Deepening Opportunity-Centered Education Research

Our research efforts examine educational environments and outcomes at opportunity-centered institutions that reflect the nation’s full population. These projects span broad-access, Hispanic-Serving institutions, and highly research active institutions. Our large-scale quantitative and qualitative research actively gathers evidence about how to design, implement, and sustain effective strategies to serve all students.

Our Immediate Objectives:

• Build multi-institutional networks for collaborative inquiry and application of effective strategies.
• Bring together multi-generational teams of scholars to advance opportunity-centered research and postsecondary transformation.
• Generate tools, frameworks, and publications that turn institutional practices into actionable knowledge.

What Sets Our Approach Apart:

The work of the Institute puts research into action to enable continuous improvement, long-term sustainability, and broad impact at national scale. We are uniquely able to accomplish this as a result of:

• Our location at The University of Texas at El Paso, the nation’s only open access, highly research active institution, enables real-time development and application of strategies.
• Broad representation of all postsecondary institution types, student populations, and stakeholder roles makes the work widely applicable.
• Multi-institutional partnerships with scholars and practitioners who work together across institutions broaden the opportunities uncovered.
• Immediate applicability and continuous improvement through ongoing research and development into organizational practices, institutional change, and system transformation over time fast-tracks impact.
• Our nimbleness in a challenging higher education environment has expanded our capacity to develop tools, training, and resources that are adaptable despite shifting conditions.

Current Concentration Areas

Organizational Transformation

We identify effective organizational practices that elevate student success. We move beyond singular, siloed programs that only serve a few students to examine the contexts that enable successful practices that reach all students. This includes the design, implementation, and sustainability of organizational structures and activities for a broad range of institutions, student populations, stakeholder roles, and organizational types.

Inclusive Science

By exploring the nation’s most effective science education approaches, particularly at HSIs, we identify systemic transformation opportunities that make the field more inclusive. These findings inform toolkits that translate the empirical evidence into actionable, adaptable guidance for creating inclusive science learning environments.

Career-oriented Learning

Our study of higher education organizations, particularly HSIs, looks at those that have successfully implemented strategies to expand career-readiness for all students. These include apprentice-style, out-of-class, and other research opportunities that actively prepare students for the working world. 

Economic & Social Mobility

Beyond effective institutional practices and systemic transformation approaches, our research specifically measures the direct societal and economic impacts of higher education on student outcomes. This quantitative data validate the factors that affect student success and highlight strategies that best serve broad student populations.