Da'Shay Templeton, Ph.D.

About

Dr. Da’Shay Templeton is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at California Lutheran University whose research examines how social psychological processes—such as bias, threat perception, and stereotyping—and educational policies shape decision-making and inequity in educational systems. Using experimental and mixed-methods approaches, her work explores how race, gender, disability, and other identities influence discipline, opportunity, and leadership within schools and higher education.

Her scholarship has been supported by competitive national awards, including funding from the Spencer Foundation, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the National Academies of Sciences through the Ford Dissertation Fellowship.

Dr. Templeton teaches graduate and doctoral courses in research methods, data analysis, and diversity in education, preparing scholar-practitioners to address real-world problems of practice. She is committed to mentoring students from diverse backgrounds and advancing educational equity through research, teaching, and community-engaged scholarship.

Education

Ph.D., Higher Education & Quantitative Methodology, GPA: 3.9/4.0

• Dissertation Directors
  • Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner, Associate Professor of Higher Education & Sociology
  • Dr. James Wright II, Associate Professor of Public Administration & Policy
• Dissertation Articles
  • Paper 1: Templeton, D. The laying on of hands: Discriminatory animus in school discipline procedures. 
  • Paper 2: Templeton, D. Class dismissed: The effect of differential state aid on (school) criminalization. 
  • Paper 3: Templeton, D. Are anti-Indigenous and anti-gender expansive biases lessening in the US?: Evidence from an experiment.
• Graduation date: June 1, 2023
  • Cumulative GPA: 3.96/4.0

San Francisco State University, 2012 – 2015
MA, English, GPA: 3.9/4.0
Teaching of Composition Certificate, GPA: 3.9/4.0
Teaching of Post-Secondary Reading Certificate, GPA: 4.0/4.0
Honors: summa cum laude

California State University, Northridge, 2010 – 2012
BA, English, GPA: 3.7/4.0
Honors: magna cum laude

College of the Canyons, 2006 – 2010
Lower-division transfer requirements met at a California Community College

Expertise

• • Educational Leadership and Organizational Change
  • Social Psychology of Education
  • Implicit Bias, Stereotyping, and Threat Perception
  • School Discipline and the School-to-Prison Nexus
  • Educational Equity and Social Justice
  • Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality in Education
  • Black American, Indigenous, and Racially Minoritized Student Experiences
  • Disability and Intersectional Inequality
  • Quantitative Methods and Experimental Research Design
  • Survey Experiments and Causal Inference
  • Mixed-Methods Research
  • Data Analysis and Statistical Modeling
  • Teacher Leadership and Problems of Practice
  • Education Policy and Institutional Decision-Making
  • Culturally Responsive and Equity-Oriented Pedagogy

Publications

Templeton D., & Korchagin R (2026). Handcuffed for 15 min: public perceptions of restraint and seclusion in schools: an experimental study of race and disability. Frontiers of Psychology, 16. 16:1646644. 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1646644

Templeton, D., Gordan, T. & Korchagin, R. (2026). “If We Don't Tell Our Stories, They'll Erase Us”: Understanding the Criminalization of Disabled Black American Activists. Diversity & Inclusion Research, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/dvr2.70049.

Templeton, D. (2025). The Laying on of Hands: Anti-Black and Anti-Gender-Expansive Biases in Public Perceptions of School Personnel Performance Ratings. Educational Researcher, 54(6). https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X251368365.

Templeton, D. (2025). Bureaucratic Representation May Lead to Less Discriminatory Outcomes for American Indian and Two-Spirit Youth: Evidence from an Online Experiment on School Criminalization. AERA Open, 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584251338847.

Templeton, D., & Korchagin, R. (2025). Stratified Fitness: Post-COVID Inequities in Physical Education Across Race, Class, and Dis/Ability in Connecticut Schools. Children, 12(9), 1144. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12091144

Templeton D., & Korchagin R. (2025). Reducing enrollment disparities for prospective racially minoritized graduate students through financial aid: evidence from an online survey experiment in the U.S.. Frontiers of Education, 10. 10:1639255. 10.3389/feduc.2025.1639255.

Templeton D., & Korchagin, R. (2025). Stratification economics and racial disparities in U.S. K−12 education. Frontiers of Education, 10. 10:1600820. 10.3389/feduc.2025.1600820.

Templeton, D. (2025). Gender Expansive Students and the School-to-Prison Nexus. In Roberts, L. (ed.), The Sage International Encyclopedia of Politics and Gender (Vol. 4, pp. 1279-1284). Sage Publications, Inc. 10.4135/9781071918494.n306

Templeton, D. (2025). The U.S. public disapproves of corporal punishment in American schools…for some kids more than others: Evidence from an online experiment on (school) criminalization. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 1-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2025.2488746

Templeton, D. (2024). The Immovable Veil of Black disability: An introduction to Black disability racial threat theory and its application to school criminalization. Journal of Race Ethnicity, and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2024.2398474

Templeton D., Korchagin R., Valla B., Ford JR. (2025). When Parent–Teacher Collaboration Turns Violent: Corporal Punishment in American Schools and Subsequent (Secondary) Trauma. Children 12(6):684. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12060684

Templeton, D., Korchagin, R., & Valla, B. (2025). Left Behind in Lockdown: How COVID-19 Deepened the Crisis in K-12 Physical Education. Children, 12(5), 603. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12050603

Templeton, D. & Korchagin, R. (2024). Exercising Educational Equity Using California’s Physical Fitness Data: A call for more school physical fitness programs, data, and research. Frontiers of Education. DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1433466

Jenkins, L., Marks, L.R., Perez-Felkner, L., Verma, K., Templeton, D., Thomas, J. (2024). Applying the Bystander Intervention Model to Racial Microaggressions in College Students. International Journal of Bullying Prevention. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-024-00216-x

Marks, L., Jenkins, L., Perez-Felkner, L., Templeton, D. & Verma, K. (2024). Social Cognitive Predictors of Bystander Intervention in Racial Microaggressions among College Students. Race and Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-024-09412-2.

Holton, A., Perez-Felkner, L., & Templeton, D. (2022). How do institutional type and transfer affect contemporary college students’ degree attainment? Community College Journal of Research and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2022.2156633.

Wright, J., Gaozhao, D., Dukes, K., & Templeton, D. (2022). The power of protests: An experiment of Black Lives Matter protest presence and citizens’ perceptions of the police. Public Administration Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13498.

Grant Funding

2026, Spencer Foundation’s Racial Equity Research Grant, $75,000

2024, California Lutheran University’s Graduate School of Education Small Research Grant, $1,000

2023 California Lutheran University's Faculty Development & Inclusive Excellence Grant, $1,500

2023 California Lutheran University's Hewlett Grant, $1,000

2023 Federation of American Scientists' Civil Rights Data Science Impact Fellow (Finalist), $160,000

2022 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Ford Dissertation Fellowship, $28,000

2022 American Education Research Association's Research Grant, $27,500

2022 American Education Research Association's Minority Dissertation Fellowship, $25,000

2022 International Philanthropic Education Organization's PEO Scholar Award, $20,000