Achieving Racial Equity From the Bottom-Up? The Student Equity Policy in the California Community Colleges

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 819-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl D. Ching ◽  
Eric R. Felix ◽  
Marlon Fernandez Castro ◽  
Adrián Trinidad
Keyword(s):  
Community Colleges ◽  
California Community Colleges ◽  
Racial Equity ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Student Equity ◽  
Early Implementation ◽  
Equity Policy ◽  
Critical Policy

Can equity policies foster success and close the outcome gaps experienced by racially minoritized students in community colleges? Using a critical policy analysis and equity-mindedness framework, we examine whether and how the design and early implementation of one such policy—the California Community Colleges’ Student Equity Policy—addresses racial equity. Findings show that attention to race and racial equity diminished over time in state policy documents, and varied widely in colleges’ response to the policy, suggesting that its potential to tackle racial inequities is so far unexploited. Implications are discussed and recommendations for policy, practice, and research are proposed.

scholarly journals Using State-Equity Reform to Improve Latinx Student Transfer

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Felix
Keyword(s):  
Community Colleges ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Student Transfer ◽  
Institutional Planning ◽  
Equity Policy ◽  
Hispanic Serving ◽  
Four Year Institutions ◽  
Ethnic Students ◽  
Critical Policy

This article focuses on Latinx transfer inequity and the role of state policy in addressing barriers faced trying to move from community college to four-year institutions. A recently passed initiative in California, known as the Student Equity Policy, offers community colleges the opportunity to address transfer barriers for racial/ethnic students through institutional planning. One of the largest challenges facing California Community Colleges are the persistent inequitable rates of transfer for Latinx students, the largest ethnic group in the system. Using critical policy analysis, I examined a subset of 33 Hispanic-serving community colleges to understand how they leveraged the policy to address the transfer barriers facing Latinx students. By examining equity plans, this study finds that although Latinx students are identified as facing disproportionate levels of inequity; the policy, planning process, and funding resources were left as unexploited opportunities to address Latinx students’ specific equity gaps.

scholarly journals Self-inflicted. Deliberate. Death-intentioned. A critical policy analysis of UK suicide prevention policies 2009-2019

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Marzetti ◽  
Alexander Oaten ◽  
Amy Chandler ◽  
Ana Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Prevention Policies ◽  
Critical Policy

Purpose With encouragement from the World Health Organisation, national suicide prevention policies have come to be regarded as an essential component of the global effort to reduce suicide. However, despite their global significance, the construction, conceptualisation and proposed provisions offered in suicide prevention policies have, to date, been under researched; this study aims to address this gap. Design/methodology/approach we critically analysed eight contemporary UK suicide prevention policy documents in use in all four nations of the UK between 2009 and 2019, using Bacchi and Goodwin’s post-structural critical policy analysis. Findings The authors argue that across this sample of suicide prevention policies, suicide is constructed as self-inflicted, deliberate and death-intentioned. Consequently, these supposedly neutral definitions of suicide have some significant and problematic effects, often individualising, pathologising and depoliticising suicide in ways that dislocate suicides from the emotional worlds in which they occur. Accordingly, although suicide prevention policies have the potential to think beyond the boundaries of clinical practice, and consider suicide prevention more holistically, the policies in this sample take a relatively narrow focus, often reducing suicide to a single momentary act and centring death prevention at the expense of considering ways to make individual lives more liveable. Originality/value UK suicide prevention policies have not been subject to critical analysis; to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to examine the way in which suicide is constructed in UK suicide prevention policy documents.

scholarly journals Planning as strategy for improving Black and Latinx student equity: Lessons from nine California community colleges

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Eric R. Felix ◽  
Marlon Fernandez Castro
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
State Level ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Community College District ◽  
Student Equity ◽  
College System ◽  
Higher Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy

In 2014, California policymakers passed the Student Equity Plans (SEP) policy to address disparities in the community college system. The reform effort formalized a campus-wide planning effort that required institutions to examine their data for disparities, develop goals and strategies to mitigate identified inequities, and use new fiscal resources to realize their plans. In recent years, there has been an increase in the enactment of state-level higher education policies, but few, if any, have focused on the notion of equity or explicitly named racial and ethnic groups as policy beneficiaries. This study examines nine student equity plans in the state’s largest community college district. Drawing upon critical policy analysis, we place a focus on understanding if, and how, the planning process was used to address inequities facing Black and Latinx students. Based on our analysis we found several themes on how plans identified and address barriers facing Black and Latinx students. After examining 178 equity activities, we found only 28 promising activities that explicitly targeted Black and Latinx students with culturally relevant, data-driven, evidence-based strategies. These findings have compelling implications for policymakers seeking to develop reform efforts and institutions using policy to address current and historic inequities faced by Black and Latinx students. The use of planning for improvement is commonplace in educational policy, but we find that more training and capacity-building efforts are necessary to use planning as an opportunity to address racial inequity in community college.

Improving Racial Equity in Community College: Developing a Plan, Implementing the Vision

2021 ◽  
pp. 016237372199672
Author(s):  
Eric R. Felix
Keyword(s):  
Critical Mass ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Racial Equity ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
Student Equity ◽  
Equity Policy ◽  
Ethnic Students ◽  
Racial Ethnic

California policymakers passed the Student Equity Policy, requiring all community colleges to develop a “student equity plan” that identified outcome disparities for select student groups, including racial/ethnic students. Through an instrumental case study, I examined Huerta College because their equity plan stood out for its focus on addressing Latinx transfer inequity. I spent two years interviewing implementers, observing equity meetings, and collecting documents that served as artifacts of implementation. Key to equity planning was a critical mass of Latinx practitioners able to see the policy as an opportunity to tackle one of the greatest inequities on their campus, Latinx transfer. They used the implementation process to propose new projects that would support Latinx students in their journey to transfer from Huerta.

The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP): Challenge or opportunity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Judith Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Learning Progressions ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Critical Policy

This article provides an overview and critical analysis of The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) (Ministry of Education, 2008). Identifying main themes through critical policy analysis, this review seeks to place ELLP in context through a comparison with The English Language Learning Framework: Draft (Ministry of Education, 2005) and English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP ) Pathway Years 1–8 (Ministry of Education, 2020a). Within this review, the structure of ELLP is explored along with key ideas and claims. It is argued that there are both challenges and opportunities in ELLP. Finally, the key issues are summarised and suggestions are made for future research.

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