Reaching the Future

A growing percentage of students identify as Latinx, and some slip through the cracks. A new research center looks to prevent that.

Reaching the Future
Illustration by Agata Nowicka

“There’s no better place than the Silicon Valley for a startup,” says Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos.

Amen! At SCU, he leads a “startup center” with the mission to shape the future of K–12 education.

He’s co-founder of SCU’s Latinx Education Research Center in the School of Education and Counseling Psychology, as well as an associate professor.

Already more than half of California students identify as Latinx.

“The Latinx population is the largest growing population in the U.S. We are very conscious of it because in California public schools, over half the students have some kind of Latinx background,” says Sabrina Zirkel, the dean of the School of Education and Counseling Psychology, which is the center’s home base. “It is our state—this is the population of our state.”

So SCU is leading the way—in research and hosting conferences and talks to bring the best minds in education to create solutions that improve graduation and college attendance rates—which makes for a better future for all of us.

 

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