USC Rossier Magazine: Winter/Spring 2023

Research for Equity: From Theory to the Classroom

Creating solutions to elevate equity across education

USC Rossier revised its mission in 2017 to emphasize equity, not only to better capture the work that our faculty, staff, students and alumni were already doing, but to make a commitment that future scholarship would directly focus on improving outcomes for all students. At USC Rossier, equity is more than a buzzword: It is the underlying framework that informs everything we do.

As a school of education, our faculty is dedicated to conducting research that advances educational equity and access, and to bringing research-based ideas into classrooms, schools and colleges. We are developing, testing and scaling solutions that meaningfully increase equity at every level of education, from transitional kindergarten to graduate school. In this special double issue of USC Rossier Magazine, we will look at how USC Rossier research projects are being put into practice to create equitable learning environments where all students can thrive.

A young student in a cardinal and gold USC sweatshirt works at a laptop.
Dean's Byline

USC Rossier promotes ambitious agenda to help schools

Dean Pedro Noguera outlines five projects enabling USC Rossier to 'respond effectively' to challenges.

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Features

Lead pic for Social Emotional Learning feature

Social-Emotional Learning gets its moment in the spotlight

The work of USC Rossier’s Mary Helen Immordino-Yang shows how schools can embrace SEL, a new interdisciplinary science of development, culture and neuroscience.

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Photographic illustration of Allyson Felix.

Allyson Felix is not done

The Olympic great and USC Rossier grad is retired but staying busy with a new shoe company, elevating athletes’ voices and empowering women.

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SEEDS feature primary

USC students teach STEM to middle-schoolers, using a game

A new research project led by Darnell Cole explores the impact of multigenerational STEM mentoring on L.A. middle schoolers.

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An illustration of a group of faculty gesture toward an open door.

USC Rossier aims to diversify pipeline of future educators

How faculty are leading the way to bring equity-minded change to graduate education.

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Shaun Harper

USC Race and Equity Center seeks to ‘illuminate, disrupt and dismantle’ racism

Led by Shaun Harper, the Center is teaching business leaders, educators and administrators how to better serve their communities with evidence-based strategies to advance equity.

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Lead pic for Learning Interrupted feature.

What can we do about COVID-related learning loss?

What research-backed methods can educators use to put our nation’s schoolchildren back on track?

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Two students read books side by side in an elementary school classroom.
Tips for Educators

How can schools better serve the needs of secondary English learners?

USC Rossier professor Eugenia Mora-Flores on why supporting ELs is everyone’s responsibility.

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Illustration of a football player dressed in a dollar bill.
Opinion

NIL era creates opportunity, challenges for athletes

Changes to rules governing intercollegiate athletics bring challenges and promise for student athletes.

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Illustration of USC Rossier professor Chris Emdin.
In Conversation

How do you combine hip-hop music and science teaching?

USC Rossier Professor Chris Emdin on working in service to youth, teaching as performance art and hip-hop’s transferable skills.

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Illustration of Superintendent Albert Carvalho and Dean Pedro Noguera.
In Conversation

Alberto Carvalho has arrived in L.A.with plans to make LAUSD the premier district in the U.S.

Superintendent Carvalho and Dean Noguera discuss what’s different about LAUSD, the district’s new approach to centralization, and the importance of enrolling L.A.’s youngest students.

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News

Illustration of students sitting at a table with tablets, laptops and books forming an image of the Earth.

USC Rossier's Gale Sinatra fights science denial

NSF grant will fund Sinatra’s research on instructional methods to improve students’ evaluation of online sources.

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Kate Rodgers stands in front of the Alamo.

Global EdD student commits to retelling the story of the Alamo—the good, the bad and the ugly

As executive director of the Alamo Trust, Kate Rogers is putting her research on contested histories into practice.

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Dean Noguera launched the USC Rossier Educational Equity Initiative with supporters Julie and Gary Crisp, Carol Fox MS ’62, Mary James and Reveta Franklin Bowers BA ’70.

Everything you need to know about the USC Rossier Educational Equity Initiative

The ambitious plan consists of five projects designed to reinvent education so it's responsive to the needs of every learner.

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Alumni Stories

Illustration of four students crossing an erased border drawn on a chalkboard

Not even threats deter S.D. County superintendent

Paul Gothold EdD ’17 aims to improve conditions for all students, including migrant and transborder students.

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James Hu

USC Rossier alumnus James Hu launches leadership training program for physicians

James Hu MD, EdD ’21 turned to USC Rossier’s OCL program to help facilitate systemic change at Keck Medicine.

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SaidahLeatutufu-Burch

This OCL grad is bringing a reformer’s zeal to government service

As director of the Dream Keeper Initiative, Saidah Leatutufu-Burch EdD ’21 is leading efforts to promote prosperity in San Francisco’s Black communities.

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Castro-DiNinni

Two USC Rossier grads partner to reimagine military training

Victor Castro MEd ’19 and Richard DiNinni EdD ’22 are creating new educational programs at West Point that blend virtual reality and game-based training technologies with research-based pedagogy.

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