I study how schools organize and respond to change in ways that shape educational inequality. My dissertation uses interviews and classroom-based field observations to examine the implementation of culturally responsive curricular reforms in California, tracing how reforms are interpreted and negotiated across teacher preparation programs, classroom practice, and students’ experiences of schooling.
In my broader work, I use large-scale administrative data to examine how academic tracking, exclusionary discipline, and other features of school organization shape students’ academic and socioemotional experiences. A related strand of research examines how criminal legal contact shapes children’s wellbeing and the work families undertake to navigate carceral institutions.
Amy Gong Liu 