Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE)
Introduction
The Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE) is a research center in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia, Athens. The CLASE was created in 2003 through a generous grant from the Goizueta Foundation, to support the educational success of the growing Latine population in Georgia. The Center contributes to the University’s combined mission with the specific goal of creating a more robust pipeline of educational supports for Latines.
Our Mission
“The mission is to conduct rigorous, meaningful, and evidence-based research and scholarly analysis to inform educators, policymakers, academics, and community organizations in Georgia, the United States, and globally. Our goal is to improve educational policies, practices, outcomes, and opportunities for Latine youth, families, and communities across the P-20 continuum.”
How will we accomplish our mission:
- Conduct multi/interdisciplinary research to address complex issues
- Use a variety of research methods to examine germane scholarly inquiry and empirical research
- Develop a national and international research network to collaborate on grants and projects
- Disseminate research finding in academic journals and other venues to inform academics, educators and the general public
- Build strategic partnerships with school districts, foundations and other centers
- Create outreach initiatives to disseminate research findings and other resources
Featured Research Projects
- Exploring Promising Districts in Georgia: A Case Study Approach
- Examining School Level Latino Success Across Georgia
- International Handbook of Latines and Education
- Venezuelan Migrants and Education International Project
- Latines in the U.S. South: Disrupting Historical Erasure and Master Narratives
- Funding Bilingual/Dual Language Education and Multilingual Learners in the U.S.
- Plyler v Doe: The Cost of Educating K-12 Undocumented Students
- International Handbook of Latines and Education Across Pan America: Critical Perspectives and
- Banning Spanish-Inclusive Picturebooks: An Obstruction to Teachers’ Abilities to Engage in Authentic Cariño with Latiné Students and Their Peers
CLASE Distinguished Speaker Series 2025–2026
Topic: Working with and for Indigenous Latinx Parents: Frameworks and Practices of Family Engagement in Schools
- Speaker: Dra. Patricia Baquedano-López
- Date: September 30, 2025
Topic: Integrating social justice, evidence-base knowledge and cultural wisdom to address mental health disparities
- Speaker: Dr. Ruben Parra-Cardona
- Date: September 30, 2025
Topic: Un Hombre Educado (A Learned Man): Latino Men in Education, Work, and Society
- Speaker: Dr. Victor Saenz
- Date: January 13, 2026
Topic: Archaeology of Self: Tracing Place, Identity, and the Roots of Our Pedagogy
- Speaker: Dra. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz
- Date: April 30, 2026
CLASE Brown Bag Speaker Series 2025-2026
As a continuous effort for further learning, we invite scholars to connect with the CLASE team to present some of their work, and have intimate discussions on Latino culture, heritage, and issues shaping the community’s future. This is exclusive to our CLASE team and therefore, sessions are not recorded nor made available to a larger audience.
- “Black Freedom and Education in Nineteenth-Century Cuba” - Dr. Raquel Otheguy
- “Racial Reckonings: Language, Race, and Pedagogies of Accountability Across Latinx Classrooms and Communities” - Dr. Jonathan Ross
- “Movidas y ‘Making Do’: Embracing A (educational) Praxis of (southern) Rasquachismo” - Dr. Timothy Monreal
- “Thinking Through the Pedagogical Potential of Unruly Latinidades in Community-Based Cultural Programming” - Dr. Sofia Villenas
- “Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era” - Dr. Nelson Flores
- “Infusing Chicana Feminism in Working with Latina Students in Engineering and Computing” - Dr. Sarah L. Rodriguez
- “Rural Southern Hispanic/Mexican American Identities Across Four Decades” - Scott Beck & Alma Stevenson.
Photo Gallery
Goizueta Foundation Graduate Scholarships
Our CLASE Team
Executive Director
Goizueta Foundation Graduate Scholar
Graduate Researcher
Graduate Researcher
Goizueta Foundation Graduate Scholar
External Research Collaborator
Goizueta Foundation Graduate Scholar
External Research Collaborator
Goizueta Foundation Graduate Scholar
CLASE Advisory Board
Professor and Associate Vice President,
San Diego State University
Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Professor, University of Arizona
Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
Professor Emerita, Graduate Center of CUNY
Leavy Presidential Endowed Chair and Executive Director, Loyola Marymount University
Professor and Executive Director, CSU, San Bernardino
L.D. Haskew Centennial Professor and Associate Dean, University of Texas, Austin
Professor, Teachers College—Columbia University
Professor and Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean, Boston College University
CLASE Affiliates
Director of Pride Center, University of Georgia
Assistant Professor, Howard University
Associate Professor, University of Georgia
Professor & Associate Dean, University of Georgia
Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
Professor, University of California - Berkeley
Professor, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Professor & Interim Director of LACSI, University of Georgia
Associate Professor & Associate Head, University of Georgia
Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
Head Oral Historian, University of Georgia
Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
Professor of Practice & Director, Arizona State University
Associate Professor, Texas A&M University
Assistant Professor, Emory University
Associate Professor, Virginia Tech
Charles H. Spence, Sr. Centennial Professorship in Education, University of Texas - Austin
Associate Professor, San Diego State University
Associate Professor, Cornell University
Support Our Programs
Donate to CLASECourses Taught by CLASE Faculty
LLED 7045: Latines and Education
This course focuses on the historical and contemporary issues affecting Latine education in the United States including structural, legal, cultural, linguistic, political, and pedagogical. We will explore different theories, research, policies and practices related to Latine education success and failure.