This Issue: Exploring Math Equity in Higher Education
2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pullias Center for Higher Education. The first guest editor of our newsletter for this milestone year is our own Tatiana Melguizo . She is an associate professor at the USC Rossier School of Education who works in the field of economics of higher education. Her research has a focus on math equity in general and her latest topic of interest is AB705, the game-changing legislation in California that may reshape math equity at community colleges across the state. Her edition of our newsletter begins with a dive into math equity and this new law following a very special reflection on 25 years of the Pullias Center from the man who started the whole thing...Dr. William G. Tierney.
University Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of The Pullias Center
I came to USC from Penn State in 1994. At Penn State I was in one of the most prestigious postsecondary centers in the country – the “Center for the Study of Higher Education.” A center devoted specifically to the study of a topic enables intellectual cohesion in the way a department or division does not. Departments and divisions certainly can be useful building blocks for academic strengths, but I wanted to focus on the study of higher education. 

For the first year, in 1995, I was the Center for Higher Education at USC. I had a secretary, a grad assistant, and an empty set of offices on the 7 th floor in Waite Phillips Hall. We then hired Estela Bensimon and additional faculty and staff followed.

A substantial majority of low-income, first-generation and racially minoritized students begin their college journeys in community colleges. Rigorous empirical research nationwide has documented that a major road block for community college students to earn a certificate, an associate degree (AA), or transfer to a four-year college is placement in developmental math and English courses. There is a plethora of research documenting that students are not benefiting from these courses and they might be better off if they are placed directly in college-level math and English courses with different levels of academic supports.

California recently passed Assembly Bill 705 (AB705), a regulation recommending community colleges to do just that. This is, in my opinion and the opinion of many, one of the most ground-breaking higher education policies in the past decade. My team at the Pullias Center is...

In December, 2019, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners gathered at the University of Southern California for a full-day Math Equity Convening hosted by the Pullias Center for Higher Education and facilitated by the center’s own Dr. Tatiana Melguizo to discuss developmental education policies in Los Angeles community colleges and how colleges can successfully adapt to the new demands of AB705....

The Pullias Center for Higher Education has been awarded an approximately $400k Spencer Foundation grant. The grant will fund the “Examining Implementation of a State Mandate to End Remediation in Community Colleges: A Research-Practitioner Partnership” project over 2.5 years. 

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has played a pivotal role in the Pullias Center's efforts to understand and achieve math equity in Higher Education. NASEM is made up of private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world. Their work helps shape sound policies, inform public opinion, and advance the pursuit of science, engineering, and medicine.

The work of the National Academies spurs progress by connecting understandings of science, engineering, and medicine to advising national policies and practice. Their studies have lasting impacts, from guiding NASA’s agenda for space exploration, to charting the course for improving the quality of health care, to proposing effective strategies to guard against cyberattacks.

The issue of racial equity will be front and center for the 42nd Pullias Lecture, which takes place on Thursday, March 12, 2020, at the University of Southern California.

Speakers Tia Brown McNair from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Kaiwipuni Lipe from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoawill will discuss "Advancing Racial Equity through Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers."

Registration for this free event is now open...

Pullias in the Media
The Projects and People Making News

Dr. Melguizo's Recommended Reads
4 Things to Add to Your Reading List from our Guest Editor

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Sanchez, A. M. (2017). Scruffy and the egg. Los Angeles: Puppy & Sparrow.

Llosa, M. V., & Grossman, E. (2002). The Feast of the Goat / Mario Vargas Llosa ; translation from the Spainsh by Edith Grossman. London: Faber and faber.
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Graeber, D. (2019, December 5). Against Economics. The New York Review of Books.
Quick Takes
Additional Pullias Center News

  • The 2019 winners of the Delphi Award from Santa Monica College and Penn State University will receive their award and be featured on a panel moderated by Adriana Kezar, Director of The Pullias Center, at the Association of American Colleges & Universities 2020 Conference in Washington DC on January 23. Check next month's newsletter for a recap.
  • Current and prior winners of the Delphi Award will participate in a special webinar hosted by AAC&U to discuss their successes and challenges in supporting contingent, non-tenure-track, and adjunct faculty on March 31. Save the date and stay tuned for details.
  • Listen to our own Julie Posselt discuss "Higher Education Administration for Social Justice and Equity," the book she co-edited with Pullias Center Director Adrianna Kezar, on the latest American Council on Education podcast out now.
The Pullias Center Newsletter will return in February with Guest Editor Zoe Corwin and the latest on the "State of Skate" skateboarding study.