ERIC Number: ED650131
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 72
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Progress Interrupted: Evaluating a Decade of Demographic Change at Selective and Open-Access Institutions Prior to the End of Race-Conscious Affirmative Action
Jeff Strohl; Emma Nyhof; Catherine Morris
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
In the wake of the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions, the pursuit of diversity and equity in higher education is increasingly under threat. While access to higher education has improved overall for historically underrepresented students, the quality of that opportunity remains uneven, particularly along the lines of race/ethnicity and class. Race-conscious affirmative action brought about a modicum of racial and ethnic diversity to selective colleges, and by extension to our social and economic institutions. Yet this still failed to sufficiently increase representation at selective institutions to reflect the growing percentage of underrepresented minority students who are of college age. This report is a retrospective analysis of the changing demographics of selective and open-access institutions from 2009 to 2019, the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Race/ethnicity could still be explicitly considered in the admissions process during that decade. The authors chose to end the analysis with the onset of COVID-19 because the pandemic profoundly altered college enrollment. This report demonstrates that even with race-conscious affirmative action, diversity gains made at the nation's most selective colleges and universities were incremental at best. The US is still a long way from successfully closing equity gaps by race/ethnicity at selective universities, while historically underrepresented students continue to disproportionately enroll in open-access institutions.
Descriptors: Universities, College Enrollment, Selective Admission, Affirmative Action, Minority Group Students, Enrollment Trends, Racial Composition, Demography, Disproportionate Representation, Student Diversity, Educational Change, Access to Education, Federal Courts, Court Litigation, Socioeconomic Status, Diversity (Institutional), College Students, Open Enrollment, Educational Opportunities
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. 3300 Whitehaven Street NW Suite 5000 Box 571444, Washington, DC 20057. Tel: 202-687-4922; Fax: 202-687-3110; e-mail: cewgeorgetown@georgetown.edu; Web site: http://cew.georgetown.edu
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Lumina Foundation; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Authoring Institution: Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A