Equity

DIVERSITY IN UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS: Affirmative Action, Percent Plans, and Holistic Review by Zachary Bleemer CSHE 6.19 (July 2019)

Zachary Bleemer
2019

There is considerable interest in the impact of policy alternatives to race-based affirmative action (AA) on under-represented minority (URM) university enrollment. Widely-implemented alternatives include percent plans, which guarantee admission to top high school students, and holistic review, in which applications are evaluated on a comprehensive set of merits. This study estimates each policy's URM enrollment effect at the University of California (UC). Difference-in-difference estimates show that AA increased annual UC URM enrollment by more than 800 students (20%), and by more than 60...

Public University Systems and the Benefits of Scale by James R. Johnsen. CSHE 2. 2024 (February 2024)

James Johnsen
2024

Multi-campus public higher education governance systems exist in 44 of the 50 U.S. states. They include all the largest and most influential public colleges and universities in the United States, educating fully 75 percent of the nation’s public sector students. Their impact is enormous. And yet, they are largely neglected and as a tool for improvement are underutilized. Meanwhile, many states continue to struggle achieving their goals for higher education attainment, social and economic mobility, workforce development, equitable access and affordability, technological innovation,...

BERKELEY VERSUS THE SAT: A Regent, a Chancellor and a Debate on the Value of Standardized Testing in Admissions by John Aubrey Douglass CSHE 3.19 (January 2019)

John Aubrey Douglass
2019

The following essay details a debate between UC Berkeley and a Regent who made charges of discrimination against Asian-American students that are similar to the current legal challenges facing Harvard University. The crux of such charges: on average, that one racial or ethnic group is more “qualified” than other groups, often underrepresented minorities, yet they have lower admissions rates. In 2004, Regent John Moores, convinced of discriminatory practices toward Asian-American students in the admissions process at Berkeley, did his own analysis of UC admissions data focused on SAT scores...

Access and Admission

CSHE has published a series of papers on the access and equity in higher education. Selected publications include: Eligibility for Admission to the University of California After the SAT/ACT: Toward a Redefinition of Eligibility, by Saul Geiser, CSHE 2.22 (February 2022) Top Percent Policies and the...

Equity

Ensuring equity in higher education is essential for fostering inclusive learning environments and expanding opportunities for historically underrepresented and marginalized groups. At CSHE, our research examines disparities in access, retention, and student outcomes, as well as the policies and institutional practices that promote or hinder educational equity. We explore issues related to race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other intersecting identities, with the goal of advancing more just and inclusive higher education systems.

As part of our commitment to equity, CSHE has...

Affirmative action and its race-neutral alternatives

February 7, 2023
Zach Bleemer

As affirmative action loses political feasibility, many universities have implemented race-neutral alternatives like top percent policies and holistic review to increase enrollment among disadvantaged students. I study these policies’ application, admission, and enrollment effects using University of California administrative data. UC’s affirmative action and top percent policies increased underrepresented minority (URM) enrollment by over 20 percent and less than 4 percent, respectively. Holistic review increases implementing campuses’ URM enrollment by about 7 percent. Top percent...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004727272300021X

Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests, by Richard C. Atkinson and Saul Geiser

Richard C. Atkinson
Saul Geiser
2009

Standardized testing for college admissions has grown exponentially since the first administration of the old “College Boards” in 1901. This paper surveys major developments since then: the introduction of the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” in 1926, designed to tap students’ general analytic ability; E.F. Lindquist’s creation of the ACT in 1959 as a competitor to the SAT, intended as a measure of achievement rather than ability; the renewed interest on the part of some leading colleges and universities in subject-specific assessments such as the SAT Subject Tests and Advanced Placement...

The Role of Advanced Placement and Honors Courses in College Admissions, by Saul Geiser and Veronica Santelices

Saul Geiser
Veronica Santelices
2004

This study examines the role of Advanced Placement (AP) and other honors-level courses as a criterion for admission at a leading public university, the University of California, and finds that the number of AP and honors courses taken in high school bears little or no relationship to students’ later performance in college. AP is increasingly emphasized as a factor in admissions, particularly at selective colleges and universities. But while student performance on AP examinations is strongly related to college performance, merely taking AP or other honors-level courses in high school...

The Community Colleges and the Path to the Baccalaureate, by Arthur M. Cohen

Arthur M. Cohen
2003

This paper discusses several aspects of the community college role in providing access to further studies: ways of calculating transfer rates and estimates of the number of students making the transition, incentives for and inhibitors to student transfer as reflected in state policy and institutional practice, and a look to the future of transfer. It emphasizes California, which boasts by far the greatest community college and public university enrollment figures.

Inequality, Student Achievement, and College Admissions: A Remedy for Underrepresentation, by Roger E. Studley

Roger E. Studley
2003

Large socioeconomic and ethnic disparities exist in college admissions. This paper demonstrates that by systematically accounting for the effect of socioeconomic circumstance on pre-college achievement, colleges can substantially reduce these disparities. A conceptual model distinguishes students' realized achievement from their underlying ability (inclusive of effort and motivation) and relates achievement differences to both ability and socioeconomic circumstance. The model shows that an admissions policy that systematically accounts for the relationship between circumstance and...