Examines the intersection of affirmative action with educational attainment based on meritorious achievement. Also highlights the confluence of affirmative action and educational mobility for graduating high school students. Seeks to frame conceptions of diversity from a historical perspective; address diversity in relation to educational, social,…

Reviews the College Board's report, "Reaching the Top," which addresses educational underrepresentation of high-achieving minority students, discussing the debate over race-based affirmative action and concluding that the integrity of American education is best served by programs and teachers eager to assist promising or disadvantaged…

Describes the Oklahoma Department of Vocational-Technical Education's plan for the hiring and promotion of minorities. Initiatives include (1) setting recruitment goals for assistant state directors, (2) using minority community resources, (3) developing minority employees, (4) informing local vocational directors of affirmative action goals, and…

Without forceful and effective leadership, it is unlikely that American higher education will be able to improve the education of minority students. This includes setting institutional enrollment and graduation goals, supported by plans to remove barriers and improve teaching and learning, and aligning institutional incentives with goals and…

Guidelines developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges limit racial preferences for admissions and scholarships to students from only four designated minority groups, depriving students from other ethnicities from affirmative action eligibility. Discusses the implications for student diversity of changes in this policy. (SLD)

In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically affirmed the value of diversity, and argued that the state has a compelling interest to promote diversity on college campuses. The nature of the Supreme Court's argument in the majority decision clearly acknowledged that there remains important work still left to do. The court…

This book, in response to recent attacks on principles of affirmative action for minorities, suggests that need-based affirmative action cannot substitute for programs based on race and gender. It proposes a theory of affirmative action based on the contention that affirmative action has three morally defensible goals: (1) correction of systematic…

Comments on the problems of achieving a larger number of women and minority persons in the sciences and engineering. Suggests that the emphasis be placed on early identification of talented students and on the development of secondary, college, and graduate programs to prepare these students for entrance into the job market. (MLH)

Three U.S. Supreme Court rulings on minority preference cases are analyzed with reference to the question of the constitutionality of minority preferential admissions. It is concluded that the Court's unpredictability casts doubt on the validity of minority preference and that special consideration should be given in a racially neutral manner. (JT)

According to government guidelines an employer must not maintain personnel practices that show adverse impact. Because selection cases are the most common, they have set the standards for how adverse impact is typically determined. The most common way to demonstrate adverse impact is to show that the proportion of minorities hired is less than…

The Black Caucus of the American Library Association in the spring of 1974 surveyed minority librarians in 22 leading libraries. (Author/PF)

The Director of Policy Communications, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) makes suggestions for implementing affirmative action plans: identify employment patterns and practices that discriminate against minorities and women, taking necessary steps to stop them, and monitor the effectiveness of the…

Suggests that Bakke was not rejected because he was white or because of a minority program, but rather because he was not highly qualified and in addition possibly because of his age. (Author/AM)

This article, the first of two, concentrates on the historical background and the legal basis for affirmative action. (NQ)

Develops a model of ideal minority representation to assess whether or not an employer's current personnel policies are consistent with a random hiring policy. The model is then applied to a case alleging sex discrimination in the hiring practices of a university academic department. Appended are 12 references. (MLF)