Anti-affirmative action legal discourse about U.S. higher education within selective institutions race-conscious admissions encompasses co-opted civil rights aims for racial equity in education that maintains white supremacy. Racially progressive efforts to include historically racially minoritized applicants of color have been met with unfounded…

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…

Access to higher education is a key determinant of lifetime earnings in the U.S. Since the 1960s, selective public universities have admitted students mostly on the basis of standardized test scores and other measures of academic preparation. In this dissertation, I employ quasi-experimental and structural research designs to investigate the…

In this essay, the author discusses how affirmative action contributed to an unnatural rise in enrollments in college. In considering the higher education bubble, he makes the case that as the opposition to preferences continues to build, the momentum of this trend will only increase as funding shrinks. He offers some tentative answers to a series…

Opponents of higher education affirmative action programs are gearing up to launch their largest attack in recent years. The planned assault comes in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely limited the use of race in K-12 integration plans. It was Ward Connerly, the chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a…

Identity is central for research on education since, under certain conditions, it may influence school choice, career preferences and classroom behaviour. Identity also determines disposition toward schooling because it may have the capacity to shape and modify the values, beliefs and characteristics that distinguish one person from another, by…

This article uses four data sets to assess changes in the relative weights of test- and performance-based merit criteria on college enrollment during the 1980s and 1990s and considers their significance for affirmative action. Our results support the "shifting meritocracy" hypothesis, revealed by selective postsecondary institutions'…

Affirmative action addresses disparities in higher education. Recent trends threaten gains, resegregation is underway nationally. California outlawed affirmative action, the quality of K-12 education is declining, and prison construction is soaring. African American and Latino participation in higher education has declined; both groups are…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This January 14, 2005 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Utopia College: A Distinctive Alternative" (Nemko, Marty); (2)…