scholarly journals Would the Elimination of Affirmative Action Affect Highly Qualified Minority Applicants? Evidence from California and Texas

ILR Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Card ◽  
Alan B. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Hispanic Students ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
University Admissions ◽  
College And University ◽  
Admission Rates ◽  
Before And After ◽  
College Application Behavior

Between 1996 and 1998 California and Texas eliminated the use of affirmative action in college and university admissions. At the states' elite public universities admission rates of black and Hispanic students subsequently fell by 30–50% and minority representation in the entering freshman classes declined. This study investigates whether the elimination of affirmative action changed minority students' college application behavior. A particular concern is that highly qualified minorities—who were not directly affected by the policy change—would be dissuaded from applying to elite public schools, either because of reduced campus diversity or because of uncertainty about their admission prospects. The authors use information from SAT takers in the two states to compare the fractions of minority students who sent their test scores to selective state institutions before and after the elimination of affirmative action. They find no change in the SAT-sending behavior of highly qualified black or Hispanic students.

The effects of empathy on support for Christmas music performance in public schools

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell R. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teaching Philosophies ◽  
Before And After

Purpose Despite an ever-diversifying student population, it is still commonplace for US public schools to present Christmas concerts. These concerts can force minority students to choose between their own religious convictions and school participation. For some students, participation in public-school Christmas concerts can damage their personal identity and assimilate them into ways of being that are not their own. This study aims to test a method for teaching preservice teachers to empathize with minority students. Design/methodology/approach Using the framework of action research, the study followed a one-group pretest-posttest design. Participants (N = 19), all of whom identified as some kind of Christian, were asked to perform a concert featuring Satanic Worship prayers and a children’s Christmas song. This intervention was meant to induce empathy for religious minority students who feel uncomfortable performing Christmas songs because they are antithetical to their own faiths. Participants’ perceptions of public-school Christmas music performance was measured before and after the intervention. Findings The intervention effectively increased empathy for minority students. As a result, participants expressed altered teaching philosophies that were inclusive of religious minority perspectives. Originality/value This study demonstrates the effectiveness of empathy-fostering interventions as tools for teaching teachers to work with diverse student populations. The intervention tested in this study is of the researcher’s original design.

scholarly journals Testing and Diversity in Postsecondary Education: The Case of California

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Koretz
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Hispanic Students ◽  
Student Population ◽  
General Level ◽  
Neutral Model ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Admissions Process

The past several years have seen numerous efforts to scale back or eliminate affirmative action in postsecondary admissions. In response, policymakers and postsecondary institutions in many states are searching for ways to maintain the diversity of student populations without resorting to a prohibited focus on race. In response to these changes, this study used data from California and a simplified model of the University of California admissions process to explore how various approaches to admissions affect the diversity of the admitted student population. "Race-neutral" admissions based solely on test scores and grades were compared with the results of actual admissions before and after the elimination of affirmative action. A final set of analyses explored the effects on diversity of alternative approaches that take into account factors other than grades and scores, but not race or ethnicity. Replacing the former admissions process that included preferences with a race-neutral model based solely on GPA and SAT-I scores substantially reduced minority representation at the two most selective UC campuses but had much smaller effects at the other six, less selective campuses. SAT-I scores contributed to but were not the sole cause of the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic students. A race-neutral model based solely on GPA also produced an underrepresentation of minorities, albeit a less severe one. None of the alternative admissions models analyzed could replicate the composition of the student population that was in place before the termination of affirmative action in California. The only approach that substantially increased the representation of minority students was accepting most students on the basis of within-school rather than statewide rankings, and this approach caused a sizable drop in both the average SAT scores and the average GPA of admitted applicants, particularly among African American and Hispanic students. Although admissions systems differ, the basic findings of this study are likely to apply at a general level to many universities and underscore the difficulty of providing proportional representation for underserved minority students at highly selective institutions without explicit preferences.

scholarly journals Were Minority Students Discouraged from Applying to University of California Campuses after the Affirmative Action Ban?

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Antonovics ◽  
Ben Backes
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Underrepresented Minorities ◽  
College Application ◽  
Admission Rates ◽  
Application Behavior ◽  
Application Rates ◽  
Relative Decline ◽  
The Stability ◽  
College Application Behavior

This paper uses student-level data to investigate how the college application behavior of underrepresented minorities (URMs) changed in response to the 1998 end of affirmative action in admissions at the University of California (UC). We show that all URMs experienced a drop in their probability of admission to at least one UC campus. However, the relative decline in URM SAT score-sending rates—our proxy for application rates—was small and concentrated at Berkeley and UCLA among underrepresented minorities who experienced the largest relative drop in their predicted probability of admission. In addition, we find some evidence of a shift toward less-selective UC campuses rather than out of the UC system. Overall, our paper highlights the stability of URM application behavior in the face of substantial declines in their admission rates.

scholarly journals Lost in Migration – Mirandese at a Crossroads

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 488-495
Author(s):  
Cláudia Martins ◽  
Sérgio Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThe linguistic rights of Mirandese were enshrined in Portugal in 1999, though its “discovery” dates back to the very end of the 19th century at the hands of Leite de Vasconcellos. For centuries, it was the first or only language spoken by people living in the northeast of Portugal, particularly the district of Miranda do Douro. As a minority language, it has always moved among three dimensions. On the one hand, the need to assert and defend this language and have it acknowledged by the country, which proudly believe(d) in their monolingual history. Unavoidably, this has ensued the action of translation, especially active from the mid of the 20th century onwards, with an emphasis on the translation of the Bible and Portuguese canonical literature, as well as other renowned literary forms (e.g. The Adventures of Asterix). Finally, the third axis lies in migration, either within Portugal or abroad. Between the 1950s and the 1960s, Mirandese people were forced to leave Miranda do Douro and villages in the outskirts in the thousands. They fled not only due to the deeply entrenched poverty, but also the almost complete absence of future prospects, enhanced by the fact that they were regarded as not speaking “good” Portuguese, but rather a “charra” language, and as ignorant backward people. This period coincided with the building of dams on the river Douro and the cultural and linguistic shock that stemmed from this forceful contact, which exacerbated their sense of not belonging and of social shame. Bearing all this in mind, we seek to approach the role that migration played not only in the assertion of Mirandese as a language in its own right, but also in the empowerment of new generations of Mirandese people, highly qualified and politically engaged in the defence of this minority language, some of whom were former migrants. Thus, we aim to depict Mirandese’s political situation before and after the endorsement of the Portuguese Law no. 7/99.

scholarly journals Delaying sexual onset: outcome of a comprehensive sexuality education initiative for adolescents in public schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Ramírez-Villalobos ◽  
Eric Alejandro Monterubio-Flores ◽  
Tonatiuh Tomás Gonzalez-Vazquez ◽  
Juan Francisco Molina-Rodríguez ◽  
Ma. Guadalupe Ruelas-González ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Sexual Debut ◽  
Unplanned Pregnancy ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Unprotected Sex ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Innovative Techniques

Abstract Background A common risk behavior in adolescence is the early initiation of unprotected sex that exposes adolescents to an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Schools are an ideal place to strengthen adolescents’ sexual knowledge and modify their behavior, guiding them to exercise responsible sexuality. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the knowledge of public secondary school teachers who received training in comprehensive education in sexuality (CES) and estimate the counseling’s effect on students’ sexual behavior. Methods Seventy-five public school teachers were trained in participatory and innovative techniques for CES. The change in teacher knowledge (n = 75) was assessed before and after the training using t-tests, Wilcoxon ranks tests and a Generalized Estimate Equation model. The students’ sexual and reproductive behavior was evaluated in intervention (n = 650) and comparison schools (n = 555). We fit a logistic regression model using the students’ sexual debut as a dependent variable. Results Teachers increased their knowledge of sexuality after training from 5.3 to 6.1 (p < 0.01). 83.3% of students in the intervention school reported using a contraceptive method in their last sexual relation, while 58.3% did so in the comparison schools. The students in comparison schools were 4.7 (p < 0.01) times more likely to start sexual initiation than students in the intervention schools. Conclusion Training in CES improved teachers’ knowledge about sexual and reproductive health. Students who received counseling from teachers who were trained in participatory and innovative techniques for CES used more contraceptive protection and delayed sexual debut.

scholarly journals Winners and Losers: Changes in Texas University Admissions Post-Hopwood

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Long ◽  
Marta Tienda
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Underrepresented Minority ◽  
University Admissions ◽  
New Policies

This article evaluates changes in racial and ethnic composition of three Texas universities following the ban on affirmative action imposed by the 1996 Hopwood decision. The authors estimate the extent to which universities practiced affirmative action before the ban and evaluate how officers at these universities responded by changing relative weights accorded to various applicant characteristics. After assessing whether changes in the relative weights favored minority applicants, the degree to which these new policies succeeded in maintaining minority shares at their pre- Hopwood levels is simulated. This article finds that these universities complied with the Hopwood ruling such that direct advantages given to Black and Hispanic applicants disappeared (and in some cases became disadvantages). Although there is some evidence that universities changed the weights they placed on applicant characteristics in ways that aided underrepresented minority applicants, these changes were insufficient to restore Black and Hispanic applicants’ share of admitted students.

scholarly journals A report on an acute, in-hours, outpatient review clinic with ultrasonography facilities for the early evaluation of general surgical patients

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 468-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
TE Pidgeon ◽  
U Shariff ◽  
F Devine ◽  
V Menon
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Primary Outcome ◽  
Surgical Patients ◽  
Clinic Attendance ◽  
Early Evaluation ◽  
Admission Rates ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Surgical Clinic

Introduction In 2013 our hospital introduced an in-hours, consultant-led, outpatient acute surgical clinic (ASC) for emergency general surgical patients. In 2014 this clinic was equipped with a dedicated ultrasonography service. This prospective cohort study evaluated this service before and after the introduction of ultrasonography facilities. Methods Data were recorded prospectively for all patients attending the clinic during 2013 and 2014. The primary outcome was patient destination (whether there was follow-up/admission) after clinic attendance. Results The ASC reviewed patients with a wide age range and array of general surgical complaints. In 2013, 186 patients attended the ASC. After the introduction of the ultrasonography service in 2014, 304 patients attended. In 2014, there was a reduction in the proportion of patients admitted to hospital from the clinic (18.3% vs 8.9%, p=0.002). However, the proportion of patients discharged after ASC review remained comparable with 2013 (30.1% in 2013 vs 38.8% in 2014, p=0.051). The proportion of patients undergoing computed tomography (CT) scans also fell (14.0% vs 4.9%, p<0.001). Conclusions The ASC assessed a wide array of general surgical complaints. Only a small proportion required hospital admission. The introduction of an ultrasonography service was associated with a further reduction in admission rates and computed tomography.

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