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Ed.D. Research
This page is dedicated to showcasing the research and scholarship of our faculty, alumni, current students, and community partners. Here, you will find a wealth of information that demonstrates the intellectual vitality of our academic community. We are pleased to feature a wide range of research articles written by our faculty and alumni.
Be sure to review our Faculty Research Profiles page, which includes video statements from our faculty members, providing a unique insight into their areas of expertise and research interests. Ed.D. Faculty Research Profiles page
Latest Ed.D. Research
Recent publications by Ed.D. Faculty, Alumni, Current Students, and Partners.
Listed in order of submission date.
| Title | Author/Editor(s) | Publisher | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| What Matters for Improving the Success Rates of Different Cohorts of Community College Students? | Robert Wassmer, Meredith Galloway | Community College Review, 2023 | Six-year cohort completion rates calculated for California community college students—who declared their goal to obtain a certificate, associate degree, or become university transfer ready—averaged just below 50% for cohorts entering the fall semesters between 2007 and 2011. The range of this completion rate varied from 23% to 67%. This study’s objective is to investigate how institutional choices at a community college influence the completion rates of different types of student cohorts after controlling for factors outside of the college’s control. |
| Distilling pedagogies of critical water studies | Sabati, Sheeva, Linnea Beckett, Kira Cragun-Rehders, Alyssa Najera, Katerina Hise, and Anna Geiger | Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives | Writing as both instructors and students who worked together in the undergraduate course Water Justice, we reflect on the limits and possibilities of engaging in anticolonial teaching-learning practices within the ongoing contexts of settler colonialism and racial violence that shapes universities. We describe how we designed Water Justice as a place-based, anticolonial research collaboration, and focus on how students grappled with the substantive and affective dimensions of their (un)learning process. Together, we illustrate the tensions and possibilities of anticolonial approaches to undergraduate education. |
| It’s who you know: Caregiver social networks predict service use among under-resourced children with autism | Amanda Gulsrud, Hyon Soo Lee, Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick, Suzannah Iadarola, Melanie Pellecchia, Wendy Shih, Sarah Vejnoska, Elizabeth H. Morgan, Samantha Hochheimer, Samantha Crabbe, Jennica Li, Lindsay Hauptman, Fernanda Castellon, Heather Nuske, Consuelo Garcia, Rachel King, Paul Luelmo, Kathleen Carley, Tristram Smith, David Mandell, Connie Kasari,Aubyn C. Stahmer | Science Direct | Numerous studies have shown that racial/ethnic minority and under-resourced families face barriers that delay timely access to autism services. These barriers include lack of resources and information about autism, financial hardship, mistrust in the service system, cultural and language mismatch, and other factors that have yet to be identified. |
| Ethnic Studies professional development | Dale Allender | CSBA | After four years, more than 100,000 public comments and three field reviews, the California State Board of Education adopted the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum on March 18, 2021. For districts looking to create and support ethnic studies courses, teacher professional development will be an important element in implementation. |
| Does a Greater Presence of Latinx* Faculty or Administrators Raise the Completion Rates of Various Cohorts of Community College Students? | Robert Wassmer & Meredith Galloway | ~ | Though California Latinx students are over-represented in the state’s community college system, they are under-represented in its success measures. At the same time, on nearly all California Community College campuses, Latinx faculty and administrators are underrepresented compared to Latinx students. Using panel data collected from 108 California community colleges, we look for evidence regarding the expected influence of increasing the presence of Latinx faculty or administrators on student six-year cohort completion rates. Student completion occurs within six years of starting if one or more of the following occurs: a certificate, an associate degree, or university transfer/transfer ready status. We measure completion rates for all students, only Latinx students, and sub-samples of these two cohort types divided by economic advantage or college preparation. Based on panel-data regression analysis, a one-percentage-point increase in Latinx faculty or Latinx administrators' representation exerts a positive influence on nearly all cohort completion rates. |
| Narratives of single, black mothers using cultural capital to access autism interventions in schools | Elizabeth Holliday Morgan & Aubyn C. Stahmer | Taylor & Francis | Lack of access to autism treatment has deepened the disparities for Black children with ASD. Limited resources and lack of advocacy skills in Black families are reasons given for these service gaps but a need to identify mechanisms that support Black families access to treatment for their children have yet to be investigated. This paper explores the forms of cultural capital single Black mothers use to advocate for their children with autism in schools in the US. Using a Thematic Analysis, interviews were coded for several domains of cultural capital found in the literature, including aspirational, familial, social, linguistic, resistant, navigational, motherhood and black cultural capital. Mothers in the study predominately provided examples of resistant and navigational capital. Additionally, mothers were more likely to use their capital to impact services for their child, when schools engaged in family-centered practice. |
| Conducting School Suicide Risk Assessment in Distance Learning Environments | Stephen E. Brock, Richard Lieberman, Melinda A. Cruz & Robert Coad | Springer Link | The social distancing mandate, implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, has guided many schools to deliver instruction via distance learning. Among the many challenges generated by this delivery system is the need for school mental health services, including school suicide prevention and intervention, to be conducted remotely. After briefly discussing the magnitude of the problem of youth suicide and how the COVID-19 pandemic has likely increased risk for youth suicidal ideation and behaviors, this article provides guidance on how school systems can prepare for and conduct suicide risk assessments in distance learning environments. |
| What Type of Leadership is Needed Now? | Carlos Nevarez | Rutgers, Samuel Dewit Proctor Insitute | Higher education leadership is complex, convoluted, and dynamic. It involves dealing with fluctuating resources; tenuous relationships with faculty and governing boards; financial uncertainties; and confronting unprecedented crises (e.g., COVID-19, calls forsocial justice, etc.) In light of these challenges, higher education leaders are asked to exemplify sound leadership that involves working toward institutional stability and creating a culture of student success in a climate that is seemingly unpredictable and undeniably fluid. |
| The Wisdom of and Science behind Indigenous Cultural Practices | Rose Borunda, Amy Murry | Genealogy | Conquest and colonization have systematically disrupted the processes by which Indigenous communities of the Americas transmit cultural knowledge and practices from one generation to the next. Even today, the extended arm of conquest and colonization that sustain oppression and culturicide continue to inflict trauma upon Indigenous people. Yet, current scientific research now attests to how Indigenous cultural practices promote healing and well-being within physical as well as mental health domains. This examination addresses Indigenous cultural practices related to storytelling, music, and dance. In drawing from evidence-based research, the case is made for not only restoring these practices where they have been disrupted for Indigenous people but that they have value for all people. The authors recommend reintroducing their use as a means to promote physical, spiritual, and mental well-being while recognizing that these practices originated from and exist for Indigenous people |
| “I can only put together thoughts filed away in my brain: Who would pay me to do that?” | Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner | JSTOR | Invited to write about how her creativity led to the development and broad impact of her body of research on diversity in higher education, Caroline Turner employs a series of life journey vignettes to narrate a growing awareness of her insights which led her to pursue an academic journey and to empirically explore the lived experiences of other minoritized students and faculty. |
| An examination of classes of school climate perceptions among Latinx middle school students | Lisa S.Romero, Meagan D. O'Malley | Journal of School Psychology | Several studies have replicated the finding that Latinx students tend to have less favorable perceptions of school climate than their White peers. However, because most research compares Latinx students to a White standard, little is known about variation within the Latinx group and thus the opportunity to produce strength-defining counter-narratives has been missed. Using latent class analysis, this study identified meaningful classes of school climate perceptions within 20,050 Grade 7 Latinx students in California. |
| American State Ballot Initiatives and Income Inequality | Joshua J. Dyck, Wesley Hussey, Edward L. Lascher, Jr. | Cogitatio Press | Some have argued that the ballot initiative process prevalent in many American states might lower inequality. We contend this is improbable based on what is known about whether expansion of democracy leads to redistribution, the attitudes of citizens, and the characteristics of the initiative process. Nevertheless, the proposition needs testing. We examine three types of evidence. Our analyses consistently indicate that the ballot initiative process fails to reduce income inequality. |