Spencer Foundation awards $75,000 grant to assistant professor, team
to transform educational systems toward equity
Adriana Villavicencio is leading a pilot vision grant by the Spencer Foundation to develop a research project that is aimed at transforming educational systems toward equity.
By Marc-Anthony Rosas
June 20, 2023
June 20, 2023
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University of California, Irvine School of Education Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio is leading a pilot vision grant by the Spencer Foundation to develop a research project that is aimed at transforming educational systems toward equity, and eventually develop a proposal for Spencer's Transformative Research Grants of up to $3.5 million.
The $75,000 grant will bring researchers and leaders in three multiracial school districts together to develop a research plan based on democratic approaches for developing district diversity and enrollment plans. The project’s vision is to transform how school districts design policy for multiracial realities; advance research and theory on racial justice in multiracial districts; and improve education through diversity and enrollment plans that promote multiracial democracy. |
Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio
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“Public schools are critical sites of debate over what a multiracial democracy can and should look like. Yet, despite decades of research demonstrating that students benefit from integrated learning environments (Johnson, 2019; Mickelson, 2016; Wells et al., 2016), school districts have largely failed to create and sustain schools that reflect our multiracial realities. That failure has only been magnified as the U.S. school-aged population rapidly diversifies (NCES, 2022), making past enrollment and diversity plans insufficient for the populations of the contemporary United States,” stated Villavicencio.
The grant is a part of the foundation’s inaugural cohort for its new Transformative Research Program, which launched in April 2023. Villavicencio will be joined in the research project by Alexandra Freidus, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Education; Erica Turner, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education; and Richard Blissett, Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Villavicencio’s research is focused on K-12 educational policy and school practice that deepen or disrupt inequities for minoritized communities of students and families. For nearly a decade, she conducted research at the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at NYU—a Research-Practice Partnership with the NYC Department of Education (DOE).
The grant is a part of the foundation’s inaugural cohort for its new Transformative Research Program, which launched in April 2023. Villavicencio will be joined in the research project by Alexandra Freidus, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Education; Erica Turner, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education; and Richard Blissett, Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Villavicencio’s research is focused on K-12 educational policy and school practice that deepen or disrupt inequities for minoritized communities of students and families. For nearly a decade, she conducted research at the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at NYU—a Research-Practice Partnership with the NYC Department of Education (DOE).
