Cecilia Rios-Aguilar

University of California, Los Angeles

Professor

Cecilia Rios-Aguilar is Professor and Chair of the Department of Education at UCLA's School of Education and Information Studies. Her research examines the academic and occupational trajectories of underserved students, with particular expertise in multilingual learners and community college pathways. Over the past two decades, she has conducted influential studies documenting the language practices of English learners in California and Arizona, including research on structured English immersion policies and the impact of restrictive language policies on student outcomes. Her work has been published in Teachers College Record, Language Policy, TESOL Journal, and the Bilingual Research Journal, and has informed landmark legal cases such as Horne v. Flores. Her community college research investigates how institutions can better support students' educational and workforce outcomes, including studies on credential-labor market alignment and the experiences of student parents. Her current work examines community college baccalaureate programs as pathways to racial equity and economic mobility, with a focus on Latine student outcomes. She is the co-editor of Funds of Knowledge in Higher Education (Routledge), which advances asset-based approaches to understanding how students draw on cultural and community resources to succeed in postsecondary contexts. A recipient of the AERA Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture and the Hispanic Research SIG Award, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Spencer Foundation, as Faculty Co-Director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) at Stanford University, and as a Research Affiliate at Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at UC Davis.