Study Finds the Brightest and Wealthiest Increasing Concentrated at Top Colleges
Research findings presented last month show that intensifying competition for admission to selective colleges has led to a rising concentration of top students at such institutions.As discussed in...
View ArticleNew Report on SAT Test Prep's Effects Is: A) Flawed B) Suspect C) Damning D)...
A new report on programs that prepare students for college entrance examinations has garnered a lot of attention in the media for two key reasons: It concludes that commercial SAT test preparation...
View ArticlePeter Schmidt's AlterNet Essay--and His Response to Its Critics
From Peter Schmidt:On Saturday, May 23, the Web site AlterNet published an essay in which I argued that selective colleges bear some responsibility for our current economic crisis because their...
View ArticleU. of Illinois Takes Heat for Lowering the Bar for Applicants with Clout
Officials at the University of Illinois are scrambling to deal with the fallout from a series of Chicago Tribune articles exposing how the institution maintained a "shadow admissions system" opening...
View ArticleArizona to Vote on a Ban on Affirmative-Action Preferences in 2010
Arizona lawmakers have agreed to put a proposed constitutional amendment curtailing the use of affirmative-action preferences on the ballot next year.With the state legislature's decision last month to...
View ArticleNew Study Appears Likely to Complicate the Debate Over Legacy Admissions
A new study of alumni of a selective research university concludes that families can feel inclined to donate to such institutions for reasons that extend well beyond simply trying to increase the...
View ArticlePlaintiffs in Lawsuit Against U. of Texas Take Their Case to the Fifth Circuit
The plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the revival of race-conscious admissions policy at the University of Texas at Austin have taken their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.A...
View ArticleNaval Academy Accused of Illegally Retaliating Against Affirmative Action Critic
As reported at length today in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the U.S. Naval Academy has been accused by one of its professors of illegally retaliating against him for publicly...
View ArticleFederal Appeals Court Hears Challenge to Affirmative Action Preference Bans
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments last month in a legal challenge to the ban on affirmative-action preferences adopted by Michigan voters in...
View ArticleU. of Minnesota Remains Under Fire for Plan to Promote Sensitivity Among...
The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has come under heavy fire from conservative pundits and a prominent free-speech advocacy group over a task force's plan to ensure that graduates of its teacher...
View ArticleSandra Day O'Connor Accused of Hedging on Her Grutter Decision
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark 2003 decision upholding race-conscious college admissions as constitutional, the controlling opinion said that the educational benefits of diversity had...
View ArticleCalifornia Preference Ban Challenged in Bid to Thwart Similar Measures
An activist group has filed a federal lawsuit challenging California's Proposition 209 ban on affirmative-action preferences in a bid to keep similar measures from being passed elsewhere.As reportered...
View ArticleObama Administration Announces New Effort to Enforce Civil Rights in Education
As reported here in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Obama administration pledged this week to expand enforcement of civil-rights laws in education. At a press conference held in Selma, Ala., on...
View ArticleUtah Drive for Preference Ban Stalls in Legislature
An effort to amend Utah's state constitution to ban the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and state and local agencies has been put off a year after meeting resistance in the...
View ArticleMarch Madness Brings News of Widening Black-White Gap in Players' Graduation...
Although the black members of the basketball teams of colleges represented in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament appear to be doing slightly better academically than they did in the past,...
View ArticleAffirmative-Action Scholars Denied Access to California Bar Data
A California state judge has rejected a bid by two researchers examining affirmative action to gain access to California Bar Association data on the long-term success of law-school graduates.As...
View ArticleEd Dept.'s Civil Rights Chief Signals New Approach to Race
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is reviewing its approach to complaints of anti-Semitism and its guidance to colleges on race-conscious admission policies and gender equity in...
View ArticleNew Research on Diversity Yields Surprising Findings
The success of minority college students and students' perceptions of race relations on their campuses are influenced by factors that actually have little direct connection with ethnicity or race,...
View ArticleAre Elite Colleges Biased Against Poor, White, Conservative Christians?...
It has been a heady few weeks for those who pay attention to the admission policies and enrollments of the nation's elite colleges. First, several right-leaning opinion writers sounded alarms about new...
View ArticleCalifornia's Proposition 209 Upheld By State's Supreme Court
As discussed at more length here in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the California Supreme Court has upheld that state's Proposition 209 ban on affirmative-action preferences, in a case involving...
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