Staff

Patricia Gándara, Ph.D.
Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education
Co-Director, The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

Patricia Gándara is Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and recently returned there after many years away. She is also Associate Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute (UC LMRI), and Director of the LMRI Education Policy Center. Between 1981-86 she served as Commissioner for Post-secondary Education for the state of California. She has been a bilingual school psychologist, a Social Scientist with the RAND Corporation, and Director of education research in the California Legislature (State Assembly).

Professor Gándara's research focuses on educational equity and access for low income and ethnic minority students, language policy, and the education of Mexican origin youth. She has just completed a study, with her colleague Russell Rumberger, entitled Resource Needs for California's English Learners, as part of a statewide school finance project involving more than 30 researchers from across the country, and funded by four major foundations. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including the forthcoming, Understanding the Latino Education Gap, Why Latinos Don't Go to College, with Harvard University Press. Other recent publications include:

• Gándara, P. & Rumberger, R. (forthcoming). Defining an Adequate Education for English Learners. Education Finance and Policy.
• Gándara, P. & Rumberger, R. (forthcoming). Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity? In J. Holdaway and R. Alba (Eds), Education and Immigrant Youth: The Role of Institutions and Agency. New York: Social Science Research Council.
• Gándara, P., & G—mez, M. Cecilia (forthcoming). Language Policy in Education. in B. Schneider, G. Sykes, & D. Plank (Eds.) AERA Handbook on Educational Policy Research. Washington DC: AERA.
• Maxwell-Jolly, J. & Gándara, P. (2006). Critical Issues in the Preparation of Teachers for English Learners in (PACE). in E. Burr et al. (Eds) Crucial Issues in California Education 2000., Berkeley: PACE.
• Gándara, P, Orfield, G., & Horn, C., (Eds) (2005). Expanding Opportunity in Higher Education: Leveraging Promise SUNY Press.
• Gándara, P. (2005). Fragile Futures: Risk and Vulnerability Among Latino High Achievers. Policy Brief. Princeton: ETS.
• Gándara, P. (2005). Latino Achievement: Identifying Models that Foster Success National Center for the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut.
• Gándara, P., Orfield, G. & Horn, C. (2005). The Access Crisis in California Higher Education: Harbinger of the Future. Educational Policy.
• Gándara, P., Moran, R. & Garcia, E. (2004) Legacy of Brown: Lau And language policy in the United States., Review of Research in Education, 28, 27-46. [subscription link]
• Callahan, R. & Gándara, P. (2004). Nobody's Agenda: English Learners and Post-secondary Education, in M. Sadowski, (Ed.) Immigrant and English-Language Learners: Strategies for Success. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
• Rumberger, R. & Gándara, P. (2004). Seeking Equity in the Education of California's English Learners. Teachers College Record, 106, 2031-2055.
• Gibson, M., Gándara, P. & Koyama, J., (2004). School Connections: U.S. Mexican Youth, Peers, and School Achievement. Teachers College Press.
• Gándara, P., Rumberger, R., Maxwell-Jolly, J., & Callahan, R. (2003). English Learners In California Schools: Unequal Resources, Unequal Outcomes. Educational Policy Analysis Archives.