Joi Spencer

Assistant Professor

Learning and Teaching

Joi Spencer, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, having earned a B.A. and M.A. at Stanford University, and a doctorate in education, with an emphasis in mathematics education, at UCLA. Her dissertation, "Balancing the Equation: African-American Students' Opportunity to Learn Mathematics with Understanding in Two Central City Middle Schools," examined learning opportunities and mathematics identity of both successful and nonsuccessful African-American students. While a doctoral student, Spencer was a fellow of the National Science Foundation's Diversity in Mathematics Education Center for Teaching and Learning, a collaboration with University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. She is currently working on a chapter for her upcoming Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning. In addition to her work at USD, Spencer will continue her research with the LessonLab Research Institute in Santa Monica, working on a grant that explores the impact of a video-based lesson analysis of professional development in mathematics teaching practice and student outcomes in five middle schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Spencer's dissertation was funded by a grant from the American Educational Research Association (AERA).