners, professionals, and students gathered at UC Berkeley to share insights and discuss research on the growing crisis of student homelessness in California. With short-lived yet historic federal funding to support this population set to expire in September 2024, the convening encouraged researchers and…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced most community colleges across the country to radically shift the ways in which they provided instruction to a majority of their students. Over the last three years, these institutions have learned how to better support students who take online courses. However they are continuing to investigate and understand how…

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and their underlying ethical qualities guide social interaction and the process by which Indigenous children learn what it means to be a person within family and community life. Using the Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) framework as a starting point, this paper explores a case study of a death in the…

Institutions and community-based organizations that serve their communities are creating positive opportunities for students and families. Over 20 years, "Excelencia" in Education has prioritized bringing national attention to the programs, institutions, and people making a positive difference for Latino students and their communities.…

Supporting nontraditional students within the student lifecycle is one of the major challenges faced by urban universities. This study presents a pedagogical intervention in which a group of Hispanic students participated in an engaged learning project with a bilingual newspaper. Findings indicate that this project motivated students to complete…

This paper reports one part of a broader Aboriginal Voices Project that has been undertaken by 13 Australian researchers bringing together 10 systematic reviews on Aboriginal School Education. The extent of collaboration and engagement between school and community leaders is important to influence joint decision-making and required to attain…