SAT and ACT Scores
Students wishing to enter most colleges and universities in the United States must take the SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test) or the ACT Assessment (formerly the American College Test). These are standardized tests intended to measure verbal and mathematical ability to determine readiness for college-level work. More students take the SAT than the ACT. Performance on the SAT is measured in two areas, each on a scale of 200 to 800. In June 2002 the decision was made to add a written essay portion to the SAT test starting in 2005.
RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN TEST SCORES.
Historically, minority students have not scored as well on the SAT test as white students, but gains have been made since the early 1990s. In 2003 the average score for the verbal portion of the SAT among whites was 529, compared to 480 for Native Americans and Alaska Natives, 508 for Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 431 for African-Americans. Among Hispanic subgroups, Mexican Americans averaged 448 on the verbal portion of the test, Puerto Ricans averaged 456, and the rest of the Hispanic subgroups combined for an average of 457. Only Mexican Americans and the "Other Hispanic" category failed to see gains from 1993 to 2003. (See Table 7.11.)
TABLE 7.9
Percent of high school dropouts (status dropouts) among persons 16 to 24 years old, by sex and race/ethnicity, April 1960 to October 2001
| Total | Men | Women | ||||||||||
| Year | All races | White, non-Hispanic | Black, non-Hispanic | Hispanic origin | All races | White, non-Hispanic | Black, non-Hispanic | Hispanic origin | All races | White, non-Hispanic | Black, non-Hispanic | Hispanic origin |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 19601 | 27.2— | —— | —— | —— | 27.8— | —— | —— | —— | 26.7— | —— | —— | —— |
| 19672 | 17.0— | 15.4— | 28.6— | —— | 16.5— | 14.7— | 30.6— | —— | 17.3— | 16.1— | 26.9— | —— |
| 19682 | 16.2— | 14.7— | 27.4— | —— | 15.8— | 14.4— | 27.1— | —— | 16.5— | 15.0— | 27.6— | —— |
| 19692 | 15.2— | 13.6— | 26.7— | —— | 14.3— | 12.6— | 26.9— | —— | 16.0— | 14.6— | 26.7— | —— |
| 19702 | 15.0— | 13.2— | 27.9— | —— | 14.2— | 12.2— | 29.4— | —— | 15.7— | 14.1— | 26.6— | —— |
| 19712 | 14.7— | 13.4— | 23.7— | —— | 14.2— | 12.6— | 25.5— | —— | 15.2— | 14.2— | 22.1— | —— |
| 1972 | 14.6 (0.3) | 12.3 (0.3) | 21.3 (1.1) | 34.3 (2.2) | 14.1 (0.4) | 11.6 (0.4) | 22.3 (1.6) | 33.7 (3.2) | 15.1 (0.4) | 12.8 (0.4) | 20.5 (1.4) | 34.8 (3.1) |
| 1973 | 14.1 (0.3) | 11.6 (0.3) | 22.2 (1.1) | 33.5 (2.2) | 13.7 (0.4) | 11.5 (0.4) | 21.5 (1.5) | 30.4 (3.2) | 14.5 (0.4) | 11.8 (0.4) | 22.8 (1.5) | 36.4 (3.2) |
| 1974 | 14.3 (0.3) | 11.9 (0.3) | 21.2 (1.0) | 33.0 (2.1) | 14.2 (0.4) | 12.0 (0.4) | 20.1 (1.5) | 33.8 (3.0) | 14.3 (0.4) | 11.8 (0.4) | 22.1 (1.5) | 32.2 (2.9) |
| 1975 | 13.9 (0.3) | 11.4 (0.3) | 22.9 (1.1) | 29.2 (2.0) | 13.3 (0.4) | 11.0 (0.4) | 23.0 (1.6) | 26.7 (2.8) | 14.5 (0.4) | 11.8 (0.4) | 22.9 (1.4) | 31.6 (2.9) |
| 1976 | 14.1 (0.3) | 12.0 (0.3) | 20.5 (1.0) | 31.4 (2.0) | 14.1 (0.4) | 12.1 (0.4) | 21.2 (1.5) | 30.3 (2.9) | 14.2 (0.4) | 11.8 (0.4) | 19.9 (1.4) | 32.3 (2.8) |
| 1977 | 14.1 (0.3) | 11.9 (0.3) | 19.8 (1.0) | 33.0 (2.0) | 14.5 (0.4) | 12.6 (0.4) | 19.5 (1.5) | 31.6 (2.9) | 13.8 (0.4) | 11.2 (0.4) | 20.0 (1.4) | 34.3 (2.8) |
| 1978 | 14.2 (0.3) | 11.9 (0.3) | 20.2 (1.0) | 33.3 (2.0) | 14.6 (0.4) | 12.2 (0.4) | 22.5 (1.5) | 33.6 (2.9) | 13.9 (0.4) | 11.6 (0.4) | 18.3 (1.3) | 33.1 (2.8) |
| 1979 | 14.6 (0.3) | 12.0 (0.3) | 21.1 (1.0) | 33.8 (2.0) | 15.0 (0.4) | 12.6 (0.4) | 22.4 (1.5) | 33.0 (2.8) | 14.2 (0.4) | 11.5 (0.4) | 20.0 (1.3) | 34.5 (2.8) |
| 1980 | 14.1 (0.3) | 11.4 (0.3) | 19.1 (1.0) | 35.2 (1.9) | 15.1 (0.4) | 12.3 (0.4) | 20.8 (1.5) | 37.2 (2.7) | 13.1 (0.4) | 10.5 (0.4) | 17.7 (1.3) | 33.2 (2.6) |
| 1981 | 13.9 (0.3) | 11.3 (0.3) | 18.4 (0.9) | 33.2 (1.8) | 15.1 (0.4) | 12.5 (0.4) | 19.9 (1.4) | 36.0 (2.6) | 12.8 (0.4) | 10.2 (0.4) | 17.1 (1.2) | 30.4 (2.5) |
| 1982 | 13.9 (0.3) | 11.4 (0.3) | 18.4 (1.0) | 31.7 (1.9) | 14.5 (0.4) | 12.0 (0.4) | 21.2 (1.5) | 30.5 (2.7) | 13.3 (0.4) | 10.8 (0.4) | 15.9 (1.3) | 32.8 (2.7) |
| 1983 | 13.7 (0.3) | 11.1 (0.3) | 18.0 (1.0) | 31.6 (1.9) | 14.9 (0.4) | 12.2 (0.4) | 19.9 (1.5) | 34.3 (2.8) | 12.5 (0.4) | 10.1 (0.4) | 16.2 (1.3) | 29.1 (2.6) |
| 1984 | 13.1 (0.3) | 11.0 (0.3) | 15.5 (0.9) | 29.8 (1.9) | 14.0 (0.4) | 11.9 (0.4) | 16.8 (1.4) | 30.6 (2.8) | 12.3 (0.4) | 10.1 (0.4) | 14.3 (1.2) | 29.0 (2.6) |
| 1985 | 12.6 (0.3) | 10.4 (0.3) | 15.2 (0.9) | 27.6 (1.9) | 13.4 (0.4) | 11.1 (0.4) | 16.1 (1.4) | 29.9 (2.8) | 11.8 (0.4) | 9.8 (0.4) | 14.3 (1.2) | 25.2 (2.7) |
| 1986 | 12.2 (0.3) | 9.7 (0.3) | 14.2 (0.9) | 30.1 (1.9) | 13.1 (0.4) | 10.3 (0.4) | 15.0 (1.3) | 32.8 (2.7) | 11.4 (0.4) | 9.1 (0.4) | 13.5 (1.2) | 27.2 (2.6) |
| 1987 | 12.6 (0.3) | 10.4 (0.3) | 14.1 (0.9) | 28.6 (1.8) | 13.2 (0.4) | 10.8 (0.4) | 15.0 (1.3) | 29.1 (2.6) | 12.1 (0.4) | 10.0 (0.4) | 13.3 (1.2) | 28.1 (2.6) |
| 1988 | 12.9 (0.3) | 9.6 (0.3) | 14.5 (1.0) | 35.8 (2.3) | 13.5 (0.4) | 10.3 (0.5) | 15.0 (1.5) | 36.0 (3.2) | 12.2 (0.4) | 8.9 (0.4) | 14.0 (1.4) | 35.4 (3.3) |
| 1989 | 12.6 (0.3) | 9.4 (0.3) | 13.9 (1.0) | 33.0 (2.2) | 13.6 (0.5) | 10.3 (0.5) | 14.9 (1.5) | 34.4 (3.1) | 11.7 (0.4) | 8.5 (0.4) | 13.0 (1.3) | 31.6 (3.1) |
| 1990 | 12.1 (0.3) | 9.0 (0.3) | 13.2 (0.9) | 32.4 (1.9) | 12.3 (0.4) | 9.3 (0.4) | 11.9 (1.3) | 34.3 (2.7) | 11.8 (0.4) | 8.7 (0.4) | 14.4 (1.3) | 30.3 (2.7) |
| 1991 | 12.5 (0.3) | 8.9 (0.3) | 13.6 (0.9) | 35.3 (1.9) | 13.0 (0.4) | 8.9 (0.4) | 13.5 (1.4) | 39.2 (2.7) | 11.9 (0.4) | 8.9 (0.4) | 13.7 (1.3) | 31.1 (2.7) |
| 19923 | 11.0 (0.3) | 7.7 (0.3) | 13.7 (0.9) | 29.4 (1.9) | 11.3 (0.4) | 8.0 (0.4) | 12.5 (1.3) | 32.1 (2.7) | 10.7 (0.4) | 7.4 (0.4) | 14.8 (1.4) | 26.6 (2.6) |
| 19933 | 11.0 (0.3) | 7.9 (0.3) | 13.6 (0.9) | 27.5 (1.8) | 11.2 (0.4) | 8.2 (0.4) | 12.6 (1.3) | 28.1 (2.5) | 10.9 (0.4) | 7.6 (0.4) | 14.4 (1.3) | 26.9 (2.5) |
| 19943 | 11.4 (0.3) | 7.7 (0.3) | 12.6 (0.8) | 30.0 (1.2) | 12.3 (0.4) | 8.0 (0.4) | 14.1 (1.1) | 31.6 (1.6) | 10.6 (0.4) | 7.5 (0.4) | 11.3 (1.0) | 28.1 (1.7) |
| 19953 | 12.0 (0.3) | 8.6 (0.3) | 12.1 (0.7) | 30.0 (1.1) | 12.2 (0.4) | 9.0 (0.4) | 11.1 (1.0) | 30.0 (1.6) | 11.7 (0.4) | 8.2 (0.4) | 12.9 (1.1) | 30.0 (1.7) |
| 19963 | 11.1 (0.3) | 7.3 (0.3) | 13.0 (0.8) | 29.4 (1.2) | 11.4 (0.4) | 7.3 (0.4) | 13.5 (1.2) | 30.3 (1.7) | 10.9 (0.4) | 7.3 (0.4) | 12.5 (1.1) | 28.3 (1.7) |
| 19973 | 11.0 (0.3) | 7.6 (0.3) | 13.4 (0.8) | 25.3 (1.1) | 11.9 (0.4) | 8.5 (0.4) | 13.3 (1.2) | 27.0 (1.6) | 10.1 (0.4) | 6.7 (0.4) | 13.5 (1.1) | 23.4 (1.6) |
| 19983 | 11.8 (0.3) | 7.7 (0.3) | 13.8 (0.8) | 29.5 (1.1) | 13.3 (0.4) | 8.6 (0.4) | 15.5 (1.2) | 33.5 (1.6) | 10.3 (0.4) | 6.9 (0.4) | 12.2 (1.1) | 25.0 (1.6) |
| 19993 | 11.2 (0.3) | 7.3 (0.3) | 12.6 (0.8) | 28.6 (1.1) | 11.9 (0.4) | 7.7 (0.4) | 12.1 (1.1) | 31.0 (1.6) | 10.5 (0.4) | 6.9 (0.4) | 13.0 (1.1) | 26.0 (1.5) |
| 20003 | 10.9 (0.3) | 6.9 (0.3) | 13.1 (0.8) | 27.8 (1.1) | 12.0 (0.4) | 7.0 (0.4) | 15.3 (1.2) | 31.8 (1.6) | 9.9 (0.4) | 6.9 (0.4) | 11.1 (1.0) | 23.5 (1.5) |
| 20013 | 10.7 (0.3) | 7.3 (0.3) | 10.9 (0.7) | 27.0 (1.1) | 12.2 (0.4) | 7.9 (0.4) | 13.0 (1.1) | 31.6 (1.6) | 9.3 (0.3) | 6.7 (0.4) | 9.0 (0.9) | 22.1 (1.4) |
| —Not available. | ||||||||||||
| 1Based on the April 1960 decennial census. | ||||||||||||
| 2White and Black include persons of Hispanic origin. | ||||||||||||
| 3Because of changes in data collection procedures, data may not be comparable with figures for earlier years. | ||||||||||||
| Note: "Status" dropouts are 16- to 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and who have not completed a high school program regardless of when they left school. People who have received GED credentials are counted as high school completers. All data except for 1960 are based on October counts. Data are based upon sample surveys of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Standard errors appear in parentheses. | ||||||||||||
| SOURCE: "Table 108. Percent of High School Dropouts (Status Dropouts) among Persons 16 to 24 Years Old, by Sex and Race/Ethnicity: April 1960 to October 2001," in "Elementary and Secondary Education," Digest of Education Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC, 2002 [Online] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/PDF/table108.pdf [accessed May 14, 2004] | ||||||||||||
Mathematics scores were also better in 2003 for most groups than they were in 1993. In 2003 Asians and Pacific Islanders scored the highest on the math portion of the test, with an average score of 575. Whites scored an average of 534, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives scored 482, African-Americans 426, Mexican Americans 457, Puerto Ricans 453, and other Hispanics 464. Only Mexican Americans saw a slight decline in scores between 1993 and 2003. In 1993 they had an average score of 459, two points higher than their 2003 average. (See Table 7.11.)
Puerto Ricans and API students showed the biggest ten-year increase in SAT verbal scores, while API students and white students had the biggest ten-year increase in SAT math scores. (See Table 7.11.)
Minority College Attendance
Generally, minority enrollment in colleges and universities has grown ever since racial and ethnic enrollment statistics were first reported in 1976. Though these gains are encouraging, they must be viewed in the context of overall participation rates and degree completion rates.
In 2000, 43.9 percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders had graduated from college, followed by 28.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites. African-Americans and Hispanics had lower college graduation rates. Only 16.5 percent of
TABLE 7.10
Status dropout rates and number and percentage distribution of dropouts ages 16–24, by selected characteristics: October 2000
| Characteristic | Status dropout rate (percent) | Number of status dropouts (thousands) | Population (thousands) | Percent of all dropouts | Percent of population |
| Total | 10.9 | 3,776 | 34,568 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 12.0 | 2,082 | 17,402 | 55.1 | 50.3 |
| Female | 9.9 | 1,694 | 17,166 | 44.9 | 49.7 |
| Race/ethnicity1 | |||||
| White | 6.9 | 1,564 | 22,574 | 41.4 | 65.3 |
| Black | 13.1 | 663 | 5,058 | 17.6 | 14.6 |
| Hispanic | 27.8 | 1,456 | 5,237 | 38.6 | 15.1 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 3.8 | 54 | 1,417 | 1.4 | 4.1 |
| Age | |||||
| 16 | 3.9 | 153 | 3,887 | 4.1 | 11.2 |
| 17 | 7.6 | 307 | 4,023 | 8.1 | 11.6 |
| 18 | 11.6 | 468 | 4,019 | 12.4 | 11.6 |
| 19 | 13.5 | 544 | 4,026 | 14.4 | 11.6 |
| 20–24 | 12.4 | 2,304 | 18,613 | 61.0 | 53.8 |
| Immigration status | |||||
| Born outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia | |||||
| Hispanic | 44.2 | 1,007 | 2,282 | 26.7 | 6.6 |
| Non-Hispanic | 7.4 | 140 | 1,907 | 3.7 | 5.5 |
| First generation2 | |||||
| Hispanic | 14.6 | 244 | 1,669 | 6.5 | 4.8 |
| Non-Hispanic | 4.6 | 84 | 1,837 | 2.2 | 5.3 |
| Second generation or more3 | |||||
| Hispanic | 15.9 | 205 | 1,286 | 5.4 | 3.7 |
| Non-Hispanic | 8.2 | 2,096 | 25,586 | 55.5 | 74.0 |
| Region | |||||
| Northeast | 8.5 | 504 | 5,945 | 13.3 | 17.2 |
| Midwest | 9.2 | 741 | 8,058 | 19.6 | 23.3 |
| South | 12.9 | 1,597 | 12,337 | 42.3 | 35.7 |
| West | 11.3 | 933 | 8,228 | 24.7 | 23.8 |
| 1Due to relatively small sample sizes, American Indians/Alaska Natives are included in the total but are not shown separately. | |||||
| 2Individuals defined as "first generation" were born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia, and one or both of their parents were born outside the 50 states or the District of Columbia. | |||||
| 3Individuals defined as "second generation or more" were born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia, as were both of their parents. | |||||
| Note: Percentages may not add to 100.0 due to rounding. Details may not add to totals due to rounding. | |||||
| SOURCE: "Table 19-2. Status Dropout Rates and Number and Percentage Distribution of Dropouts Ages 16–24, by Selected Characteristics: October 2000," in The Condition of Education 2003, National Center for Education Statistic, Washington, DC, 2003 [Online] http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002025.pdf [accessed March 11, 2004] | |||||
African-Americans and 10.6 percent of Hispanics age twenty-five and older had received a bachelor's degree. (See Figure 7.2.)
Increasing Enrollment Rates for Women
The proportion of women in institutions of higher education rose from 48 percent in 1976 to 54.4 percent in 1997. According to The Condition of Education, 2002 (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2002), the rate of growth in the number of women attending undergraduate institutions has increased faster than the rate of growth in the number of men attending such institutions since the 1970s. The center projected that this trend would continue into the 2000s and expected the number of women in undergraduate institutions to reach a record high by 2010. Since the mid-1970s women in institutions of higher learning have outnumbered men in each of the major racial and ethnic categories, according to the NCES.
Earning Bachelor's Degrees
College participation rates are telling, but so too are college completion rates. A number of students begin college, only to drop out before receiving a bachelor's degree. In 2000, 61 percent of African-Americans between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine had completed some college, while only 21 percent had actually graduated. Among Hispanics in this age group, 52 percent had completed some college, while only 15 percent had received at least a bachelor's degree. Among whites in this age group, 69 percent had completed some college, while only 36 percent had actually graduated. (See Figure 7.3.)
Affirmative Action
In the 1978 landmark reverse discrimination case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (438 US 265), the U.S. Supreme Court allowed race and ethnicity to be considered in college admissions in the interest of
TABLE 7.11
SAT scores, by racial/ethnic group, 1993, 2002, and 2003
| Verbal | Math | |||||||||
| 1993 | 2002 | 2003 | 1 yr. | 10 yr. | 1993 | 2002 | 2003 | 1 yr. | 10 yr. | |
| American Indian, Alaskan Native | 477 | 479 | 480 | 1 | 3 | 476 | 483 | 482 | −1 | 6 |
| Asian, Asian American, Pacific Is. | 489 | 501 | 508 | 7 | 19 | 553 | 569 | 575 | 6 | 22 |
| African American/Black | 429 | 430 | 431 | 1 | 2 | 421 | 427 | 426 | −1 | 5 |
| Mexican American | 451 | 446 | 448 | 2 | −3 | 459 | 457 | 457 | 0 | −2 |
| Puerto Rican | 443 | 455 | 456 | 1 | 13 | 440 | 451 | 453 | 2 | 13 |
| Other Hispanic | 460 | 458 | 457 | −1 | −3 | 463 | 464 | 464 | 0 | 1 |
| White | 520 | 527 | 529 | 2 | 9 | 517 | 533 | 534 | 1 | 17 |
| Other | 497 | 502 | 501 | −1 | 4 | 501 | 514 | 513 | −1 | 12 |
| All college-bound seniors | 500 | 504 | 507 | 3 | 7 | 503 | 516 | 519 | 3 | 16 |
| SOURCE: "Table 7. Strong SAT Math Score Gains for Almost All Racial/Ethnic Groups between 1993 and 2003," in College Bound Seniors 2003. Copyright © 2003 by the College Board. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. [Online] http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2003/pdf/CBS2003Report.pdf [accessed March 11, 2004] | ||||||||||
FIGURE 7.3
Percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who attained selected levels of education, by race/ethnicity, March 1971 and 2000
racial and ethnic diversity on American college campuses. This led many schools to take special steps to boost the number of minorities that they admitted, a process commonly called affirmative action.
Over time, many people came to see affirmative action as a negative policy. Their reasons varied, but a common complaint was that affirmative action allowed some minority students to get into colleges even when their test scores and high school grades were below what those colleges would accept from white students. In June 1996 California Governor Pete Wilson urged California voters to support the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), a proposal to eliminate affirmative action in higher-education enrollment. "What we owe the people is to fix what is wrong, to cure the unfairness and to set it right," Wilson said. His critics disagreed. Jesse Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate and a defender of civil rights for minorities, observed, "Wilson says he wants to move from 'favoritism to fairness,' as if those of us who support affirmative action want something different. Affirmative action is a relatively young, conservative remedy to generations of unfair practices that favored white men." On the other hand, Joanne Corday Kozberg, California's secretary of state, said that Wilson's initiative would start "a new chapter in a journey toward a colorblind society."
In November 1996 California voters approved Proposition 209, prohibiting public universities from considering race and ethnicity when deciding on admissions. In 1997, the last year that the University of California (UC) considered race and ethnicity in its admissions process, 7,236 students from underrepresented minority groups (Native Americans, African-Americans, and Hispanics) were admitted, accounting for 18.8 percent of total admissions. API freshmen, numbering nearly 12,800, comprised 33.2 percent of new admissions, compared to 40.4 percent of whites.
In 1998, the first year of admissions after Proposition 209 went into effect, the proportion of underrepresented minorities dropped to 16.7 percent. UC reported that in 1999 the proportion of this group rose to 16.9 percent and climbed to 17.6 percent in 2000. In 2000 whites made up 38.2 percent and Asian-Americans made up 34.2 percent of freshmen admissions. Of the underrepresented minorities, 13.8 percent were Hispanics, 3.2 percent were African-Americans, and 0.6 percent were Native Americans.
In March 1996, in the case of Hopwood v. Texas (78 F.3d 932), often called Bakke II, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the University of Texas (UT) School of Law was discriminating against white students by using race or ethnicity as a factor in admissions. Four white applicants charged that less-qualified African-American and Hispanic students had been accepted instead of them because of racial preference on the part of UT. The appeals court ruled that colleges could not give preferences to minority students, even for what it called "the wholesome practice of correcting perceived racial imbalance in the student body." In the opinion of the appeals court, "any consideration of race or ethnicity by the law school for the purpose of achieving a diverse student body is not a compelling interest under the Fourteenth Amendment." The Hopwood decision applies to all public universities in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In Texas, Attorney General Dan Morales applied the admissions ruling to include financial aid and scholarships.
The UT School of Law admits 500 students per year. In 1997, following the decision affecting the law school, only three African-American students sent in tuition deposits, and none actually joined the class. (There were thirty-one African-American students admitted in the previous class.) Only twenty Hispanic students joined the first-year class in 1997, down from forty-two the previous year. At the undergraduate levels, public universities throughout Texas also saw a drop in minority applications. UT registered 4 percent fewer Hispanics and nearly 33 percent fewer African-Americans. Texas A&M University welcomed nearly 13 percent fewer Hispanics and 29 percent fewer African-Americans.
PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES RESPOND.
In 1998 the UT system became the first public university to grant automatic admission to first-time freshmen based on class rank. Under Texas Education Code 51.803, students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their class from an accredited Texas high school are guaranteed admission to UT. Since some high schools have large minority populations, state officials hoped that more minority students would be admitted to state universities. After initial declines in minority enrollment, UT announced in early 2003 that Hispanic enrollment had returned to pre-Hopwood level, and African-American enrollment was nearing its 1996 level.
In March 1999 UC regents approved a similar admission policy called Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC). Under ELC, students graduating in the top 4 percent of their class in California high schools will be eligible for admission to one of UC's undergraduate campuses. ELC was implemented starting with freshmen applicants in the fall of 2001. Persons who oppose UC's new policy claim that such a step may send a negative message to minority students who do not excel in high school.
Supreme Court Affirms Racial Preferences
In June 2003 the Supreme Court made two separate rulings on the admission practices at the University of Michigan's undergraduate college and its law school. The undergraduate college used a point system in an effort to achieve diversity in the student body, awarding twenty points on a scale of 150 to African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The court rejected this system, maintaining that it was too broad and too much like a quota, and ruling that it violated the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The University of Michigan law school, on the other hand, weighed race and ethnicity along with a number of other admissions factors. This approach the Court deemed legal because it furthered "a compelling interest in obtaining education benefits that flow from a diverse student body." As a result, the Court upheld the concept of race-conscious admissions, but the nuanced approach to admissions that it found acceptable left the door open for further lawsuits. While smaller schools could devote more time and attention to individual applicants, larger institutions still faced the problem of how to use race and ethnicity as a factor in screening a large number of applications without assigning a numerical value to it.
Tribal Colleges
Special postsecondary institutions, collectively known as Tribal Colleges, were established to prepare Native American and Alaskan Native students with the skills most needed on reservations, while at the same time preserving their culture. Usually situated in areas where the students cannot otherwise pursue education beyond high school, these colleges all offer associate's degrees. In addition, some offer bachelor's degrees and master's degrees.
Tribal Colleges offer courses ranging from teaching and nursing to secretarial skills and computer science that meet the needs of specific communities. Besides tribal languages, traditional subjects are a part of the curricula. According to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, an example is a traditional tribal literature class offered by Bay Mills Community College in Brimley, Michigan, "only in the winter term because the stories are supposed to be told when snow is on the ground."
Most Tribal College enrollees are the first generation in their family to attend college. Tribal Colleges are underfunded, as they are not actually given all of the government funding that they have been authorized to have. In 1999, at $2,964 per Native American student, federal funding was well below the authorized amount of $6,000. Tribal Colleges get no federal money for non-Native American students.
In 1994 Tribal Colleges earned land-grant status, giving them access to U.S. Department of Agriculture resources, as well as equity grants of $50,000 per college. They will also share, with fifty-five state universities and seventeen historically African-American colleges and universities, the interest from an annual $4.6 million endowment fund.
On July 3, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13270, which established the President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities, and also the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities (WHITCU). The purpose of these two organizations was to coordinate efforts by the federal government to support Tribal Colleges, and also to help them secure greater support from the private sector. In particular, the President's Board and WHITCU are intended to make sure that Tribal Colleges are aware of and are given access to the full range of funding and other support programs available from the various agencies of the federal government.
Black Colleges and Universities
More than a hundred institutions known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) exist in the United States. The state with the largest number of HBCUs (fourteen) is Alabama. North Carolina and Georgia are home to eleven institutions each, while another nine are located in Texas.
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