About CUE

What is the Center for Urban Education (CUE)?

Established at the University of Southern California in 1999 as part of the University’s Urban Initiative, the Center for Urban Education (CUE) leads socially conscious research and develops tools needed for institutions of higher education to produce equity in student outcomes. CUE’s research team pioneered a multi-disciplined inquiry approach that is helping higher education institutions across the country become more accountable to students from underserved racial and ethnic communities.

CUE’s work boldly exposes the contradiction between the promise of equal access and the persistence of unequal outcomes by providing the inquiry model and context that find solutions.

In addition to working directly with institutions, CUE publishes reports and papers on a range of topics related to equity-mindedness. CUE has expanded the scholarship with its examinations of the appropriate use of inquiry methods to transform data into actionable knowledge, as well as the role of faculty and administrators in improving outcomes, accountability, assessment, and institutional effectiveness.

Situated within the Rossier School of Education at USC, CUE is uniquely positioned to address the urgency and complexities involved in recognizing, understanding and addressing the racial gaps in equitable outcomes at the full spectrum of education institutions.

CUE is co-directed by Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon, professor of higher education, and Dr. Alicia C. Dowd, associate professor of higher education. CUE is dedicated to taking its research and results into collaborative endeavors that make a difference. CUE publishes reports and papers on a range of topics related to equity-mindedness, the appropriate use of research methods to transform data into actionable knowledge and the role of faculty and administrators in improving outcomes. The Center’s research is conducted in collaboration with faculty colleagues in the Rossier School of Education, as well as across USC and universities throughout the nation, and is supported by postdoctoral researchers and research assistants enrolled in the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs at the Rossier School and in neighboring doctoral universities.