The primary goal of our research group is to pursue research that can help us to better support the educational success of students who have traditionally been underrepresented or underserved in higher education. We define educational success not only as educational access, progress, and attainment, but also as specific learning gains that might be measured using various disciplinary-based approaches or more general learning theories.
The scope of research pursued by our group is intended to be quite broad and is not limited to one particular population, context, theoretical perspective, or discipline. Past research conducted by members of the group has focused on community college students, ethnic minority students, female students, student parents, non-native born students, online students, and developmental mathematics students. Outcomes measured have included college access and retention, disciplinary proficiency, affective factors, as well as various college annd major trajectories. Disciplinary approaches have included higher education, mathematics education, economics, sociology, psychology, and psychometrics.
In particular, throughout all types of research we aim to substantially integrate insider perspectives, so that practitioners are heavily involved in making decisions about what research is done, and how it is conducted, interpreted and disseminated. We believe that this improves the relevance of the research to practitioners and makes it more likely to be effective in authentic educational settings. Our research aims not only to contribute to theory-building in educational research, but also to impact educational policymaking and local practice. Therefore we also aim to disseminate the results of our research in open and accessible ways to policymakers, practitioners, students, and the general public.
The group was originally founded by a core group of interdisciplinary faculty at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at the City University of New York (BMCC/CUNY) in 2009, and now includes a number of other researchers from across CUNY, as well as colleges and universities outside CUNY.