We will conduct a case study of the RYSE Center in Richmond, CA to understand how COVID-19 has impacted trajectories for their high school participants. Our focus centers on the experiences of Black and Brown high school students and how their experiences with RYSE youth center impact their learning motivation, college vision, and high school trajectory. We will conduct a qualitative study utilizing observation, interviewing, and document analysis (data triangulation) to understand how students at RYSE are experiencing COVID-19 in relation to their high school trajectories and longer-term vision. We aim to publish a research paper and showcase the work of the RYSE center to the larger education and social work communities.

Due to the global pandemic, schools in the US were suddenly shuttered and/or transitioned to home-based learning in the middle of the academic year. Our exploratory research study will examine how COVID-related school closings impact families with school-aged children, with particular attention to disproportionate effects on already marginalized communities. We will conduct secondary data analyses on the US Census Bureau’s household Pulse survey, a biweekly online questionnaire that has been inquiring about the widespread effects of the coronavirus pandemic since April of 2020.

We are comparing minority- serving institutions vs. predominantly white institutions through a participatory research design. We are looking at comparative policy landscapes (southeast public vs. west coast public), student participation (Black undergraduate students studying education vs. Black women playing intercollegiate athletics), and various participatory approaches (PAR vs. participatory visual methods). We are hoping to produce concrete findings and address the implications of them.

Our research is focused on cultural differences within classrooms all around the world and how governments respond to these differences with educational policies. Our research will take an international comparative look at asset-based pedagogies around the world, specifically in the US, UK and China. We will do this by conducting a comprehensive and systematic literature review of asset-based pedagogy research and theory from different countries, specifically how these countries interpret and use these pedagogies. Our group will highlight effective policy, as suggestions for teachers and different governments to address the issues of cultural differences.

This project's focus is Title I funding saliency within schools and school districts and its impact on purposeful and effective community engagement. We intend to offer a multimedia toolkit as a resource to community stakeholders that will support their understanding of funding practices and promote impactful community engagement. Our supporting research investigates ESSA's mandate of state funding report cards, current funding practice trends, and the impact of COVID-19 on the funding needs of school communities. We intend to pilot our toolkit in one school district wherein we will collect and analyze its schools' funding data, provide the district with both general and district-specific funding information-based resources, and delineate effective methods to encourage its school communities and families to successfully mobilize and advocate for their school-specific funding needs.

Research on equitable allocation strategies suggests that the equitable reallocation of resources can have a positive impact on student outcomes. However, results on improved outcomes for students, especially Black and Latinx students are inconsistent. It is unclear how districts decide to allocate and spend resources when utilizing a racial equity policy, and if the increased focus on racial disparities improves how the equitable allocation strategies within them play out for Black and Latinx students. With a focus on race, racial equity policies coupled with new allocation strategies provide an opportunity to explore the impact of those strategies on Black and Latinx students. The research questions that this study seeks to answer are:

1. How do districts decide to allocate and spend resources when implementing a racial equity policy?

2. What impact do those decisions have on Black and Latinx students?

Many rural students lack educational or career-oriented options due to geographic isolation and distance from cities, in addition to the economic obstacles facing many rural families that may inhibit access to opportunities. While there are programs offering college credit access to rural schools in order to give rural students a leg-up for community colleges, these students deserve exposure to the wide variety of career fields afforded to other students in closer proximity to cities. Cities often house a variety of career fields, businesses, internships, and general knowledge of professions inaccessible to remote regions of the US and I would like to disseminate this information virtually. Now given the advancement of remote learning and working, I aim to develop an organization / program that fosters professional partnerships to provide a range of virtual learning opportunities to students: professional shadowing, internships, project participation, etc.