Capitalizing on Segregation, Pretending Neutrality: College Admissions and the Texas Top 10% Law

Abstract

In response to the judicial ban on the use of race-sensitive admissions, the 75 th Texas legislature passed H.B. 588, which guarantees admission to any Texas public college or university for all seniors graduating in the top decile of their class. We show that high levels of residential and school segregation facilitates minority enrollment at selective public institutions under the uniform admission law because black and Hispanic students who rank at the top of their class disproportionately hail from minority-dominant schools. However, qualifying minority students' lower likelihood of college enrollment at the flagships reflects concentrated disadvantage rather than segregation per se. Capitalizing on Segregation, Pretending Neutrality:College Admissions and the Texas Top 10% Law I. IntroductionBefore the historic Brown decision, 1 the legal and policy debate about race and ethnic educational inequality revolved around the desirability and necessity of integration, but since has shifted to the socially acceptable methods for achieving integration and setting institutional goals. Following the Civil Rights movement, affirmative action was proposed as a strategy that goes beyond the simple prohibition of disparate treatment until Allan Bakke challenged the use of race preferences as a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14 th Amendment. 2 Although the Supreme Court ruled in Bakke's favor, the 1978 opinion includes language that permits institutions of higher education to consider race and ethnicity in order to garner the educational benefits that derive from a diverse student body. This second landmark opinion set the stage for the contemporary debate about the legality and desirability of using race-sensitive criteria in college admissions. Until another spate of legal challenges beginning in the mid-1990s, selective colleges and universities across the nation interpreted Bakke as license to consider race and ethnicity, among a myriad of other factors, in their admissions decisions. Two major victories were registered in 1996 against affirmative action in college admissions: California voters passed Proposition 209, which outlawed use of race-sensitive college admissions and the 1 Brown v. Board of Education , 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Méndez v. Westminister School District, 161 F.2d 774 9 th Cir. (1947 decision actually predated the Brown decision and served as a testing ground for many of the arguments and actors involved in the widely celebrated, historic Brown decision (Ferg-Cadima, 2004.) "The precedent-setting Méndez case, which included work by Los Angeles attorney David Marcus, moved Earl Warren, as California's governor in 1947, to push a broader repeal of segregation laws through the legislature after the ruling" (Jennings, 2004: 26). Several years later, Mr. Warren would write the Brown decision.

Immigrant DREAMs: English Learners, the Texas 10% Admissions Plan, and College Academic Success

“…Since the inception of the TxTTPP, Texas's flagship institutions have experienced a limited reversal of minority enrollment declines attributed to the Hopwood decision (Chapa & Horn, 2007;Horn & Flores, 2003;Niu et al, 2006;Orfield & Miller, 1998;Tienda & Niu, 2006a). Yet the underrepresentation of minorities relative to the statewide proportions of minorities at the two flagship institutions of Texas remains a salient policy issue.…”

“…The success of the TxTTPP has been debated in the literature. Despite the size of the Latina/o population in Texas and more than a decade of experience with the plan, studies have indicated that Latina/o students are still underrepresented at elite Texas colleges and universities (Chapa & Horn, 2007;Horn & Flores, 2003;Niu, Tienda, & Cortes, 2006;Tienda & Niu, 2006a. Even with the advantage afforded by the TxTTPP to minority students attending highly concentrated minority schools, students of color continue to have a lower likelihood than Whites of enrolling at the elite institutions of Texas (Niu et al, 2006).…”

High School Quality and Race Differences in College Achievement

“…The ethno-racial composition of high schools in the middle quartiles roughly approximates the Texas public high school student population except that African American students are slightly over-represented relative to their statewide share. Tienda and Niu (2006) show that minority students' chances of qualifying for the admission guarantee based on class rank are higher at schools where they constitute a larger share of the population, but their enrollment likelihood is lower owing to financial and information about college options .…”

“…Comparatively fewer studies consider whether and to what extent high school effects persist beyond the enrollment decision, and in particular whether race and ethnic variation in the quality of high school attended contributes to college performance; nevertheless, several studies suggest these influences exist (Summers and Wolfe, 1977;Massey, 2006;Schneider, et al, 2006;Niu, et al, 2006). For example, Massey (2006) shows that minority students who attend selective universities attend lower quality high schools that differ on a variety of difficult-to-measure dimensions, such as levels of violence and college-orientation, which in turn carry over to their college experiences.…”

Gender Imbalance in Higher Education: Insights for College Administrators and Researchers

“…By basing admissions decisions on high school class rank, percent plans provide a possible means for colleges to achieve racial diversity. In Texas, for example, the high degree of racial segregation across high schools contributes to a racially diverse pool of applicants in the top 10 % (Tienda and Niu 2006). 3 There have been several studies evaluating the effects of affirmative action bans (and alternative approaches for restoring minority enrollments) on minority students' collegegoing and completion (e.g., Card and Krueger 2005;Cortes 2010;Dickson 2006a;2006b;Howell 2010).…”