What Levels of Racial Diversity Can Be Achieved with Socioeconomic‐Based Affirmative Action? Evidence from a Simulation Model

Abstract

This paper investigates to what extent socioeconomic status (SES)‐based affirmative action in college admissions can produce racial diversity. Using simulation models, we investigate the racial and socioeconomic distribution of students among colleges under the use of race‐ or SES‐based affirmative action policies, or targeted, race‐based recruitment policies. We find, first, that neither SES‐based affirmative action nor race‐targeted recruiting on their own produce levels of racial diversity achieved by race‐based affirmative action. However, the two policies in combination, although likely expensive, may yield racial diversity comparable to race‐based affirmative action. Second, the use of affirmative action policies by some colleges reduces the diversity of similar‐quality colleges without such policies. Third, the combination of SES‐based affirmative action and race recruiting results in fewer academically‐overmatched Black and Hispanic students than under race‐based affirmative action, but the schools that use both also see a reduction in the academic achievement of enrolled students.

Alternative Paths to Diversity: Exploring and Implementing Effective College Admissions Policies

“…We are publishing here three of the four new studies commissioned in this project, but we will first discuss one that was developed by Sean Reardon and associates and released as an issue brief by this project (Reardon, Baker, Kasman, Klasik, & Townsend, ), which is to be published separately in a scholarly journal.…”

“…Professor Sean Reardon and several of his associates on the Civil Rights Project–ETS project have been working to develop ways of addressing the hypothetical questions the Court has asked colleges and judges to decide (Reardon et al, ). When a court needs to decide whether an affirmative SES strategy or a percent plan would work under feasible conditions to produce the diversity the university deems necessary for good education of its students, it is a complex hypothetical question.…”

“…Reardon et al () have attempted to answer the question about the feasibility of achieving racially and ethnically diverse student bodies through affirmatively admitting on the basis of SES by creating elaborate and complex simulations of the admissions process using a wide array of data sources and building statistical models that try to move beyond simple correlations to show how the processes operate over time. The authors have concluded that the only reasonable way to answer the question is to create a sophisticated statistical model incorporating large data sets.…”

“…The authors have concluded that the only reasonable way to answer the question is to create a sophisticated statistical model incorporating large data sets. They drew on longitudinal data about the actual behavior of a large sample of young people of college‐going age from the major national longitudinal study, the Educational Longitudinal Study, which included measures of race, SES and test scores, family resources, college applications, college experience, and so on (Reardon et al, ).…”

“…Simulations prepared by the research team show that gaps in enrollment in terms of both race and income have become substantially larger since the 1980s, despite a narrowing academic achievement gap (Reardon et al, ). That could relate to the increase in college costs and applications for leading campuses.…”