CLEARvoz Journal (Center for Leadership, Equity and Research)
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“I was pushed out of school”: Social and Emotional Approaches to a Youth Promotion Program
Full text linkIn this study, we analyze the effects of Project GRIT (Generating Resiliency and Inspiring Transformation), a six-week intervention program that worked with a group of high school pushouts, students who were encouraged to leave school, in a school district in southern California. We interviewed thirty-nine former high school students who “dropped out,” or were pushed out of school, 61.5% males (n=24) and 38.5% females (n=15). The mean age is 18.1 years and the sample consists of 27 Latino and 12 African American/Black youth. Findings indicate that an increase in healthy relationships with peers generates beneficial social and emotional skills, including increased communication, team-oriented thinking, projected self-actualization, trust, and development of self. We argue that storytelling is central to engaging and promoting at-promise students in the education system, providing them opportunities to overcome adversity, excel in academics, and expand their ability to build healthy relationships with others in their community
Give Back to Impact: (Re)considering the Motivation for Latinx College Student Organization Involvement and Leadership
Full text linkA follow-up study to the author’s original 2017 study on the impact of Latinx student involvement was performed to understand reasons for Latinx community, civic, and artistic involvement. In the original investigation, Latinx college student organization members were interviewed to reflect on the impact of their college involvement 20 years after college graduation. Latinx college student organizations were described as providing skills for personal, career and educational advancement, as well as motivation for community advocacy. This follow up study provides findings using participants from the original to explain reasons for community involvement and how Latinx college student organizations instilled motivation for such activity. Recommendations are provided for further investigations on these groups and their long-term effects.
Establishing Equity in Implementation of Restorative Justice in Schools: California Stakeholders’ Perspectives
Full text linkRestorative Justice in Schools (RJS) is an important concept in California to reduce school suspensions and expulsions and thereby reduce educational inequities. RJS is designed to bring people together to prevent and reduce conflict, while forging pathways toward inclusion and academic achievement. While some outcomes are promising, RJS lacks the underpinnings of a developed methodology and has not been rigorously evaluated with comparison groups. As a step toward encouraging discussion among stakeholders, this article reviews 174 California RJS practitioner and stakeholder perspectives on successful implementation practices, facilitating factors, and barriers to implementation. Specific areas of focus include RJS training; data and evaluation; sustainability; and facilitating factors and barriers to implementation. As a positive alternative to zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, RJS must be skillfully implemented and carefully evaluated to document its potential to reduce school suspensions and dropouts, while reducing revenue losses and improving the lives of youth and communities
Evaluating The Efficacy of Short-Cycle Mathematic Interventions in a High-Minority/High-Poverty Urban Public Middle School
Full text linkThere is a national interest among educators about how to properly design, implement, and evaluate academic interventions, particularly as related to students placed at risk. This study provides school-based intervention teams with a rigorous methodological approach for monitoring and evaluating procedural fidelity as well as the effectiveness of short-cycle academic interventions; at the same time, the study describes some of the challenges faced when implementing a tiered academic intervention system. The study adds to the literature by offering empirical evidence for the efficacy of specific instructional strategies aligned to specific elementary and middle-school Common Core Mathematics Standards. A quasi-experimental research design with control groups and pre- and post-tests was used to draw causal inferences about the efficacy of intervention treatments. Two short-cycle mathematics interventions for distinct Common Core Mathematics Standards were found to positively impact student learning. Further implications for practice and future research are discussed
A Case Study on Instructional Coaching for Teachers of English Language Learners
Full text linkOne of the fastest rising student populations in California schools and other states are English Language Learners. Yet, teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare teachers to support the needs of language learning in the context of their own classrooms. This creates a chasm of equity and access for our most needy students. However, despite this dangerous trend of unpreparedness, there are promising practices that have begun to emerge for supporting classroom teachers. Instructional coaching is one of them. The objective for this case study on The English Learner Group (TELG) was: (1) to analyze the effect of job-embedded professional development, if any, on English Learner students’ academic achievement as measured by California State Assessments Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) results from the 2017-2018 Academic Year, and (2) to provide Dr. Sam Nofziger, the owner of TELG, with specific insights into the perceptions of his employees and the school districts TELG has served. There were four noteworthy findings which included an increase of ELL growth as measured by the SBAC and a decrease in the achievement gap between ELLs and English Only students as measured by the SBAC. It is important to note that this case study was submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements in class EDL 561 with the Collaborative Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership (CODEL) program. CODEL is a joint Ed.D. program with California State University, Fresno and CSU Channel Islands. This project was initially conducted by doctoral students: Phyllis Grillo, Jazzie Murphy, Lauren Odell, and Lilia Ruvalcaba. Statistical analysis was performed by Ms. Ruvalcaba. The project was significantly edited and submitted for the purposes of CLEAR by Lauren Odell.
Uncharted Territory: The Nexus Between Doctoral Education and Community-based Learning
Full text linkOne of the continual challenges facing professors who prepare TK-12 school leaders through the professional educational doctorate (Ed.D. degree), is ensuring a theory-to-practice framework, curriculum, and pedagogy. Furthermore, professors of doctoral programs whose orientation is social justice, often face the dilemma of how to infuse it as a cross-cutting issue with the theory-practice paradigm. Community-based learning (CBL), when embedded with social justice claims, can serve as a bridge between theory and practice, providing doctoral students with opportunities to achieve both goals. This qualitative case study engaged with this dilemma by investigating the efficacy of a community-based learning component that had been infused into a core doctoral leadership course. Through interviews with doctoral students, we sought to understand their perception of its connection to the program’s social justice orientation, as well as the benefits, challenges, and recommendations for the efficacy of community-based learning. Students’ input guided future course revisions that establish a clearer relationship among social justice themes, the program’s learning outcomes, and the theory-praxis paradigm.
The Chicana/o/x Promise: Testimonios of Educational Empowerment through the Enactment of La Facultad among First-Generation College Students
Full text linkThis article explores how Chicana/o/x[i] first-generation college students navigate through the educational realm that is built upon coloniality. Drawing on four testimonios, we show how multiplicative forms of marginalization to which Chicana/o/x college students are subject inform their academic trajectory and empowerment. The article focuses on four main sources of oppression—class (capitalism), familial immigrant documentation status (racist nativism), disability (ableism), and sexuality (heteronormativity)—and how Chicana/o/x students turn them into sources of self- and community- empowerment. Employing Chicana feminist perspectives and intersectional approaches further allows us to reveal sociopolitical and cultural processes that limits Chicana/o/x students’ access to resources and opportunities and how these processes inform the ways in which these individuals proactively achieve and represent the Chicana/o/x Promiseof hope, resistance, and success.
