Doctoral Student Directory

I research noncognitive constructs in K12 settings using computational psychometrics. Drawing on intensive, multi-modal data this research produces learning analytics offering individual-level insights and also, in aggregate, inform teaching and policy. This practice-embedded research foregrounds the needs of teachers and students, with a critical SES perspective.

Education 

PhD in Science and Agricultural Education, In progress
School of Education
University of California, Davis

B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies, 2016
College of Natural Resources
University of California, Berkeley

Background

In June 2018, Garth was elected as the first African American to serve as the Yolo County Superintendent of Schools.

Kait Murray is an educator and researcher of community leadership whose work focuses on transforming agricultural and environmental education, both in and outside of schools. She is broadly interested in how people with marginalized sexualities and genders – particularly members of the LGBTQ community – navigate and change educational systems. She researches the complex relationships between individuals and these educational spaces: how they create them, experience them, resist them, disrupt them, uphold them, transform them.

Background

Izamar Ortiz-González is a daughter of immigrant parents. This experience thought her to navigate multiple narratives at school and at home. Bridging the gap between these narratives has been her goal throughout her life as a teacher, organizer and student.

“There’s no point in all this scholarship if when we look back upon our careers nothing has changed and we’ve just become better at naming the problem.”

– Dr. Gloria Rodriguez

I am interested in working with underrepresented populations to understand the processes that enhance (or hinder) their opportunities to access higher education. I am also interested in studying the benefits of drama and poetry in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms for language acquisition and writing.

Background

Raised and currently residing in Fairfield, CA. Is excited to be an Aggie for the third time having completed a B.S. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Cellular & Molecular Biology as a first-gen college student and then continued to receive teaching credentials and M.A. in Education.

With a small teacher cohort, created a dual-enrollment high school program founded in 2014 where he continues to teach high school Biology, Chemistry, and a Senior Project capstone course.

Erin Winters is a doctoral student and GAANN Fellow in education with an emphasis in learning and mind sciences, specializing in educational measurement and statistics. 

Her research considers different approaches for validating the scores from high stakes and large scale for different uses.  She’s particularly interested in examining the effectiveness of different statistical approaches for establishing the instructional sensitivity of tests and assessments, especially as they relate to research design.