Profile

L. Trenton S. Marsh, PhD currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Learning Sciences and Educational Research at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Prior to UCF he completed a two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan (U-M), where he taught a qualitative research lab and explored the experiences of students who participated in U-M’s Wolverine Pathways, a new equity and inclusion initiative. His research interests include the conceptualization of student success, teacher-student interactions, the social context of education, and school choice, with an emphasis on “no excuses” public charter schools. He also explores the experiences of low-income students and families of color to help inform equitable pedagogies, policies, and processes in educative spaces serving PreK-12 and higher education students. Marsh uses qualitative research in the service of lifting up and unearthing insight of participants. His work has been published in Urban Review, Boyhood Studies, GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, and Education Week.

Marsh earned his PhD at New York University's Steinhardt School in the Teaching and Learning department concentrating in urban education. His dissertation, “Success at a price,” received the 2015 Mitchell Leaska Dissertation Research Award and the 2016 Phi Delta Kappa Doctoral Dissertation Award. Prior to NYU, Marsh served as a Managing Business Consultant with IBM Corporation. Previous clients include NYC DoE, Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry, Pfizer, AT&T, Celanese, and many others.

Marsh also served as an Associate Research Scientist at NYU Steinhardt’s Metro Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools where he evaluated longitudinal special education and disciplinary data for various NY districts. In addition, he previously served as a facilitator for the Youth Leadership Academy, a partnership with CORO Leadership Center NY and the NYC DoE.

Marsh is also the author of From 1.0 to 4.0 (Trafford Publishing, 2008), which highlights the strategies he used to transition from a struggling high school student to a strong student leader and academician. The book has been used at University of the Virgin Islands, Prairie View A&M University, Alexandria Virginia Public Schools, Los Medanos College, and other orgs/schools. Marsh is a founding member of CommitMEN, a think-tank that provides annual scholarships and guidance to Black men graduating from his high school alma mater and entering higher education.

PhD, New York University

• Examining lived experiences of youth/families of color
• Conceptualization of Success
• Equitable pedagogies, policies, and processes in urban schools