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Octavia Bookshelf In the AERA Annual Meeting Exhibit Hall Thursday, April 9: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Friday, April 10: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Saturday, April 11: 9:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Octavia’s Bookshelf Store Location 1353 North Hill Ave, Pasadena, CA 91104
California African American Museum 600 State Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Japanese American National Museum 100 N Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Riverside Art Museum and the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture 3425 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501
Southern California Library Cooperative 222 E Harvard St, Glendale, CA 91205
Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049
SPARC: Social and Public Art Resource Center 685 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
US Pacific Asia Museum 46 N Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101
All times are in Pacific Time. This schedule is preliminary. Check back for updates and additional information on forthcoming sessions.
A Storied Past: Tracing Education and Activism in LA - Post Tour Session Tuesday, April 7, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 404AB
Chairs: Nicol Howard (Chapman University), Erica D McCray (University of Florida), Kimberly A. White, University of San Diego Participants: Niki Elliott (University of San Diego) and Annamarie Francois (University of California – Los Angeles)
Ethnic Studies Education Across Tovaangar Thursday, April 9, 4:15 pm to 5:45 pm Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 404AB
Chair: Lauren Arzaga Daus (UC, Los Angeles) Discussant: Daniel G. Solorzano (UC, Los Angeles) Participants: Edward R. Curammeng (California State University, Dominguez Hills), Tracy Lachica Buenavista (California State University, Northridge), David O. Stovall (University of Illinois, Chicago), JC Lugo (California State University, Northridge), Yadira Villalobos Mojica (Los Angeles Unified School District), Scott Aquilles (Los Angeles Unified School District), Darlene Lee (UC, Los Angeles), Ron Espiritu (Hacienda La Puente Unified School District), Christine Sardo-Aska (Hacienda La Puente Unified School District), Kehaulani Vaughn, (UC Riverside)
Amidst a moment of intensified state-sanctioned attacks on Ethnic Studies, this Regional Spotlight Session centers Tovaangar (Los Angeles) as a critical site for grounding, sustaining, and futuring Ethnic Studies Education (ESE) across the P-20 continuum. Ethnic Studies faces ongoing challenges to its legitimacy, legality, and implementation. In this session, a multiracial and multigenerational collective of Ethnic Studies scholar-activists describe “Ethnic Studies Education” as a strategic intervention to embolden education scholars to pursue critical, life-affirming work that guides and supports contemporary Ethnic Studies teaching and activism in P-20 learning spaces. Presentations will consider the contours of Ethnic Studies Education through: 1) Conceptual guideposts for Ethnic Studies Education research; 2) Perspectives from Ethnic Studies educators working in Los Angeles classrooms; 3) Insights from a university K-12 Ethnic Studies teacher pathway; 4) Lessons from establishing a districtwide Ethnic Studies program in LA county; and 5) Experiences of American Indian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students engaging in Trans-Indigenous Education in Tovaangar..
Historicizing Los Angeles: Envisioning New Educational Futures in Latinx Radical Imaginations Friday, April 10, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 403A
Chair: Kris D. Gutiérrez (University of California - Berkeley) Participants: Laura K. Munoz (University of Nebraska - Lincoln), Alfredo J. Artiles (Stanford University), Gina Ann Garcia (University of California - Berkeley), Krista L. Cortes (University of Pennsylvania), Amalia Z. Dache (University of Pennsylvania), Cecilia Rios-Aguilar (University of California - Los Angeles), Anne-Marie Nunez (University of Texas - El Paso), Luis Urrieta (University of Texas at Austin), Omi Salas-SantaCruz (University of Utah), Dolores Delgado Bernal (Loyola Marymount University), William Perez (Loyola Marymount University), and Cindy Cruz (University of Arizona)
Inspired by Los Angeles—the creative space where solidarities are built, futures are rehearsed, and radical educational imaginaries are part of its history—an interdisciplinary, intergenerational collective of Latinx scholars reimagine the possible, crafting a new analytical framework and transformative lens through which to develop historicized perceptions of the multiple worlds of Latinidad; a new framework that aspires to the “not-yet-here,” the proleptic imagination. Mindful of historical inequities, misrepresentations, homogenizations, and erasure of Latinx communities, a different social imagination is leveraged—one that rejects the binaries that maintain deficit views of individuals and communities, benefitting some, while further marginalizing, invisibilizing, and harming others; focusing instead on the pluralities, the multiplicities of what it means to be Latinx educationally and in civic/social life.
Indigenous Education Across Tovaangar: Past, Present, Trans-Indigenous, and Future Horizons Friday, April 10, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 406AB
Participants: Theresa J. Stewart-Ambo (University of California - Los Angeles), Kelly Leah Stewart (University of California, Los Angeles), Kēhaulani Vaughn (University of California - Riverside) , Charles Sepulveda (The University of Utah)
In the Gabrielino/Tongva language, Tovaangar means “the world” and geographically represents the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands. This presidential session brings together Tongva, Acjachemen, and Kanaka Maoli scholars and leaders to discuss Southern California–based efforts and movements in relation to Indigenous education and sovereignty across past, present, Trans-Indigenous, and future horizons. Speakers will address the #LandBack and land-tax movements, Southern California mission schools, the uptake of institutional land acknowledgements, and critiques of land-grant institutions’ expropriation of Indigenous lands, waters, and Peoples. The session poses the following central questions: What becomes possible when unforgetting is led by Tribal communities and accountable to Indigenous homelands? How do sovereignty and self-determination shape decolonial futures?
Historicizing University-Community Links at 30: Proleptic Learnings in Resistance, Responsiveness, and Reimagining Education Saturday, April 11, 3:45 pm to 5:15 pm Westin Bonaventure, Lobby Level - Santa Barbara C
Chairs: Mara Welsh Mahmood (University of California - Berkeley) and John Cano (University of California - Berkeley) Discussants: Mara Welsh Mahmood (University of California - Berkeley) and Shirin Vossoughi (Northwestern University) Participants: Eros Najera (University of California - Berkeley), Mara Welsh Mahmood (University of California - Berkeley), John Cano (University of California - Berkeley), Camille Campion (University of California - San Diego), Angela N. Booker (University of California - San Diego), Veverly Anderson (Town & Country Learning Center), Sayra Martinez (La Colonia De Eden Garden Inc), Itzel Gonzalez Velazquez (University of California - San Diego), Amy Vatne Bintliff (University of California - San Diego), Monique Mercedes Estrada (UC Santa Barbara), Amanda Salcedo (University of California - Santa Barbara), Jaquelyn Valenzuela (University of California Santa Barbara)
This symposium historicizes 30-years of learnings from the UC Links network and offers a proleptic envisioning of educational research and practice to craft innovative responses to the current times. University-community partners from the longest sustaining UC Links programs examine learnings about institutional change and resistance, community knowledge and calls for change, and how that learning and theorizing can help reimagine our collaborative scholarship and partnership. Created to combat institutional racism and promote educational equity, UC Links forges alternative equity strategies by working collaboratively to develop and sustain programs that connect research, teaching, and service with community knowledge. The symposium engages collective and unique histories in dialogue, situating presentations within a cultural-historical context and examines them as sociotechnical activity systems.
Reclaiming Our Regional History: An Intergenerational Plática with Student, Parent, and Teacher Activist in Williams v. California Saturday, April 11, 3:45 pm to 5:15 pm Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 404AB
Chairs: Anna M. Ortiz (California State University - Long Beach) Discussant: Daniel Gilbert Solorzano (University of California - Los Angeles) Participant: Lluliana Alonso (California State University - Long Beach)
This session is an intergenerational plática comprised of students, parents, and teachers from the L.A. area involved in the historic Williams v. California class action lawsuit filed in 2000. Their resolve to take action led to the Williams Settlement, achieved in 2004. The settlement compelled the state to acknowledge its constitutional obligation to provide equal educational opportunities to all students. It also led to new regulations and oversight measures that were codified into state law and an allocation of nearly $1 billion to address dilapidated conditions at school campuses. Importantly, the “Williams Complaint Procedure” was adopted statewide, a critical accountability tool that empowers any member of the public to report school-level violations related to Williams regulations (CDE, 2024). Although Williams is part of state law, not much is known about the historical actors involved in the case, many of whom are members of our local communities. Indeed, most of the literature about Williams focuses on the legal rationale of the case (Koski & Weis, 2004; Mintrop, 2004; Oakes, 2004; Ortiz, 2004; Powers, 2004; Russell et al., 2004; Timar, 2004). When scholarship has attempted to center students, it often highlights the inequitable conditions experienced by students, such as English learners (Rumberger & Gándara, 2004) and poor and working-class youth (Fine et al., 2004). While these accounts were important to substantiate the impacts these schooling conditions had on access and achievement, they reduced plaintiffs to passive victims rather than empowered activists. This session changes that narrative and illuminates the ways Communities of Color exercised their voices and leveraged the legal system to fight structural inequalities within and beyond their schools.
Division K Off-Site Visit: A Storied Past: Tracing Education and Activism in LA Tuesday, April 7, 11:45 am to 1:45 pm
Site Visit Organizer/Chairs: Nicol R. Howard (Chapman University), Erica D. McCray (University of Florida), Kimberly A. White-Smith (University of San Diego) Participant: Adrian H. Huerta (University of Southern California)
Experience the intersection of Black and Chicano educational activism, from the 1962 Baldwin Hills desegregation battles to the 1968 East LA Walkouts. Join Division K for a guided exploration of Los Angeles' storied legacy of educational activism, cultural pride, and community resilience.
This tour journeys through South Los Angeles' historic Black neighborhoods—View Park, Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park, and Crenshaw—to Roosevelt High School in East LA's Boyle Heights, connecting two powerful movements for educational equity. Moving through landmarks like Baldwin Hills Elementary School and Roosevelt High School, participants will trace the intertwined histories of schooling, civic leadership, and economic empowerment that shaped—and continue to influence—the pursuit of educational equity in Southern California. The experience concludes with a panel discussion featuring scholars, activists, and educators whose work bridges these historical narratives to current challenges and innovations in urban education. This reflective dialogue invites participants to consider how unforgetting these histories can guide today's research, policy, and practice toward a more just and inclusive educational future. Registration through the AERA Annual Meeting is required. Transportation and lunch are included in the $35 registration fee. Tour stops are subject to change depending on timing. Questions? Contact Nicol Howard at nhoward@chapman.edu.
School Site Visit to De-Tracking School – Da Vinci Schools Thursday, April 9, 8:30 am to 1:00 pm
Site Visit Organizer/Chair: Constance Clark (Rutgers University - Newark)
We will visit a school that is detracking student experiences. We will learn about the school's mission, history, and detracking initiative, observe classrooms, meet teachers and students, and there will be an opportunity to offer our own feedback to the school based on our visit.
Equitable Funding for Black K-12 Students: Policies and Possibilities Thursday, April 9, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Strategy and Soul Movement Center, 3542 Martin Luther King Blvd
Site Visit Organizer: Kendrick B. Davis (USC Rossier), Akunna Uka (USC Rossier) Participants: Channing Martinez (Labor Community Strategy Center), Christian Flagg (Community Coalition), Dina Walker (BLU Foundation), Monica Garcia (Los Angeles Unified School District), Maria Ruiz (InnerCity Struggle), Desiree O’Neal (USC Rossier), Keena Jones (USC Rossier), Alvin Makori (USC Rossier), Taylor McGee (Christopher Newport University), Eric Mann (Labor Community Strategy Center)
This off-site visit examines community-driven efforts to advance equitable K–12 funding for Black students in Southern California, positioning Los Angeles as a critical site for understanding how equity-centered funding policies are designed, implemented, and contested. Hosted at the Strategy & Soul Movement Center of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in South Los Angeles, the session brings together educators, organizers, parents, students, policymakers, and researchers engaged in shaping and defending policies such as California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Student Equity Needs Index (SENI), and the Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP). Through a moderated panel and facilitated teach-in, participants will explore how grassroots organizing and institutional relationships mediate access to resources, influence policy accountability, and respond to ongoing fiscal and political constraints. The session centers place-based knowledge, lived experience, and collective sense-making to surface lessons from Los Angeles that inform broader debates about educational justice, governance, and equitable funding for Black students nationwide.
Friday, April 10, 7:30 am to 9:30 am Los Angeles Unified School District, Room 2-131, 333 S. Beaudry Ave
Site Visit Organizer: John Fullerton (USC Rossier School of Education)
This regional research breakfast will showcase work being conducted across the LA metro region and the impact it is having on partner agencies. The breakfast will provide attendees with the opportunity to connect with regional education practitioners and leaders as well as the researchers working with them on topics of import to the region. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the projects taking place, how they are designed to have an impact on students and schools in the region, and ideas to take back to their respective geographies.
Unforgetting Heroes at Los Angeles National Cemetery: Meeting 21st-Century Learning Goals through K12 Curriculum Development Friday, April 10, 9:34 am to 1:45 pm Los Angeles National Cemetery. 950 S Sepulveda Blvd
Site Visit Organizer: Julianne De La Cerda (Loyola Marymount University) Participants: Deanna Cooke (Loyola Marymount University), Darin Earley (5M Legacy Educational Consulting Services), Cynthia Ruiz (Loyola Marymount University)
This off-site visit to Los Angeles National Cemetery (LANC) explores the LMU Digital Veterans Legacy Project (DVLP). DVLP asks teachers to see the cemetery as a repository of biographies and histories that can be used in the classroom. Through co-designed lesson plans and standards-aligned curricula, secondary teachers guide students in uncovering and sharing the lives of underrepresented veterans interred at LANC. Visitors will examine how DVLP educators developed pedagogies that honor marginalized histories while cultivating 21st-century skills. The visit offers a model for how public memory and critical curriculum development can bridge past injustices and future educational transformation within the social context of local communities.