Dr. Alberto Ochoa – Chairperson

Dr. Alberto M. Ochoa is a faculty member in the College of Education at San Diego State University (SDSU), with the rank of full Professor Emeritus. For more than 15 years, Dr. Ochoa served as Chair of the Policy Studies in Language and Cross-Cultural Studies Department (PLC) at SDSU. As department chair, he was responsible for the implementation and evaluation of bilingual teacher education programs at the elementary and secondary school levels. Dr. Ochoa has also served as the Academic Director of the Joint Doctoral Program between Claremont University and SDSU (1999-2005). Since beginning his academic work at SDSU in 1975, Dr. Ochoa has maintained an active record of professional development, grant writing and service to the community. His academic work is based on action research, in which he combines theory and practice to confront and resolve equity problems in social and educational institutions. Dr. Ochoa seeks the challenge of participating in community and institutional development programs/projects that promote democratic schooling and broad based community participation in both domestic and international settings.

His research interests, with over 70 publications, document his work in the areas of public equity, school desegregation, language policy, critical pedagogy, student achievement, and parental leadership. In the last ten years, Dr. Ochoa has also been involved in developing processes for community capacity building, as well as forecasting the educational needs of school districts through demographic trends, socio-political conditions, and educational reform trends. Since 1981, he has co-chaired over 60 doctoral dissertations in the Joint Claremont Graduate University/San Diego State University Doctoral Program and been a member of another 30 doctoral committees.

Since 1975, Dr. Ochoa has worked with over 60 K-12 school districts in California, providing technical assistance in the areas of: (1) language policy and assessment, (2) bilingual instructional programs, (3) curriculum programming, (4) staff development, (5) community development, (6) organizational development and school climate, (7) program management and evaluation, and (8) parent leadership. His involvement with public schools includes international programs in countries such as Mexico, Spain and China.

Since 1975, Dr. Ochoa has received over 11 million dollars in grants and contracts from federal, state and local educational agencies in the areas of National Origin Desegregation, Professional Development in Bilingual Capacity Building, Immigrant Education, California Reading and Literature Projects, Language Development, Parent Leadership Education, and Bilingual-Special Education Teacher Development.