June 2014
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Legislative Aide Irving Torres and John Gardner Fellow Erica Fernandez offered inspiring words at last month's OYE Conference, a youth-led and youth-organized event for 12-to-22-year-old Latinos in Redwood City/North Fair Oaks, CA. Their message to attendees: NEVER GIVE UP!

 
Jonathan Zaff of America's Promise Alliance and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco were co-speakers during an Interactive Lab at the 2014 Building a GradNation Summit. 
 
Our Latest Research

Current College & Career Readiness Projects

BROAD-ACCESS COLLEGES IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY

 

This study focuses on the processes and mechanisms by which San Francisco Bay Area broad-access colleges--including community colleges, for-profit colleges, open access private colleges, and those in the California State University system--have contributed to the production of human capital within Silicon Valley from 1970 to the present day.  

 

CALIFORNIA OFFICE TO REFORM EDUCATION (CORE)

 

The Gardner Center is working with CORE districts to design and implement the new school accountability process, including a School Quality Improvement Index, that will begin a test launch during the 2014-15 school year. 

  

COLLEGE ACCESS FOUNDATION OF CALIFORNIA (CAFC)


The Gardner Center is working with CAFC on two related projects: (1) identifying effective interventions and best practices at the individual and institutional level for boys and young men of color; and (2) increasing the effectiveness of grantees through improved understanding and use of data.

 

ROADTRIP NATION


Roadtrip Nation has engaged the Gardner Center to study the implementation of its program at six San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) Plus schools. 

The results of the implementation study will serve to inform ongoing program improvement and plans for expansion to make Roadtrip Nation available to a larger number of settings and students.

 
College Readiness Indicator Systems (CRIS) Resource Series
More students than ever are enrolling in college after high school, but many are not college-ready. Indicator systems that identify students in need of support are an integral piece of the college-readiness puzzle.

The six-part CRIS RESOURCE SERIES, released on May 1st, builds on lessons learned over the three-year College Readiness Indicator Systems (CRIS) Initiative and offers guidance to schools and districts that aim to develop and enact effective indicator and support systems. 
VIDEO: Introducing the Mission Promise Neighborhood Initiative
The Gardner Center's collaboration with the Mission Promise Neighborhood
Senior Policy Analyst Monika Sanchez and Policy Analyst Laurel Sipes share about an initiative that aims to build a continuum of community services and resources to shepherd children from cradle to college and career and, in turn, make the Mission neighborhood healthier and more successful overall.

 
Studying College Readiness Among Latino & White Students
Dr. Baharav began working at the Gardner Center in April 2014.
An interview with Research Associate Hadar Baharav

What spurred your interest in studying White and Latino students' readiness for college?
I was stunned to learn that many students were failing to succeed in college, as indicated by post-college admission data, such as students' remediation and dropout rates, and students' extended-time-to-degree, despite high schools and admission offices telling them they were ready. This encouraged me to consider college readiness as a comprehensive concept, which expands to include intra- and interpersonal components, and to explore relationships between students' college readiness and college outcomes. In light of the documented gaps between White and Latino students in educational opportunities and outcomes, I decided to examine these relationships comparing White and Latino students using a measurement invariance approach.

What did you learn from studying college readiness in this way?

I've realized the full magnitude a college-supportive high school environment has in helping students develop a whole array of skills and assets that are important for college success. Students who are educated in the absence of a college-going school climate face unfavorable conditions, resulting in cumulative losses: not just the potential loss of a course completion portfolio that is required for college admission, but also the lack of stimulation, support, and information that are necessary for them to develop awareness of college, the aspirations to go to college, the knowledge and information of how to get there, and the intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that will help them apply to college and, once admitted, to successfully progress to graduation.

From a research design perspective, what lessons are you taking away from this study?

My research was accomplished using a national large scale dataset. Large scale quantitative research allows for the specification of complex models and simplifies the investigation of multiple research questions. At the same time, research of this kind is meaningfully constrained by the data and is not sensitive to the unique contexts of individual students and schools.

On a different note, I've learned that, sometimes, it is the simple descriptive statistics that strike a light. To take one example, I found that more than 90% of Latino students who attended a 4-year college immediately after high school went to relatively wealthy high schools, in which 10% or less of the student body received reduced price or free lunch. Only 8.8% of these Latino students attended poor schools, in which more than three-quarters of the students received monetary assistance with lunch. This radical picture did not mirror the White sample.