Makeba Jones

Dr. Makeba Jones holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her expertise and professional background are in school transformation, educational equity, and urban education.

Her social justice work and research have focused on the social and cultural organization of schools, student engagement, tracking and ability grouping, secondary school reform, educational policy, teacher and principal professional development, school-community-university partnerships, and student voice.

She has more than twenty-five years of experience in design-based collaborations with educators and education leaders across San Diego County on a range of school transformation initiatives. This work, largely in under-resourced communities of color, has focused on changing unequal school structures and cultures related to student learning and achievement, teacher pedagogy, and college preparation.

She also has particular expertise in youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects designed to help education leaders better understand educational equity from the perspectives of young people.

University of California, Los Angeles

Education, Ph.D.  2000

University of California, San Diego

Anthropology, B.A 1992

Sociology, B.A. 1992

Jones, M. and Yonezawa, S. “Student-Driven Research.” Educational Leadership, Vol. 66 No. 4, pp. 65-69 (Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009).

Yonezawa, S., Jones, M. and Joselowsky, F. “Youth Engagement in High Schools:  Developing a Multidimensional, Critical Approach to Improving Engagement for All Students.” Journal for Educational Change, Vol. 10, pp. 191-209 (April 2009).

Mehan, H. & Jones, M. “Trying to bend the bars of the iron cage: The possibilities and  limitations of charter schools as models for successful school reform.” In H. Mehan, In, College's Front Door: Creating a College Bound Culture of Learning in High Schools.  Paradigm Publishers. (2012).  

Jones, M. ’I Need More Information:’ How College Advising is Still Absent from College Preparation in High Schools. Policy brief repared for UC/ACCORD. (2013)   

Jones, M. “Youth-Led Action Research: A Lesson in Letting Go of Control.” In H. Lattimer and S. Caillier, (Eds.), Surviving and Thriving with Teacher Action Research: Reflections and Advice from the Field. Peter Lang Publishing. (2015)