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Storying Our Black Student Achievement in Los Angeles Schools
Wednesday, April 8, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm
Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 403B

Moderator: Sonya Douglass (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Discussant: Priya Goel (California State University - Dominguez Hills)
Participants: Traci Ausby (California State University - Long Beach), Paige Desmore (LAUSD Black Student Achievement Program Coordinator), Tamisha Donald (California State University Dominguez Hills), Gloria Page (California State University Dominguez Hills)

In line with the 2026 Annual Meeting Theme, this session historicizes, celebrates, and radically imagines Black excellence in Los Angeles schools. The Critical Dialogue with Storying session features stories and critical dialogue among four leaders from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)’s Black Student Achievement Program, as well as an academic expert in Black educational studies. This session examines Black student achievement at the nexus of Black racism by drawing on the stories of Black educators’ stories as a living archive of movements, institutional memory, and ongoing resistance against the erasure of Black educational concerns. The dialogue-with-storying approach is grounded in Black traditions of oral history, collective memory, and relational knowledge-sharing. Presenters will share short narratives in response to an analytic prompt regarding achievement, racism, and more. Each story aligns to one anchor: history, institutional struggle, resistance, or futurity – all with respect to Black students’ educational opportunity.

Ethnic Studies Education Across Tovaangar​​​​​​​
Thursday, April 9, 4:15 pm to 5:45 pm
Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two - Room 404AB

Presenters: Edward R. Curammeng (California State University - Dominguez Hills), Tracy Lachica Buenavista (California State University - Northridge), David O. Stovall (University of Illinois at Chicago), JC Lugo (California State University - Northridge), Yadira Villalobs Mojica (75th Street Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District), Scott Aquilles (Mann UCLA Community School, Los Angeles Unified School District), Darlene Lee (University of California - Los Angeles), Ron Espiritu (Camino Nuevo Charter Acadamy), Christine Sardo-Aska (Hacienda La Puente Unified School District), Kēhaulani Vaughn (University of California - 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.

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.