In the fall of 2024, members of the Critical Policy Collective, a group of USC Rossier PhD students, a USC Dornsife PhD student and a USC Rossier postdoctoral fellow traveled to Washington, D.C. with professors Kendrick Davis and Dwuana Bradley to attend the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Convention. The group met with think tanks, congressional staff and community organizations to exchange ideas on ways to advance the well-being and educational outcomes of Black students across the nation.
The student and faculty returned home to California, brimming with ideas on how to effect change on some of the most vexing policy issues facing education. The trip marked the first official activity of the Critical Policy Collective (CPC), which the students and faculty formed to formalize the group’s natural way of sharing resources and skills and collaborating.
The CPC aims to center student leadership in policy engagement, and the CPC faculty leader, Professor of Research Kendrick Davis, provides support and guidance to members while ensuring a collaborative environment.
Meet the students
Alvin Makori, a PhD student at USC Rossier and a USC Provost Fellow, says that it was Davis’s leadership that made him want to join the group. “He is so widely read and aware of how research shapes policy,” Makori says. Makori had also been a part of the USC Rossier Black Student Collective since starting his doctoral studies in 2022, and many of his peers were also joining the CPC. The group has given them all a way to “extend that camaraderie to a more formal research space,” says Makori, which is especially helpful to the young scholar who will graduate this spring.
Fellow USC Rossier PhD student Desiree O’Neal, who will also graduate this spring, joined for many of the same reasons as Makori. She sees the CPC as a space where she can ask critical questions. While O’Neal has worked in education since graduating from Spelman College, where she studied political science, she didn’t originally envision herself enrolling in a PhD program. She started her career in education as a teacher through the Teach For America program. The experience was “a rollercoaster,” she says, and two of the three schools she worked at have since been shut down. While pursuing her master’s degree in educational policy at Columbia University’s Teachers College, she found herself asking questions that often didn’t have answers. These critical questions drive her current research in education policy, a field she describes as “the systems and structures and written rules that discuss how we regulate our schooling system at large,” O’Neal says. These policies “impact everyone and shape how people experience schooling, for better or for worse.
For first-generation scholar and USC Provost’s Fellow, Mya Haynes, the collective offered her an opportunity to get involved in research opportunities at USC. Haynes, who entered USC Rossier’s PhD program in 2023, studies the experience of Black students and faculty in higher education. The CPC has helped her gain hands-on experience in writing policy briefs, op-eds and applying for research grants and fellowships. She has found that fellow CPC members really care about highlighting and celebrating each other’s strengths.
While the group has created a vital space for these like-minded scholars to gather, exchange ideas and collaborate on research, the CPC is organized around a critical goal. “The CPC exists to examine how education policy distributes access and withholds. Through rigorous, justice-centered research and community-rooted foundations, our research is designed to inform, provoke and equip educators,” says Professor of Research Kendrick Davis.
One of the group's first steps to achieve these goals has been through the publication of its inaugural set of policy reports.
The policy reports
In 2025, the CPC issued a series of policy reports, born out of their trip to Washington, D.C., to address a set of interconnected policy issues that aligned with the group’s research expertise and the need for more digestible information on complex topics. The collective’s goals for the reports are to make them as accessible as possible while also providing a comprehensive overview of some of the most urgent issues in education.
“Number one, these reports are for policymakers,” Makori says. The group aims to connect with state policy leaders and join the conversations that drive policy decisions. O’Neal stresses that the reports are solutions-oriented, and each report includes applicable recommendations for policymakers.
For this first trio of reports, the collective chose to focus on K–12 funding, chronic absenteeism, and challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in higher education.
'The Cost of Equity'
The first report, “The Cost of Equity: Exploring Recent K–12 Federal and State Funding Shifts and Their Impact on Black Students,” provides historical information on how public education in California is funded, examines recent changes to funding policies and their effect on Black students. The author’s lead author is Desiree O’Neal.
In the report, O’Neal and her co-authors provide a primer on the history of California’s complex education funding policies and how the state has changed its policies to work toward a more equitable distribution of funds. Public schools, O’Neal explains, rely on a combination of federal, state and local funds. Local funds, which make up a little over 30% of funds in California, are primarily funded by property taxes, which show the “structural barriers at play,” O’Neal says. Property values can be traced back to redlining, she explains, which has resulted in schools in poorer neighborhoods receiving less funding.
The report includes an analysis of some of California’s recent funding policy changes, including the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which was established in 2013 to mitigate inequities and significantly changed how education funds are distributed. With the LCFF, “the state has streamlined funding, allocated additional resources to high-need students and increased spending flexibility for local Districts,” O’Neal explains in the report.
O’Neal and her co-authors also examine other policies in the report, such as the Black Student Achievement Plan, established by the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2021, and the shortfalls of the LCFF, including its attendance-based funding formula.
“Like many states, California has historically funded public schools primarily based on attendance figures rather than enrollment or student need,” O’Neal says. “A substantial body of research and advocacy has raised concerns that attendance-based funding can perpetuate or exacerbate inequities, especially in districts with higher proportions of Black students, low-income students, English learners, and foster youth, because lower attendance directly reduces the funds schools receive, and these communities tend to be the ones with the greatest need.”
SB 98, a recently enacted bill aimed at reevaluating the current funding formula that calculates per-pupil funding based on attendance, is also discussed. The bill requires schools to submit reports that provide data on how enrollment-based funding would impact funding. Shifting to an enrollment-based funding structure would likely lead to a more equitable distribution of funds. O’Neal is hopeful that the data gained via SB 98 will help drive meaningful reform. “If the Legislative Analyst’s Office findings suggest that enrollment-based funding would stabilize resources for high-need districts and reduce inequitable funding losses tied to absenteeism, lawmakers could pursue broader reforms,” O’Neal says. “I believe that would be a step in the right direction, though it would require additional legislation.”
Included in the report is a section of detailed policy recommendations, from moving toward an enrollment-based funding formula to reducing reliance on property taxes for funding.
“This report is really intended for all actors and stakeholders, especially those who are committed to improving conditions for student populations that have often been neglected by our current education system. It’s important to advance policies to reduce structural inequities and educational disparities, and to ensure that those most affected are meaningfully included in shaping these policies,” O’Neal says.
'Combating Chronic Absenteeism'
The CPC’s second policy report, “Combating Chronic Absenteeism: Examining California’s Strategies for Addressing a Longstanding National Crisis,” takes up an issue that is closely tied to the state’s funding policies, given that California schools receive funds based on student attendance. The report’s lead author is Alvin Makori, who researched the pandemic’s effect on vulnerable student populations while he was a research assistant at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Makori’s previous work included investigating some of the causes of chronic absenteeism, so he was already quite familiar with the topic. In this report, he and his co-authors provide an overview of the crisis, an analysis of current state strategies to address it and policy recommendations.
Chronic absenteeism, which Makori and his co-authors define as “when a student misses at least 10% of school days for any reason,” has surged post-pandemic and disproportionately affects students experiencing homelessness, foster youth and Black and Pacific Islander students. The report unpacks this issue and provides much-needed information on the causes behind it. Makori hopes that readers will develop a better understanding of chronic absenteeism and, most importantly, understand that “it’s not the fault of the student or the family,” Makori says. “They are not the problem that needs to be solved. This is a systemic issue that affects historically marginalized students.”
Makori highlights innovative strategies that can help tackle the deep-rooted problem in the report. Rather than punitive measures like turning to truancy courts, schools can increase transportation options and provide wrap-around services like food assistance and counseling to help students and their families.
Among the policy recommendations in the report are better data collection and reporting for school districts; introducing adaptable and flexible attendance options that meet students where they are, literally; and shifting to enrollment-based funding models that can help schools invest in comprehensive strategies to address chronic absenteeism.
'DEI Under Fire'
Diversity, equity and inclusion offices have been under the microscope in both K–12 and higher education in recent years, and the third report issued by the CPC in 2025 focuses on how this is impacting universities and colleges across the country. Lead author Mya Haynes has always been interested in the subject, and one of the things that initially compelled her to continue her studies in education was the fact that, during her undergraduate studies, she “didn’t see myself reflected in the classes I was most excited about.” Haynes believes it’s important for Black students to see themselves reflected in the faculty teaching their classes. Her research includes studies of student-faculty interactions, and she’s closely followed the evolving public discourse and legislative activity around DEI in education. As one of the most popular, contentious and misunderstood topics, issuing a report focused on DEI was essential to the group.
“DEI Under Fire: Politics, Policies, and the Future of Campus Diversity” provides a detailed overview of policy trends across multiple states and how these policies might impact higher education institutions' commitment to equity. The report includes a detailed list of states with legislative activity, which includes all available data at the time of the report’s publication.
It also provides analysis about states that have enacted some form of anti-DEI legislation, from barring DEI training to the dismantling of DEI offices. Haynes notes that states where DEI restrictions have been introduced but not enacted also warrant attention. For instance, Missouri has introduced 15 anti-DEI bills. Although none have passed, Missouri is one example of how legislative activity can signal shifting priorities around diversity initiatives in higher education.
Like the other two previous reports, this one also includes recommendations for future research on the topic, policy recommendations and practice recommendations for those on the ground at impacted institutions. For faculty and staff working in higher education, Haynes stresses the importance of continuing to “cultivate environments that affirm students’ identities and let them know they matter and belong,” despite any legislative or policy changes.
What’s next
Throughout her time at USC Rossier, Mya Haynes says that Professor Kendrick Davis often refers to students as Dr. It’s a small gesture that reminds students that “there is something waiting for us at the end of the program,” Haynes says. Haynes recently passed her qualifying defense, and after completing her dissertation and graduating, she is interested in pursuing either a faculty position or a role at a policy research center.
Both Desiree O’Neal and Alvin Makori will walk this May. O’Neal plans to pursue a tenure-track faculty position. “Being a professor is the best of both worlds,” she says. It’s a role where she will be able to continue her research while mentoring students.
Makori also plans to enter academia after graduating. “I want to be a professor and continue my community-engaged work,” he says. Down the road, he could also see himself taking on an administrative leadership role at a university. Entering politics is also a possibility for him.
As for the Critical Policy Collective, the group plans to continue connecting with local and state policymakers on the most pressing issues in K–12 and higher education through the publication of empirical articles and op-eds, as well as public events. Most recently, the CPC has branched into federal regulatory policy, submitting a public comment to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from the U.S. Department of Education. The new rule “would eliminate Graduate PLUS loans and impose new caps on federal borrowing for graduate and professional students under Title IV of the Higher Education Act,” Davis explains.
While Haynes, O’Neal and Makori will soon become USC Rossier alumni rather than students, all three plan to remain active and involved with the CPC as it continues its work connecting research, policy and practice. “We want our work to remain aligned and connected, no matter where each of us ends up”, says Makori. “We are truly building something special.”
