Our mission is to ILLUMINATE, DISRUPT, and DISMANTLE racism in all its forms.
The University of Southern California is home to a dynamic research, professional learning, and organizational improvement center that serves educational institutions, corporations, government agencies, and other organizations that span a multitude of industries across the United States and in other countries. We actualize our mission through rigorous interdisciplinary research, high-quality professional learning experiences, the production and wide dissemination of useful tools, trustworthy consultations and strategy advising, and substantive partnerships. While race and ethnicity are at the epicenter of our work, we also value their intersectionality with other identities, and therefore aim to advance equity for all persons experiencing marginalization. Our rigorous approach is built on research, scalable and adaptable models of success, and continuous feedback from partners and clients.
We acknowledge that our center is on the traditional land of the Gabrielino-Tongva peoples. We also recognize the Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Cahuilla, Juaneño, and Luiseño People for the land that USC occupies around Southern California. We honor their past and present.
K-12 SCHOOLS
& DISTRICTS
Equipping educators and leaders with practically-useful, evidence-based strategies to effectively serve racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students and families.
RESEARCH & ASSESSMENT
We conduct rigorous, interdisciplinary qualitative and quantitative research on a vast array of topics pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are especially well known for our assessments of climates in educational and workplace settings, policy and pay equity analyses, and studies of racial and gender gaps on a multitude of metrics. Research conducted by scholars on our full-time staff has been cited in over 20,000 published studies. Atlantic Philanthropies, the U.S. Department of Education, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates, Lumina, Ford, Kellogg, Sloan, College Futures, Weingart, Kresge, Walmart, and Open Society Foundations are among the funders of our research and partnerships.
The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN, ESPN, NPR, HBO Sports, and hundreds of other media outlets have highlighted our studies and quoted our center experts. The Center is home to the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates, a peer-reviewed, expert validated quantitative survey that has been administered to more than 1.4 million undergraduates since its launch in 2019. We also have interviewed thousands of employees for workplace climate assessments in businesses, colleges and universities, and K-12 schools. Our research team is developing a trio of quantitative workplace climate surveys that will be available by Summer 2022.
LATEST NEWS
List of news on Race from USC and the USC Race & Equity Center
K-12 Racial Equity Leadership Labs Series Reaches Educators Across Los Angeles County
In the Spring of 2023, the USC Race and Equity Center’s K12 Programs offered a free professional learning series to a cohort of principals, assistant principals, and instructional leaders across Los Angeles County. The primary [...]
K-12 Practice Brief Release
This report is intended for every K-12 school district and all schools across America. It introduces some reflective questions, eight practical leadership strategies for K-12 leaders advancing racial equity, and numerous concrete actions that [...]
Pascarella and Silva Present a Theory of Change for Race-Conscious Leadership Development at AERA
On April 16, 2023, USC Race and Equity Center Chief Academic Officer John Pascarella and Associate Director Erica Silva presented a theory of change for race-conscious professional development programs designed to prepare school leaders to [...]
Harper, Emdin Ranked Among Most Influential
The 200 most influential professors in the field of education are ranked in Education Week each year. Two center scholars, Shaun Harper and Chris Emdin, are ranked #4 and #49, respectively, in the 2023 rankings [...]
President Biden Appoints USC Professor Shaun Harper to National Board
Photo credit: Adrián Trinidad Today, The White House announced that President Joe Biden has named University of Southern California Professor Shaun Harper to the National Board for Education Sciences. The 15-member Board approves [...]
Kimbrough, Two-Time HBCU President Joins USC Race and Equity Center
Walter M. Kimbrough has spent the past 18 years serving as president of two Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Philander Smith College (2004 - 2012) and Dillard University (2012 -2022). Prior to ascending to the [...]
