Diversity, Opportunity, and the Shifting Meritocracy in Higher Education (PDF; 280 KB)
Source: American Sociological Review
From press release:

National debate about the use of Affirmative Action in America’s higher education system has a long, controversial history. Should institutions simply admit college students based solely on academic merit? Or, should they continue to give weight to other factors, especially to actively address the need to ensure racial and/or ethnic diversity?

In the August 2007 issue of The American Sociological Review (ASR), sociologists Sigal Alon of Tel Aviv University and Marta Tienda of Princeton University show that resolving this debate does not have to entail an either/or decision. Instead, universities can achieve a diverse campus by using different measures to define “merit.” Relying on SAT (Scholastic Achievement Test) scores as the main measure of merit, as is the current norm, does not achieve the desired diversity. But, if universities place more weight on performance-based measures of merit, like high school class rank, they can achieve the goal of enrolling a diverse student body while not compromising excellence.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under Education, Postsecondary, Social and cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.