Action In College Admissions Research Articles

The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions

Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. 472 pp. $24.95, cloth. Reviewed by Darren Woodruff, American Institutes for Research, Washington, D.C. aims and values of an educational institution are often revealed most vividly by the choices it makes in selecting its students. With this assertion, the authors of this painstakingly documented and well-written study launch into a fascinating and timely examination of race and the college admissions process and the related academic and career outcomes for Black students admitted into selective colleges and universities. title of the book, Shape of the River, is used by the authors as a metaphor to signify the complex and controversial nature of linking social progress to affirmative action, particularly in the context of increasing access to higher education. data for this study comes from the College and Beyond database, a compilation of records fox more than 80,000 undergraduate students who matriculated at 28 colleges and universities in the fall semesters of 1951, 1976, and 1989. authors, former presidents of Princeton and Harvard universities, respectively, utilize this quantitative data as well as their own considerable experiences in higher education to build a persuasive argument for continuing the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Chapter 1, Historical Context, sets the tone for examining the current debate on race and college admissions. authors site data showing that in 1951, Black students averaged 0.8% of the entering class at the 19 College and Beyond schools for which records were available. From 1960 to 1995, the percentage of college graduates in the overall population of Blacks rose from 5.4% to 15.4%, largely as a result of the civil rights movement and increased attention to past discriminatory practices. Additionally, during this time the Black-White gap in college entrance examination scores declined by approximately 25%. These educational achievements helped lead to the gradual emergence of a Black middle class, with 20% of Blacks in 1990 working at a management or professional level, up from 5% in 1950. Despite such progress and the related benefits to society, however, the authors note that efforts to increase the number of minority professionals through race-sensitive admissions policies have never been fully accepted. They provide a recent example of this tension in the 1996 announcement by the Regents of the University of California that the nine universities in their system would no longer be permitted to take race into account in admitting students. Other states have since followed with their own lawsuits challenging the consideration of race in admission policies. Chapter 2, The Admissions Process and Race-Neutrality, explores how Black enrollment at selective schools would have proceeded under a race-neutral admissions system. chapter begins by demonstrating that the vast majority of undergraduate institutions accepted all qualified candidates, leaving only 20% to 30% of schools in a position to apply more restrictive selection criteria, be it race or any other standard. These more selective institutions are represented by five of the colleges and universities in the College and Beyond database. Bowen and Bok contend that the adoption of a strict race-neutral standard by these schools would have resulted in a 50% to 70% reduction in Black enrollment. Moreover, the enrollment level of Blacks under such a system would have fallen from 7.1% to 2.1% of the entering class. They further conclude that the drop-off in qualified applicants would have stemmed directly from disparities in precollegiate academic achievement, as seen particularly in test scores and high school grades. As they maintain, the academic credentials of the students rejected under the race-neutral premise would have been only slightly weaker than those of the students who would have been admitted. …

Race-based versus class-based affirmative action in college admissions

Race-based versus class-based affirmative action in college admissions

RESHAPING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

May you live in interesting I goes an old Chinese saying that I can be taken as either a blessing or a curse. For supporters of affirmative action in college admissions, the times are indee...

Race-based versus class-based affirmative action in college admissions

Race-based versus class-based affirmative action in college admissions

The American Canon Wars: A View from Mexico

Cualquiera que haya experimentado la vida académica de los Estados Unidos, en la última década, sabe que el campus se ha convertido en un campo de batalla de las llamadas “Guerras Culturales.” En su vida política y social, los Estados Unidos han sufrido grandes tensiones debido a su carácter multiétnico. Más especialmente, se han enfocado en las “guerras por la verdad sagrada”: la controversia sobre jerarquías previamente asumidas sobre el trabajo literario e intelectual de ciertos individuos que ha sido acuñado como valor nacional. En México donde la educación superior es más especializada y con un enfoque más profesional, se discute muy poco sobre cuestiones de esta índole, a pesar de las diversidades lingüisticas y culturales de este país. Sin embargo, en los Estados Unidos, las tensiones sociales son generadas o influidas, en muchas ocasiones, por la naturaleza académica liberal de las universidades norteamericanas.

Banish Affirmative Action in College Admissions? Why Many in the GOP Lack the Spine to Try

Banish Affirmative Action in College Admissions? Why Many in the GOP Lack the Spine to Try

Affirmative Action in College Admissions: White Men Strike Back

Affirmative Action in College Admissions: White Men Strike Back

What if there was no Affirmative Action in College Admissions? A Further Refinement of our Earlier Calculations

What if there was no Affirmative Action in College Admissions? A Further Refinement of our Earlier Calculations

The Role of Values in Predicting Fairness Judgments and Support of Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is one of the most controversial current public policies—public support has never reached a majority of the electorate for most versions of affirmative action. Many people oppose affirmative action on the grounds that it violates norms of procedural fairness and meritocracy, in spite of the fact that they also support egalitarian values consistent with it. This article explores this apparent paradox by testing reactions to affirmative action in college admissions by comparing three models positing differing roles for values in ideological reasoning: (1) a central role for values—Tetlock's (1986) value pluralism model, (2) a secondary role for values—Lind's (1992) fairness heuristic hypothesis, and (3) no role for values—affective explanations (i.e., Jackman, 1978). Results support the fairness heuristic hypothesis—subjective assessments of fairness play a mediating role between personal values and support for affirmative action. These results indicate that values play a significant role in determining support for affirmative action. To more fully understand how people reason about affirmative action, however, values research must be yoked with justice research.