A grant from the National Science Foundation will enable faculty and administrators to bring holistic graduate admissions practices to six California universities. Read a few graduate school mission statements, and you’ll find the words “equity” and “diversity” pop up a lot. In fact, for many universities, equity and diversity have been explicit institutional goals for decades. Yet many graduate education […]
Congratulations to Elizabeth Holcombe, research assistant at the USC Pullias Center for Higher Education, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on August 9, 2018! Titled “Assessment and Teaching Improvement in Higher Education: Investigating an Unproven Link,” Holcombe’s dissertation studies whether research universities’ efforts to assess the knowledge and abilities students gain through their college experiences shapes teaching and learning environments. While […]
When academic and student affairs departments work together, first-year STEM students achieve greater success, a study finds. Full article HTML | Full article PDF A first-generation college student wants to major in math—but enrolls in the wrong course because her academic advisor isn’t familiar with the math sequence. Once classes begin, the student doesn’t understand what faculty office hours are—and so never […]
Once a student in Advanced Placement classes, Pullias research assistant Suneal Kolluri now studies the AP program. Abstract | Full article HTML | Full article PDF Eighteen years ago, Suneal Kolluri was a senior at Homestead High School in Cupertino, Calif., taking a few Advanced Placement classes to earn college credits. In many ways, he became a success story for the AP program. He […]
This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center co-director William G. Tierney, was originally published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 8, 2018. Until his sudden downfall, C.L. Max Nikias enjoyed an extraordinarily successful presidency at the University of Southern California. During his eight-year tenure, he raised over $6 billion in a capital campaign, opening a new campus in record time. […]
Are you passionate about education research that’s closely tied to real-life practice? Would you like to be part of a multi-campus team, collaborating with researchers at USC, UCLA and Claremont Graduate University—as well as practitioners at Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles Community College District—to improve public education outcomes? Come work as a postdoctoral scholar at the Pullias Center […]
A study highlights the tensions and aspirations that shape the goals of black, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander students. Abstract | Full article HTML | Full article PDF Some teenagers take it for granted they’ll go on to college after graduating from high school. But for others—especially first-generation students from minoritized groups—the choice to pursue college can seem a daunting task. From learning […]
A new report by Pullias co-director Adrianna Kezar shows how to scale improvements in STEM learning. Student-centered, evidence-based, and effective. Those are the qualities of best teaching practices that have been touted by STEM education experts for years. Yet still today, many professors have not adopted such practices in their classrooms, and STEM instruction has been reforming at a snail’s […]
A study shows the positive impact of a close-knit, supportive learning community on student success. Abstract | Full article HTML | Full article PDF Are high school students more likely to succeed—both in school and in the workplace—if their studies are more closely linked to real-life careers? Although statistics have shown that students in career academies are less likely to dropout of high school […]
This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center research assistant Suneal Kolluri, was originally published in The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet on July 19, 2018. The Advanced Placement program is engaged in a tenuous balancing act. The program aims to serve more students from marginalized backgrounds whose schooling experiences have exposed them to few rigorous learning opportunities. At the same time, it seeks to […]