During the past three decades minorities have benefited from educational reforms. Current concerns with educational excellence conflict with equality of educational opportunity. The author believes there need not be incompatibility in the pursuit of excellence as it relates to quality or equality. (MD)

This report responds to the California Maritime Academy's plan to develop a student affirmative action plan to address the needs of underrepresented, women, and low-income students. The report concludes that the final version of the plan (attached as an appendix) provides a good beginning for the changes that must occur at the Academy if…

California's system of higher education includes three major divisions, each with a separate educational goal resulting in differing minority enrollments. The University of California focuses on research and has high admission requirements. Its nine campuses had 5,200 full-time faculty members in 1979 and enrolled 131,856 undergraduate and…

Four speakers addressed the College Board National Forum on "Reaching Each Student" in the Fall of 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts. John F. Akers, Chairman of the Board at International Business Machines in his speech "Reaching Each Student: A Business Perspective" challenged the College Board to work with American business to…

A study investigated the criteria used by graduate students to choose a business administration program. Findings indicate a significant relationship between students' selection criteria and personal background characteristics such as race (white, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, black, Asian American), citizenship status, and gender. (MSE)

Drawing on four examples of institutional research undertaken at San Joaquin Delta College (SJDC), this paper offers six principles to help researchers make their work more relevant and to enable decision makers to utilize research more effectively. The research examples provide brief descriptions of the need for, methodology of, and findings of…

This report addresses the problem of underrepresentation of minorities in the health care professions and presents results of a comparative study that examined the factors differentiating schools that enroll and graduate relatively large numbers of minority students from those who do not. Study findings revealed that schools with higher minority…

More than 275 colleges across the United States now admit some or all of their applicants without regard to Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or American College Testing Program (ACT) scores, and many say that the policy has increased both the diversity and the academic quality of their entering classes. Many lessons have been learned at schools…

Current admission criteria for graduate and professional programs are discussed, their validity in predicting graduate student success is examined, and a potentially more effective model for predicting the success of various student groups (women, minorities, older students) is outlined. Innovative admission criteria and procedures are also…

This manual is designed to assist in the development of displaced homemaker career awareness programs within community settings. Examples are taken from the project, Expanding New Horizons, targeted at low-income and minority displaced homemakers. The first two sections offer guidelines for recruitment and for selection of a community facility. In…

The theme issue of the journal contains 30 articles concerning educational strategies and initiatives designed to strengthen the preparation and recruitment of students for medical education. Most of the articles describe specific programs at the elementary, secondary, higher, and graduate education levels. Others explore aspects of medical…

This paper examines the educational situation of minority and poor students within the nation's K-12 and higher educational system. It stresses that poor and minority children are the most underserved in America, that they still attend segregated and under-funded schools, that their drop out rate continues to be high, and that those who do manage…

A genuine concern for the condition of education in the United States has led to misuse of standardized tests to measure teacher quality. The tests have been used for purposes of admission, advancement, merit, graduation, and certification contrary to research findings and test developer guidelines. The current use of tests has resulted in…

This paper discusses ways that institutions can change the higher education system and environment to accommodate more minority students. The first section, "Institutional Climate and Minority Achievement," presents an overview of the problems facing colleges and universities with respect to recruiting and retaining minority students. In the…

This report explores some of the complexities involved in setting, maintaining, and judging standards in higher education, and examines the interactive effects that the standards of schools and colleges have on each other, with special emphasis on the implications of selective college admission practices. Focus is on whether current standards are…