About

Tolani Britton is a professor at the Berkeley School of Education whose research explores the impact of policies on students’ transition from secondary school to higher education, as well as access and retention in higher education. She uses quasi-experimental methods to examine issues such as the effects of incarceration and drug laws on college enrollment, particularly focusing on Black and Latinx students. Her recent work investigates whether increased incarceration rates for Black males have contributed to racial and gender gaps in college enrollment over specific time periods. Prior to earning her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education, Professor Britton worked as a high school math teacher and college counselor in New York City public schools and served as a policy analyst for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France. Her academic credentials include a Master of Arts in Economics from Tufts University, a Master of Arts in French Cultural Studies from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts in both Economics and French Literature from Tufts University. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a 2023-2028 NSF CAREER award, and has contributed to the field through her extensive publications and reports.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Mathematics education
• Social Science
• Gender studies
• Business
• Medicine
• Demographic economics
• Medical education
• Pedagogy
• Mathematics
• Engineering
• Law
• Statistics
• Criminology
• Economics
• Public relations
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Mandating Black Studies Curricula: Lessons Learned From a Black Studies Curriculum Development Project

  Journal of Black Studies · 2026-03-11

  article

  In this qualitative study, we examined how participation in the California Black Studies Curriculum (CABSC) Project shaped the skills, practices, and mindsets of its participants. We used LaGarrett King’s Black Historical Consciousness as a conceptual framework to analyze data. We found that participants defined Black Studies both as a community-oriented field of study and as a subject area that reflects and represents the full spectrum of Black experiences. These definitions emphasized the importance of teacher-student relationship-building across all subjects. Educators reported adopting more student-centered learning pedagogies as a result of their participation in the CABSC Project. Our findings also highlighted a need for new professional development offerings by community organizations. Such opportunities can help prepare teachers to teach Black Studies effectively. Participants also discussed both enabling and constraining policies that may shape the implementation of a Black Studies curriculum in California. We concluded with two recommendations for enhancing teacher training and professional development related to Black Studies curricula.

  PublisherDOI

• Difficult Lessons on Social Prediction from Wisconsin Public Schools

  2025-06-23

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Disparities in Food Insecurity and Academic Achievement Among California Public University Students: An Intersectional Approach

  Nutrients · 2024-10-31 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background/Objectives: Historically racialized status (HRS) and low socioeconomic position (SEP) are independent risk factors for food insecurity and poor academic achievement among college students. Despite increased enrollment of students from historically racialized groups and low SEP, little is known regarding the intersectional experience of these contemporary student characteristics with food security status or academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the intersections of racialized status and SEP with food insecurity and academic achievement among undergraduate students attending a public university system in California. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1170 undergraduates who utilized their campus food pantry between June and August 2019 at nine University of California campuses. Racialized status and SEP were used to construct four distinct intersectional positions: (1) White, not low SEP (i.e., traditional students; reference), and three contemporary student groups: (2) White, low SEP; (3) HRS, not low SEP; and (4) HRS, low SEP. Using regression analyses, these intersectional positions were examined with food insecurity and grade point average (GPA), while controlling for other student characteristics. Results: HRS, low SEP students had significantly higher odds of experiencing food insecurity (OR = 2.72; 95% CI: 1.52–4.97) and lower GPA (B = −0.14, p = 0.05) than traditional students, after adjustment. Conclusions: Contemporary students are at increased risk of food insecurity and lower academic achievement compared to traditional students.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Difficult Lessons on Social Prediction from Wisconsin Public Schools

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-04-13 · 23 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Early warning systems (EWS) are predictive tools at the center of recent efforts to improve graduation rates in public schools across the United States. These systems assist in targeting interventions to individual students by predicting which students are at risk of dropping out. Despite significant investments in their widespread adoption, there remain large gaps in our understanding of the efficacy of EWS, and the role of statistical risk scores in education. In this work, we draw on nearly a decade's worth of data from a system used throughout Wisconsin to provide the first large-scale evaluation of the long-term impact of EWS on graduation outcomes. We present empirical evidence that the prediction system accurately sorts students by their dropout risk. We also find that it may have caused a single-digit percentage increase in graduation rates, though our empirical analyses cannot reliably rule out that there has been no positive treatment effect. Going beyond a retrospective evaluation of DEWS, we draw attention to a central question at the heart of the use of EWS: Are individual risk scores necessary for effectively targeting interventions? We propose a simple mechanism that only uses information about students' environments -- such as their schools, and districts -- and argue that this mechanism can target interventions just as efficiently as the individual risk score-based mechanism. Our argument holds even if individual predictions are highly accurate and effective interventions exist. In addition to motivating this simple targeting mechanism, our work provides a novel empirical backbone for the robust qualitative understanding among education researchers that dropout is structurally determined. Combined, our insights call into question the marginal value of individual predictions in settings where outcomes are driven by high levels of inequality.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hate Crimes and Black College Student Enrollment

  Education Finance and Policy · 2023-02-09 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Reported hate crimes in the United States have increased rapidly in recent years, alongside an increase in general racial animus. Scholars have shown that the larger sociopolitical environment can directly impact the campus climate and experiences of all students, particularly students of color. However, little is known about how reports of hate crime incidents relate to college enrollment levels of students of color. This lack of evidence has especially troubling implications for Black people, the most frequent targets of reported hate crimes. This paper helps to fill in that gap by exploring the association between the number of reports of hate crimes within states and Black students’ college enrollment. We examine a comprehensive dataset of institutional enrollment and characteristics, reported hate crimes, and census data on state racial demographics from 2000 to 2017 using several techniques, including institution fixed effects. We find that a 1 standard deviation increase in reports of state-level hate crimes predicts a 17 to 22 percent increase in Black first-time student enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities. As the number of reported hate crimes is almost assuredly an undercount of the actual number of incidents, we explore the implications of what these results mean.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Effects of Student–Teacher Ethnoracial Matching on Exclusionary Discipline for Asian American, Black, and Latinx Students: Evidence From New York City

  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · 2023 · 36 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Although Black and Latinx students disproportionately face exclusionary school discipline, prior research finds that the likelihood of suspension for Black students decreases when they are taught by greater proportions of Black teachers. Little prior work, however, has examined whether these effects generalize to large, diverse, urban school districts or to Asian American or Latinx students and teachers. Using student fixed-effects models and 10 years of data from New York City, we find that assignment to greater proportions of ethnoracially matched teachers decreases the likelihood of suspension for Black and Latinx students. The magnitudes of these effects are small but suggest that diversifying the teacher workforce could lead to significant decreases in exclusionary discipline in urban districts.

  PublisherDOI

• COVID‐19‐related stressors exacerbate food insecurity and depressive symptoms among graduate students receiving campus basic needs services: Cross‐sectional findings from seven California public universities

  Stress and Health · 2023-11-29 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity and depression were growing public health concerns among graduate students. Yet, little is known about how COVID-19-related stressors exacerbated these health outcomes among graduate students. To address this research gap, this study examined two types of COVID-19-related stressors, anticipated concerns about remote learning and challenges interfering with academic and research responsibilities, in relation to food insecurity and depressive symptoms among public university graduate students. Between August and October 2020, 631 graduate students who utilised basic needs services from seven University of California campuses completed an online survey assessing the effects of COVID-19 on their academic experiences, mental health, and basic needs security. Regression analyses examined associations of COVID-19-related concerns and COVID-19-related challenges with food insecurity as well as COVID-19-related concerns and COVID-19-related challenges in relation to depressive symptoms. All four models were adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, campus affiliation, and living with a partner. Models examining food security status as the dependent variable were adjusted for depressive symptoms and vice versa. Graduate students concerned about delayed graduation, post-graduate employment, isolation from faculty and not having access to healthcare reported higher counts of depressive symptoms. Challenges associated with higher counts of depressive symptoms included caring for family more than usual, spending more time on errands and not paying for utilities in full. Students concerned about accessing healthcare had higher odds of experiencing food insecurity. Challenges associated with food insecurity included spending more time on errands, being unable to afford housing and sending money to family members during the pandemic. Our findings illuminate the pandemic's deleterious consequences on graduate students' mental health and food security, underscoring the need for strong academic and basic needs programs and policies.

  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining the machine learning life cycle to improve educational outcomes of students

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023 · 25 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Sociology
  • Computer Science

  Machine learning (ML) techniques are increasingly prevalent in education, from their use in predicting student dropout to assisting in university admissions and facilitating the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Given the rapid growth of these novel uses, there is a pressing need to investigate how ML techniques support long-standing education principles and goals. In this work, we shed light on this complex landscape drawing on qualitative insights from interviews with education experts. These interviews comprise in-depth evaluations of ML for education (ML4Ed) papers published in preeminent applied ML conferences over the past decade. Our central research goal is to critically examine how the stated or implied education and societal objectives of these papers are aligned with the ML problems they tackle. That is, to what extent does the technical problem formulation, objectives, approach, and interpretation of results align with the education problem at hand? We find that a cross-disciplinary gap exists and is particularly salient in two parts of the ML life cycle: the formulation of an ML problem from education goals and the translation of predictions to interventions. We use these insights to propose an extended ML life cycle, which may also apply to the use of ML in other domains. Our work joins a growing number of meta-analytical studies across education and ML research as well as critical analyses of the societal impact of ML. Specifically, it fills a gap between the prevailing technical understanding of machine learning and the perspective of education researchers working with students and in policy.

  PublisherDOI

• The Nexus of Carcerality and Access and Success in Postsecondary Education

  American Behavioral Scientist · 2022 · 16 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Public relations

  This special issue of American Behavioral Scientist focuses on college preparation, access, and success for individuals impacted by carceral systems and practices in K-12 and higher education. Carcerality is (in)formal rules that center discipline, punishment, and control of individuals. Most recently, the embodiment of carceral practices has become more visible throughout the educational system, particularly for students of color. Attitudes, practices, and policies shape how K-12 and higher education students are perceived and treated as risks. In turn, these attitudes and policies lead to decisions about whether students merit investments that increase the likelihood of success in the education system. In the face of these structural barriers, students resist and overcome these policies and the systemic underinvestment in their education. This volume of articles centers the interconnection between education and criminal (in)justice to understand how both fields interact and position minoritized students in the social, academic, and behavioral margins. Articles explore the experiences of system-impacted students in K-12, higher education, theoretical application of risk, the impact of carceral laws and policies on educational access, and response to practices and policies that can counter carceral efforts in education systems.

  PublisherDOI

• College or Bust… or Both: The Effects of the Great Recession on College Enrollment for Black and Latinx Young Adults

  Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness · 2022-04-26 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This article looks at whether the Great Recession led to changes in two-year and four-year college enrollment patterns for students aged 18–24. In particular, I examine how the probability of enrollment changed for Black and Latinx students. It is not initially clear whether the Great Recession would increase or decrease college enrollment for these populations. On the one hand, higher unemployment rates could prompt people to enroll in college, but on the other, reduced credit availability could decrease an individual’s ability to cover costs. I use the severity of the recession in different states to compare how enrollment changed in states that had relatively larger increases in the unemployment rates during the recession using the Current Population Survey (CPS) October Education supplements from 2002 to 2012 as the data source. I find that the probability of college enrollment increased after the onset of the Great Recession for Black students. There is some weak evidence that enrollment might have increased for Latinx students. Enrollment was not more likely in states with higher than average unemployment rates.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Travis J. Bristol

  University of California, Berkeley

  4 shared

• Terrenda White

  University of Colorado Boulder

  3 shared

• Rediet Abebe

  3 shared

• Lydia T. Liu

  2 shared

• Sonali Singh

  University of Toronto

  2 shared

• Serena Wang

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  2 shared

• George Spencer

  New York University

  2 shared

• Millie O. Symns

  City University of New York

  2 shared

Labs

• Tolani Britton LabPI

Awards & honors

• 2023 - 2028 NSF CAREER award
• 2023 Association for Education Finance and Policy Early Care…
• AERA Division L (Educational Policy and Politics) Early Care…
• CIES Ernest D. Morell African Diaspora Emerging Scholar Awar…
• 2021 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fell…