[9] She also worked as an expert witness in several desegregation cases, focused on second-generation segregation through racial tracking – in Rockford (IL), San Jose (CA), Wilmington (DE), and Oxford (MS).
It supports educators, community activists, youth and others as they use and conduct research with the goal of improving public schools and increasing successful college participation.
The “X” signals the intersection of research and practice for preparing and supporting K–12 teachers and administrators, and Center X foregrounds social justice and care, along with instructional excellence, with a focus on urban schools.
Oakes's leadership in urban teacher preparation led her to write the influential[citation needed] textbook Teaching to change the world.
[15][16] Oakes also founded and directed an interdisciplinary, multi-campus research center devoted to a more equitable distribution of educational resources and opportunities in California’s diverse public schools and universities.
The University of California’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (ACCORD), which the UC stopped funding around 2015, used fellowship programs to create a supportive pipeline for young scholars whose work focused on racial equity in education.
[20] After leaving Ford, she was elected 100th President of the American Education Research Association and focused her Presidential year on advancing public scholarship.
In her role at the Learning Policy Institute, Oakes has also focused on issues of equitable school finance and resources, including work in North Carolina and her current home state of New Mexico.