LULAC Releases the Report A New Wave of Hate: The Anti-Immigrant Legislative Boom Since 2020: Click here for more information

Angela Valenzuela, Professor, University of Texas

Angela Valenzuela

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. She is Director of the Texas Center for Education Policy. Previously, she taught in the Department of Sociology at Rice University in Houston (1990-98), and she was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston (1998-99). She completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University. She is the author of the award-winning book, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (1999), Leaving Children Behind: How “Texas-style” Accountability Fails Latino Youth (2005), and Growing Critically Conscious Teachers: A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth (2016). She also founded and operates an education blog titled, Educational Equity, Politics, and Policy in Texas.

Dr. Valenzuela serves on the LULAC National Task Force on Higher Education, and she is the Executive Director of the National Latina/o Education Research and Policy Project (NLERAPP), a consortium of ten institutions that enhances teaching for high school youth in Texas, California, Wisconsin, Chicago, New York, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. NLERAPP aims to create a teacher education pathways for Latino/a youth, nationally. With prior funding support from grants from both the Ford and Kellogg Foundations, this work builds on the efforts and advocacy of Latino/a education and business leaders nationwide. NLERAP has been housed at the University of Texas at Austin since November 6, 2009. Locally, she directs Academia Cuauhtli, a partnership-based, community- anchored Saturday school with district-wide Impacts in Austin, Texas.

A previous Fulbright Scholar, Valenzuela spent her 2007-08 academic year in Mexico where she taught in the College of Law at the University of Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Guanajuato and conducted research in the areas of immigration, human rights, and binational relations. Most recently, she was honored to have been selected to be a scholar in residence in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her most recent recognition is recipient of the 2020 Henry H. Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education from the American Educational Research Association.

Valenzuela's research and teaching interests are in the sociology of education, minority youth in schools, educational policy, urban education reform, culturally relevant curriculum, Ethnic Studies, and indigenous education, as well as policy studies and analysis.


Panel Information

Friday, September 3

2:50 PM EST

Highlight- Erasing Latinos in Education

The American education system has progressed greatly through the decades becoming more inclusive in its teaching as time has gone on. However, there are still many existing barriers for minority students and the new debate over whether or not Critical Race Theory should be taught in schools is threatening to strengthen these barriers and destroy the progress that has been made in the education system. Banning Critical Race Theory from schools will impact students of color the most, worsening their already underrepresented and underserved educational experience. Students, especially Latinx students, have already been negatively impacted by the education system’s move to a remote learning environment during the pandemic. As preparations are being made to move back to in-classroom learning, conversations about education should be revolving around the transition, not about removing a vital part of education. Join us in the Higher Education Task Force Committee Workshop where we will be delving deeper into these topics and evaluating their significance and impact.

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