In June 2023, the Supreme Court held that the admissions systems at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard University were racially discriminatory, effectively ending affirmative action. Are race-neutral admissions policies at selective K-12 schools next? Bob Kim considers two circuit court cases -- "Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax…

This brief is part of the Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion, and Empowering Action initiative. This brief is focused on holistic review, a strategy in college admissions that assesses an applicant's unique experiences alongside a range of indicators that include grades, extra curriculars, environmental context, among other factors. For…

Racial preferences, as practiced in academia and elsewhere, by definition, discriminates against individuals based on their race. Radical academics and writers, including the founders of critical race theory, have long supported the use of race as a predominant factor in postsecondary and graduate school admissions. If the Court rules as it should…

This essay discusses the contentious events leading to the decision by the University of California's Board of Regents to end affirmative action in admissions, hiring and contracting at the university in July 1995. This controversial decision provided momentum for California's passage of Proposition 209 the following year ending "racial…

This manuscript describes an approach to critical qualitative data analysis that combines (1) Carspecken's critical qualitative methodological framework with (2) the conceptual resources of critical discourse analysis (CDA), as framed by Fairclough and colleagues. Carspecken's methodological theory illuminates the connection between sociopolitical…

The future of affirmative action in education--not just for colleges but potentially for K-12 schools as well--may be on the line when the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a race-conscious admissions plan from the University of Texas next month. That seems apparent to the scores of education groups that have lined up behind the university with…

This article reports the results of a new study on the impact of bans on race-conscious admissions policies which seem to confirm what many critics of affirmative action have long suspected: It is Asian-Americans, rather than whites, who are most disadvantaged by elite universities' consideration of ethnicity and race. Left unanswered are the…

Thirty years ago, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. sent the nation's selective colleges down a path where few had ventured before. In the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in "Regents of the University of California v. Bakke," he wrote that colleges were legally justified in giving some modest consideration to their applicants' race, so…

Given the overwhelming popular appeal of merit-based college admissions, George La Noue advocates a new transparency in how colleges and universities select their students. He has some suggestions about how colleges might comply with court-mandated requirements for case-by-case evaluations. He also provides hints from which NAS members might…

Advocates of racial preferences from the Harvard Civil Rights Project have criticized an initiative designed to provide race-neutral admissions to universities in Florida. George La Noue rejects their criticism, which, he says, confuses the definitions of affirmative action, establishes nonexistent criteria, and ignores crucial elements that…

This paper describes the college admission process through the conceptual lens of Dickason's (2001) phases of affirmative action. The first phase, obligatory affirmative action, describes the history of affirmative action and the impact on college admission. The second phase, voluntary affirmative action, describes University of West Florida's…

Dr. Wallace Loh still remembers the sting of hearing his high school teachers in Peru call him "el chino"--Spanish for "Chinese boy." Why didn't they simply use his name? After all, they did so with his classmates. They typically did not single out students of other foreign nationalities, such as calling the German student…

In a University of Texas-Austin case in which four white applicants to the law school were rejected, a federal judge has upheld the college's right to consider race and ethnicity as admissions factors, but also outlined strict limits on use of affirmative action in assessing applicants, which could pose legal problems for some colleges. (MSE)

Elite universities will be returning to court to clarify the murky ruling in "Grutter v. Bollinger". Thomas E. Wood predicts that judges will again have to pass judgment on the constitutionality of dubious scheming by elite universities to achieve their critical mass of black students legitimately--without resort to tacit quotas and…

Discusses early experiences of school governing bodies in South Africa. Examines governing bodies' powers to set fees, resulting impact on resources for different types of schools, and implications for equity and equality. Explores governing bodies' admission policies and how this led to school populations differentiated by class and race. (CAJ)