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Erik Jepsen\/UC San Diego\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrom Classroom Educators to District Leaders\u00a0<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s reach does not end once educators enter the classroom. Through CREATE, the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence, UC San Diego supports K-12 students, teachers, families, schools, districts and community organizations in the San Diego and Imperial Valley regions. CREATE also helps UC San Diego faculty and students design and execute funded programming that responds to local K-12 education needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cCREATE serves in-service teachers and in-service leaders and provides a lot of professional learning opportunities,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cThere are a lot of ways we could use these partner sites to bring EDS and CREATE together more.\u201d<\/p>\n
That matters because the department is not only preparing future teachers; it is also supporting educators throughout their careers.<\/p>\n
A student may begin as an undergraduate tutor, become a teacher candidate, enter the classroom, receive professional learning support, and later pursue advanced study or leadership training. The department\u2019s EdD program prepares education leaders, many of whom are already working in San Diego schools and districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost, if not all, of our students are current educators in San Diego who then go on to higher-level leadership positions or have greater impact in their current positions,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cWe tend to attract people who want to make education better in San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s EdD alumni include six district superintendents and five assistant or deputy assistant superintendents, representing 11 graduates who have served or are serving in superintendent-level leadership roles across the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur program is designed to improve and expand educational opportunities in the region,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cPeople we recruit into the program tend to be people who are working in San Diego and are committed to staying in San Diego and doing that work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research That Solves Real Education Challenges\u00a0<\/p>\n
That regional commitment also shapes the department\u2019s research. Hopkins said one of EDS\u2019 defining strengths is its use of research-practice partnerships, or RPPs \u2014 long-term collaborations between researchers and practitioners or policymakers that are designed around real problems faced by schools, districts, state agencies or communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do research for and with communities, whether that is a school, district, state education agency or community organization,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cWe don\u2019t just go in and say, \u2018We want to collect this data and write a paper about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, she said, EDS researchers ask partners what challenges they are facing, what issues they want to address and what they want to understand more deeply. Then they work together to define the research questions.<\/p>\n
For Hopkins, that approach is not abstract. Her own work focuses on multilingual learners and the policies that shape their educational opportunities. She leads a research-practice partnership with staff in about 30 state departments of education across the country, helping leaders build capacity and produce evidence-based resources to support English learners. For example, she is working with the Massachusetts Department of Education on bilingual education policy and access for English learners.<\/p>\n
Hopkins has received two nearly $1 million grants from the Institute of Education Sciences to study bilingual education policy and access for English learners in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
The first, a $993,000 IES-funded project, examined whether the expansion of bilingual programming in Massachusetts is supporting equitable access for multilingual learners \u2014 the students the policy was intended to serve. The newer three-year, $999,500 grant builds on that work by examining another challenge in the state: the nature and impact of bilingual teacher shortages over time.<\/p>\n
Together, the projects reflect Hopkins\u2019 broader research focus on multilingual learners, education policy and the systems needed to grow a strong bilingual teacher workforce.<\/p>\n
That kind of work reflects what Hopkins sees as a throughline in the department: research that is collaborative, equity-focused and connected to real educational systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also grounded in principles of equity,\u201d Hopkins said, \u201cin terms of whose voices are heard and valued in the research process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why This Work Matters Now<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s work comes at a moment when education is under intense pressure \u2014 from teacher shortages to political division to widening debates over what schools should teach and how they should serve students.<\/p>\n
For Hopkins, that makes the work of preparing teachers, leaders and education researchers even more important.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe education system is the most important tool we have to create a civic-minded populace,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cHaving teachers and leaders who know how to design systems and who know how to design a classroom to support equitable interactions and meaningful exchange between students and talking across viewpoints \u2014 that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s commitment to helping prepare the people who tutor, teach, study, support and lead the region\u2019s classrooms is unwavering, but its impact is not confined to one program or one district. It stretches from the border to North County, and through research partnerships and faculty work, far beyond San Diego.<\/p>\n