Reports, Briefs, and Publications


News & Updates


This report examines the impact of taking a math course in twelfth grade on L.A. Unified students’ science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) college course taking and academic achievement. We also investigate whether particular types of math courses (for example, Calculus or Statistics) are especially beneficial for students’ postsecondary success.

LAERI-affiliated researchers blogged about a LAERI brief series exploring L.A. Unified Students’ Pathways to College (see here)

LAERI launched a new project with research collaborators that explores L.A. Unified Students’ Math Pathways from Middle School to College (read Press Release)

L.A. Unified blogged about the collaborative work involved in the Research-Practice Partnership with LAERI to address postsecondary issues in Education Week (see LAUSD blog)

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners attended the 2018 Spencer Foundation Conference in July

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2018 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Education Research Association in New York City, NY (see here and here)

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners presented at the 2018 SREE Spring Conference in Washington, DC.

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2019 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI-affiliated researchers presented at the SREE Spring 2019 Conference in Washington, DC.

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2020 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI-affiliated researchers presented at the 2020 SREE conference

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2021 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI-affiliated researchers presented their paper “Why are some low-income, urban elementary schools more effective than others at improving student learning?” at the 2021 American Educational Research Association meeting

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2022 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI’s Associate Director and Research Affiliate Carrie Miller presented about partnership data infrastructure at the 2022 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI-affiliated researchers Meredith Phillips and Carrie Miller presented their paper “Long-term Consequences of Early Access to Educational Opportunity” at the 2022 American Sociological Association meeting

LAERI Co-Founder and Research Affiliate Kyo Yamashiro shared progress on a collaborative project with Laura Wentworth and Moonhawk Kim examining RPPs in CA at the 2022 AERA conference

LAERI Research Affiliates Lucrecia Santibanez and Kyo Yamashiro shared their research on ethnic studies course-taking in Los Angeles Unified at the 2022 AERA conference

LAERI-affiliated researchers Carrie Miller and Caitlin Ahearn presented their paper, co-authored with Meredith Phillips, “Leaks in the College Access Pipeline: Examining Summer Melt in a Large Urban School District” at the 2023 AERA conference

LAERI Research Affiliates Lucrecia Santibanez and Kyo Yamashiro shared their research on ethnic studies course-taking in Los Angeles Unified at the 2023 AERA conference

LAERI-affiliated researchers and L.A. Unified partners participated in the 2023 NNERPP Annual Forum

LAERI’s Associate Director and Research Affiliate Carrie Miller presented about LAERI’s postsecondary research at the 2023 NNERPP Annual Forum

This report examines the effects of taking math in 12th grade on several academic outcomes, including high school grade point average, A-G course completion, college enrollment, and college persistence. We also investigate whether particular types of math courses (for example, Calculus or Statistics) are especially beneficial for students’ academic success.

This research brief from the LAERI—L.A. Unified research-practice partnership is the second in a series exploring Los Angeles Unified School District’s (L.A. Unified’s) students’ pathways to college. The first brief focused on twelfth graders from the class of 2017 who applied to at least one four-year college. This brief focuses on students from the same class who applied only to community colleges. We describe these students’ educational expectations and explanations for why they did not apply to a four-year college. The data for this brief come from a collaborative effort between LAERI and L.A. Unified to gather information about students’ experiences, behaviors, and supports during the college application process, using the district’s annual survey from the 2016-17 school year.

This research brief from the LAERI Research-Practice Partnership is the first in a series exploring Los Angeles Unified School District’s (L.A. Unified) students’ pathways to college. This brief focuses on students’ survey reports about whether and where they applied to college. It describes the percentage of twelfth graders from the class of 2017 who applied to college, where they applied to college, and how these patterns differed among young men and women and among students from different ethnic/racial backgrounds or academic preparation levels. The data for this brief come from a collaborative effort between LAERI and L.A. Unified to develop survey questions for L.A. Unified’s annual surveys about students’ experiences, behaviors, and supports during the college application process.

This report explores the availability of college readiness supports in LAUSD high schools. We draw on data collected from high school counselors and other organizations to describe the types of available supports and the barriers schools face in providing students the help they need with the college application and financial aid process. We conclude with recommendations for improving college readiness supports throughout the district.

This report, which is the first in-depth analysis of LAUSD graduates’ postsecondary outcomes, links data on college enrollment, persistence, and completion from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) with LAUSD data on students’ high school performance and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our report examines where LAUSD graduates enrolled in college, as well as how college-going outcomes differed across a variety of background characteristics including gender, race/ethnicity, English learner status, family educational background, and students’ academic preparation during high school. We also describe postsecondary outcomes for the subset of LAUSD graduates who were eligible for admission to four-year colleges and offer recommendations for how the Los Angeles community can improve students’ postsecondary success in the future.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves a large majority of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who are struggling academically and are underprepared for high school graduation and college. This article describes the partnership between LAUSD and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute, and how this collaboration endeavors to produce accessible and high quality research to inform pressing problems of practice. The article also presents findings from an ongoing partnership research project analyzing a district policy focused on improving college readiness by aligning high school graduation and college-eligibility requirements. In a cohort that went through high school before the policy became mandatory for all students, less than 1/5 of all students (and 30% of graduates) met the college eligibility criteria. Our findings indicate that academic and behavioral indicators from 8th and 9th grade can help identify for possible intervention students who are not on track to meet these new graduation requirements.