Lauren Shook is a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy and Planning at the University of Texas Austin. Her research interests focus on how racial inequality is constructed through discourse. She is particularly interested in examining how college access and funding are shaped by racial logics manifested in discourse. She hopes to contribute to scholarship, teaching, and service which makes more just US education systems a reality.
Her research interests stem from her professional experience in school districts, higher education, and educational nonprofits as well as from the educational struggle experienced by her Latinx family members and students.
Lauren received a B.A. in English, minoring in Linguistics, from Texas A&M University, and a master's in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
Denisa Gandara (Supervisor)Higher education finance and policy, with a focus on equity in policymaking processes and the effects of policies
Current research topics include:
the differential effects of free college (or Promise) programs on students and higher education institutions,
the development and effects of performance-based funding and other accountability policies for higher education,
varying notions of equity and adequacy in state funding of public higher education,
methods for incorporating fairness in predictive analytics used in...
Sarah L Woulfin (Committee Member)Uses lenses from organizational sociology to study how district leaders, principals, coaches, and teachers implement policy
Angela Valenzuela (Co-supervisor)Specializes in urban education from a sociological and multicultural perspective, with a focus on minority youth in schools, particularly at the K-12 level.
Planning Committee Member, Graduate Student Policy Seminar, Association for the Study of Higher Education(2024)
Associate Director, Institute for Leadership Impact, Southern Methodist University(2017 - 2019)
Shook, L. M.. & Lizarraga-Dueñas, L. I.. (2024). Of DEI and Denials: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Texas 88th Legislative Session.
EdWorking Papers,
24(924).
https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-924. doi:10.26300/aa2r-7t07.
Baker, D., Shook, L., Ramirez-Mendoza, J. & Bennet, C. (2023). Race below the fold: Race-evasiveness in the news medias coverage of student loans.
EdWorking Papers.
https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai23-771. doi:10.26300/t1k7-as63.
Schudde, L., Castillo, S., Shook, L. & Jabbar, H. (2022). The age of satisficing? Juggling work, education, and competing priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Socius, 8. doi:10.1177/23780231221088438.
Unda, M., Shook, L. & Lizárraga-Dueñas, L. (2022). Community-based organizations and the sustainability of indigenous and Latinx educators during COVID-19: Academia Cuauhtli case study. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 25(3), 215–235. doi:10.1177/15554589221079250.
Investigating the role of media in racialized discourse around student loan policy
The Texas Education Research-Practice-Policy Partnership Network is a network of existing regional partnerships between colleges of education, education nonprofits and education systems who are advancing research that is rooted in authentic engagement with community members and focused on urgent and timely problems of practice and policy identified locally. The RP3 Network is a coordinated statewide effort to accelerate and amplify these existing regional efforts to generate and translate the knowledge, tools and experiences needed to change practice, reform policy, and transform education systems at scale.
The Texas Transfer Project encompasses several ongoing studies related to postsecondary transfer in Texas. This project will build a stronger understanding of the longitudinal transfer process by following 100 transfer-intending community college students for six years. We follow transfer-intending community college students throughout their academic journey (including navigating the community college, choice of transfer destination, changes in educational aspirations, and post-transfer experiences). The study enters its 6th year of data collection in fall 2020.
Academia Cuauhtli is a language and culture revitalization project located at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center serving elementary and middle school students from Austin ISD.
Dissertation Fellowship, UT Austin (2024)
Summer 2023 Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Texas at Austin (2023)
Ellis Alexander Fellowship, Department of Educational Policy and Leadership (2023)
Alexander Caswell Ellis Fellowship in Education, Department of Educational Policy and Leadership (2022 - 2023)
Just Education Policy Fellow, Just Education Policy Institute for Developing Scholars (2021)
Ellen A. Sawyer Fellowship, Stanford Graduate School of Education (2016 - 2017)
Racist Nativism in legislative attacks on CRT and DEI, AERA, Philadelphia, PA (2024)
Innovation or insulation?: Authorship networks for student loan news articles and discussion of race and racism., AERA, Philadelphia, PA (2024)
Of DEI and denials: A critical discourse analysis of Texas 88th Legislative Session, ASHE Graduate Student Policy Seminar, Minneapolis, MN (2024)
To borrow a phrase: An investigation of the news medias role in racialized student loan policy communication., AEFP, Denver, CO (2023)
Of DEI and denial: A critical discourse analysis of Texas 88th Legislative Session., ASHE, Minneapolis, MN (2023)
Debt Frames: How the Media Racializes Policy, Debt, and Discourse, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (2023)
Racialized Goods: Latinx Access and Funding in U.S. Higher Education, AERA, San Diego (2022)
Situating COVID-19 and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in a LatCrit Framework: Platicas from Latinx Teachers., AERA, San Diego (2022)
Badgering the witness: Race-gendering through interactions between policymakers and expert witnesses in U.S. Congressional hearings on student debt., ASHE, Las Vegas, NV (2022)