- ACCORD sponsors
research projects that respond to the state’s need for
timely empirical work on emerging issues.
- ACCORD supports
a diverse new generation of UC researchers—including
junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students—committed
and able to push forward scholarship on educational equity
and access.
UC ACCORD scholars report their work in ACCORD publications,
at conferences with K-12 educators and outreach practitioners,
through policy briefings for decision-makers, and in public
engagement activities. Following are brief descriptions of UC
ACCORD's research projects funded in 2000-2001. Contact ACCORD
and we can provide additional information on any of these issues.
In addition, researchers can be contacted at the listed email
addresses.
ACCORD
PROJECTS ASK: How is educational quality and access to college
distributed across California’s diverse population of
young people? Is the state making progress toward a more equitable
educational system?
UC ACCORD Indicators Project
Graduation rates, test scores, teacher quality, availability
of high-level math courses and diversity on campus are just
a few examples of information that can indicate the quality
of educational opportunities in the state. These indicators
can also reveal how opportunities to learn from kindergarten
to college are distributed to students across the state. The
Indicators Project is developing a comprehensive database of
these and other indicators. Beginning in 2002, UC ACCORD will
synthesize the data into a report of the state’s progress
toward a more equitable education system and equal access to
higher education.
The
Educational Experiences and Postsecondary Opportunities of Southeast
Asian Students
This study examines the educational experiences and postsecondary
opportunities of Southeast Asian (i.e. Laotians, Hmong, Cambodians,
and Vietnamese) students in California. Using interviews and
surveys along with state and national data bases, the study
explores students’ educational preparation and aspirations
for education beyond high school.
Walter Allen, and Robert Teranishi, UC Los Angeles
email:wallen@ucla.edu
email:takumi@gse.upenn.edu
ACCORD PROJECTS ASK: How do the different
circumstances that students face in California’s diverse
schools and communities influence educational opportunities
and college going?
The Process of Social Capital Formation:
One Rural High School’s Response to Educate Mexican Immigrant
Students
This ethnographic study examines the experiences of working-class
recent Mexican immigrant and limited English speaking youth
in an impoverished rural high school. It seeks to illuminate
how the structure and culture of rural high schools enable and
constrain the social relationships that these high-risk students
form with peers and adults. These relationships are critically
important since peers and educators can provide various types
of institutional resources and support (known as social capital)
that are linked to higher academic achievement levels and access
to higher education that families with little formal education
are able to provide.
Dianna Gutierrez, UC Davis
email: dmgutierrez@ucdavis.edu
Language and Literacy Practices of Latinos across Community
Settings
This ethnographic study looks at the language, literacy, and
schooling practices of diverse immigrant Latino students outside
their school settings. It examines how and whether these experiences
match their academic experiences in school. Of specific interest
will be Latino students who receive Sunday religious instruction
in Spanish and English. These students’ progress will then
be followed in their local public schools.
Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, UC Berkeley
email: pbl@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Increasing College Access for Students Attending "Bi-modal"
High Schools
Researchers from UCB and UCLA will study pathways of college
access for low-income, underrepresented students at two culturally
diverse high schools. This research will describe and measure
students’ different trajectories through high school and
assess why and how these trajectories limit or enhance students’
access to college. The project will guide the research and professional
development of UCB and UCLA graduate students as well as stimulate
and train teachers and administrators at the school sites to
use research to identify and transform practices that result
in inequitable outcomes for underrepresented students. And the
collaboration will also investigate the creation of school cultures
that engage in reciprocal study and critique among university
faculty, graduate students, and teacher researchers.
Jabari Mahiri, Jeannie Oakes, UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles
email: jmahiri@socrates.berkeley.edu
Increasing College-Going Rates of Underrepresented Populations.
This study seeks to understand how professional development
activities for teachers can help increase the college and university
attendance rates of underrepresented populations. Using surveys
and observational data, the study examines the High School Puente
Project’s professional development.Jean Yonemura Wing,
UC Berkeley
Helen Duffy, UC Berkeley
email: hmduff@socrates.berkeley.edu
The Conditions Contributing to Racial Disparities in Student
Achievement
Much research on multi-racial high schools suggests that school
structures and cultures contribute to racial disparities in
student achievement. To learn more about the conditions that
contribute to these disparities, this study analyzes the experiences
and academic performance over four years of high school for
students at a diverse, urban high school. Students include those
who conform to the typical patterns (i.e.,low-performing African
American and Latino students and high-performing white and Asian
American students) and those who do not conform (i.e., high
performing African American and Latino students and low performing
white and Asian American students.)
Jean Yonemura Wing, UC Berkeley
email: jeanwing@uclink4.berkeley.edu
ACCORD
PROJECTS ASK: How do state policies and trends outside of
the field of education affect the ability of California’s
public schools to provide equitable, high-quality education
and college access?
School Integration and Residential Segregation in California
This study uses US Census 2000 and California Department of Education
data to investigate whether schools play a role in integrating
segregated neighborhoods. The project has three primary objectives:
(1) measure school and residential segregation in California metropolitan
areas; (2) profile metropolitan areas based on their relative
measure of school segregation; and (3) investigate, at a micro-level,
whether schools play a role in integrating segregated neighborhoods.
Paul M. Ong, Jordan Rickles, and Douglas Houston, UC Los Angeles
email: pmong@ucla.ed
The Influence of Television on the College Aspirations
This study employs in-depth interviews to explore the potential
effect of prime-time television on the college aspirations and
expectations of 60 African American, Asian American, and white
tenth-grade girls. Findings from this study may be able to inform
interventions that seek to improve students' college-going expectations
and prospects.
Barbara Tobolowsky, UC Los Angeles
email: btobolow@ucla.edu
ACCORD
PROJECTS ASK : How do California's school and university policies
and practices help or hinder different student populations?
What new policies and practices could promote greater college
preparation, college access, and college retention for diverse
groups of students?
Studying Effective Bilingual/Biliteracy Programs in a Post
227 Context
This study examines how 25 high achieving elementary schools
and teachers create effective learning communities that utilize
primary language instruction in a high stakes assessment context.
Using qualitative methods of inquiry and sociocultural perspectives
of learning and development, the study will document the school
and instructional practices that build on students’ linguistic
knowledge and practices, promote learning, and meet or surpass
state achievement goals.
Kris Gutierrez, UC Los Angeles
email: krisgu@ucla.edu
Improving Algebra Instruction for English Language Learners
Children who are learning English often struggle in their math
classes because they find it difficult to understand the teacher's
explanations or the written language of mathematics textbooks,
and they may have further problems communicating their understandings
to others. This study uses information about students collected
from tasks, surveys, and interviews to identify and further
investigate specific language obstacles that hinder Spanish-speaking
middle school students as they attempt to learn algebra.
Carl A. Lager, UC Los Angeles
email: clager@ucla.edu
Technology, Academic Achievement, and Diversity in California
High Schools
This project uses case study methods to compare the availability
of, access to, and use of information and communication technologies
(ICT) in low SES (socio-economic status) and high SES secondary
schools. The findings will help clarify the degree to which
ICT policies and practices serve to enhance critical and analytic
thinking among students in under-served communities and to further
these students' academic competencies and aspirations.
Mark Warschauer, UC Irvine
email: markw@uci.edu
Equitable Evaluation of School Performance
Using national longitudinal data, this study will examine how
differences in student background characteristics along with
segregation influence academic outcomes and create inequitable
learning environments. The findings will inform school district
and state policy makers about how school factors such as organization,
resources, and climate can increase student achievement. Finally,
this study will illustrate how a promising new statistical method
can be used to study school effectiveness.
Gregory Palardy, UC Santa Barbara
email: palardy@education.ucsb.edu
Early Reading Assessment
This study examines the validity of an early reading fluency
assessment methodology through analyses of longitudinal data
about Latino and Anglo students’ reading performance across
1st through 4th grade. This research has implications for educational
decision-making for language minority students that cumulatively
benefits those students’ long-term achievement and ultimately
enhances their educational opportunities.
Shane R. Jimerson, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara
email: jimerson@education.ucsb.edu
Promoting College Access for Poor and Minority Youth Through
Comprehensive Schoolwide Reform
This study examines the micro-political processes that can impede
or promote school reform designed to increase college access
and opportunity for African American and Latino students, with
an up-close account of efforts to create a college going culture
in a large urban high school in Southern California. The analysis
pays particular attention to how the political ideologies of
teachers, administrators, and students shape and influence the
ability and willingness of educators to increase college access
for Black and Latino students. It will also illuminate the "strains
and tensions" that stem from diverse sources of power,
rival interests, and intractable conflicts within around the
school.
Robert Cooper, UC Los Angeles
email: cooper@gseis.ucla.edu
ACCORD
PROJECTS ASK : How do beliefs and attitudes of students, families,
educators, and society affect the distribution of opportunities
for high-quality schooling and successful college going?
Invitational Book Conference: Peer Influences on the School
Performance of Mexican-Descent Adolescents
This invitational conference will bring together a small group
of UC and other researchers who study how peers and peer groups
influence the school engagement and academic achievement of
high-school age youth of Mexican descent. The conference papers
also consider the schools’ role in structuring relations
with different groups of youth. Research findings are drawn
both from large-scale longitudinal research projects, and from
smaller projects. Most of the school sites are in California,
with comparative data included from Texas and Florida.
Margaret A. Gibson, UC Santa Cruz
email: ggibson@cats.ucsc.edu
Factors Influencing the College Decision-Making Process of
High School Youth
For some students the decision to go to college is a clear and
relatively easy choice to make while for others, the opposite
is true. In particular, students who have family members that
have gone on to college are often seen as having a "college-bound
identity," and are better informed, prepared, and guided
in their college decision making than students with no family
college history. This study seeks to learn more about the processes
by which advantaged and disadvantaged students decide to attend
college. The information gained will help researchers better
understand students' core beliefs about college and more systematically
probe college-bound identity as an important dimension of college
decision making.
Evellyn Elizondo, UC Santa Cruz
email: elizando@cats.ucsc.edu
Teacher Beliefs and Placement Practices
This study investigates how teacher beliefs and biases impact
academic placement decisions for students of differing ethnic,
gender and racial characteristics. The research examines the
effects of educator background on placement decisions by providing
teachers with an on–line opportunity to examine student
photographs and data pairs and choose some students to enroll
in rigorous instruction. The simulation of actual decision making
explores whether or not (and under what circumstances) participants
base their decisions on data about the students or if, instead,
their selections appear more subject to personal biases.
Derek Spencer Mitchell, UCLA
email: dmitchell@cse.ucla.edu
Chicanas in Pursuit of the Ph.D.: An examination of the graduate
school choice process
Factors such as leaving home, familial influences, interactions
with professors, and access to institutional resources may affect
the likelihood of Chicanas successfully navigating the graduate
school choice and application process. Researchers will interview
Chicanas attending highly selective universities and use this
data to determine and study factors that enhance or limit a
Chicana’s ability to gain entry into a Ph.D. program. Understanding
these experiences can inform recruitment officials interested
in increasing the number of Chicanas in Ph.D. programs.
Miguel Ceja, UC Davis
email: cejamiguel@earthlink.net
The Relationship Between Latinas' Perceptions and Classroom
Practices
Using classroom observations and interviews with students, this
study investigates the relationship between adolescent Latina/os'
perceptions of classroom interactions and their actual classroom
participation. Since participation is an important factor in
creating and taking advantage of learning opportunities, students'
understandings of "appropriate" participation may
have an important influence on their educational progress. The
study will help schools understand and respond to the different
ways boys and girls strive for high academic achievement.
Terri Patchen, UC Los Angeles
email: tpatchen@ucla.edu
ACCORD
PROJECTS ASK: What supports beyond the regular school program
do students need to prepare for admission to and success in
California’s public universities? How do these supports
differ for different student populations?
Using Technology to Empower Minority Families and Build on
Student Strengths
Increasing access to technology offers opportunities to develop
existing strengths and competencies for culturally diverse students,
English language learners, and others. This research studies
the after-school participation of Latino K-12 students and their
parents in the creation of a desktop publication; at a university-school
collaborative learning experience building upon the families‚
social-cultural, and linguistic resources. Ethnographic methods
and conversation analysis serve to examine how participants
develop new problem-solving strategies and technology-based
literacies. The findings promise to expand schools’ understandings
and inform instructional repertoires for educating all students
well.
Deborah Perry-Romero, UC Santa Barbara
email: romero@education.ucsb.edu
Expanding Success Across Cultural Contexts
La Clase Mágica's preschool activity (MCM) is a successful
school readiness program in San Diego County that utilizes a
computer program adapted to the local ecology. This study examines
the extension of the after school program, to two new, culturally
different contexts; One near the U.S. -Mexico boarder and the
other at the San Pasquel American Indian Reservation. Ethnographic
field methods as well as the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) and Computer
Literacy Test will examine the cross cultural adaptation of
the program and its impact on school readiness and social development.
Olga Vasquez, UC San Diego
email: ovasquez@ucsd.edu
Literacy Development among Latino Students in a Rural Preschool
When Latino students enter kindergarten there are significant
disparities between them and White, middle-class children in
the area of school readiness. Therefore, it is important to
provide Latino students access to early literacy experiences
that are critical to later success in reading and writing. This
ethnographic study explores how Latino students develop emergent
literacy skills in a preschool program that promotes Spanish
language and literacy experiences. A secondary purpose is to
examine how literacy instruction is socially organized in this
preschool context. This study may help optimize an emergent
literacy curriculum for preschool students from Latino, Spanish-speaking
backgrounds
Alicia Valero, UC Davis
email: alicia@csus.edu
ACCORD
Projects ask: In what ways can California's public universities
work with k-12 students, parents, and teachers to promote
higher quality schools, college preparation, and successful
college going among all the state’s diverse groups of
students.
K-16 Partnerships
and the Possibilities for Educational Change
This qualitative case study examines the implementation of UCSD/Create,
an "outreach" project designed to increase the college-going
rates of under-represented k-12 students, enhance the college
experience of community college students, and strengthen institutional
ties between K-14 and the University of California. In addition
to documenting the core pedagogical challenges the project faces,
the study details the project’s struggle with considerable
logistical and ideological obstacles. The goal is to provide
a comprehensive description that contains useful lessons for
other cross-institutional initiatives with similar goals.
Lisa Tripp, UC San Diego
email: ltripp@ucsd.edu
Increasing Faculty Involvement in Outreach and Practice-Based
Research
This project will create greater understanding of how faculty
members can become involved in outreach and practice-based research
projects and how this work can enhance, rather than detract
from, faculty dossiers during the review process. The work includes
in-depth case studies of educational researchers who have earned
major promotions at the University of California through and/or
in spite of meaningful engagement with the communities and schools
that their research impacts. The project will address research
issues from the perspectives of university administrators, faculty,
and outreach practitioners and will yield a model that can be
used by scholars interested in undertaking practice-based research.
The investigation will also yield short, practical guides intended
for each of these three groups.
Patricia M. McDonough and Karen McClafferty, UC Los Angeles
email: mcdonough@gseis.ucla.edu
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