I study the efficacy of test-based meritocracy in college admissions by evaluating the impact of a grade-based "top percent'' policy implemented by the University of California. Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) provided large admission advantages to the top four percent of 2001-2011 graduates from each California high school. I…

What are the benefits and costs of attending a selective public research university instead of a less-selective university or college? This study examines the 2001-2011 Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) program, which guaranteed University of California admission to students in the top four percent of California high school classes. Employing…

The most selective institutions of higher education are recognized by their competitive admissions, low admittance rates, high cost to attend, and the prestige garnered from achievements of their alumni. Hispanics' graduation rates at the most selective institutions of higher education are higher than at less selective institutions. Yet, only 12…

The goal of equal educational opportunity remains unrealized at most of America's colleges. The children of wealth and privilege fill nearly all the seats at these institutions, while the children of poverty are almost completely absent. Far too often, a young person's educational path is determined not by intellect, but by parental income. That a…

Affirmative action in college admissions was effectively banned in Texas by the Hopwood ruling in 1997, by voter referenda in California and Washington in 1996 and 1998, and by administrative decisions in Florida in 1999. The "Hopwood" and "Johnson" rulings also had possible applicability to public colleges throughout Alabama,…

Today a college degree is considered the ticket to a good job and the gateway to economic advancement. A student's chances of gaining admission to college, however, are often based more on parental wealth than the student's achievements. At the nation's most selective colleges, three percent of incoming freshmen come from families in the bottom…

One sees various efforts in developed as well as in developing economies to seek a greater participation of lower-income students in their nation's leading universities. Once lower-income students do enroll in a highly selective institution, what happens to them? How well do they do academically when compared to their more wealthy counterparts?…

One of the important arguments by critics of affirmative action is that it actually hurts the students it is supposed to help by subjecting them to the "stigma" of being admitted under policies explicitly seeking campus diversity. Such students, this theory argues, must feel embarrassed and uncomfortable as a result and would prefer to…

Most discussions of charter schools assume that they are monolithic. While the media, researchers, and policymakers are obsessed with comparing charters to traditional public schools, there's been little interest in comparing different types of charter schools to one another--until now. This study--the first of its kind--categorizes the nation's…

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…

When representatives from community colleges and selective four-year institutions gather, there is no greater flashpoint than the topic of part-time enrollment. This issue--that students coming from an institution comprising mostly part-time students should be enabled to transfer to selective four-year institutions in which full-time enrollment is…

Examines parent involvement contracts in charter schools, exploring data from a survey of California's charter schools and comparison schools. The study finds that charter schools have greater levels of parent involvement, but the involvement may be due to selectivity in the kinds of families participating in charter schools. (SM)