Browsing by Author "Reardon, Sean F."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Can Socioeconomic Status Substitute for Race in Affirmative Action College Admissions Policies? Evidence from a Simulation Model
    Reardon, Sean F.; Baker, Rachel B.; Kasman, Matt; Klasik, Daniel; Townsend, Joseph B. (Center for Education Policy Analysis, 2017-08-01)
    This paper simulates a system of socioeconomic status (SES)−based affirmative action in college admissions and examines the extent to which it can produce racial diversity in selective colleges. Using simulation models, we investigate the potential relative effects of race- and/or SES-based affirmative action policies, alongside targeted, race-based recruitment, on the racial and socioeconomic distribution of students in colleges. These simulations suggest three important patterns: (1) neither SES-based affirmative action nor race recruiting policies on their own can reproduce levels of racial diversity achieved by race-based affirmative action; however, SES-based affirmative action in combination with targeted recruitment, although likely expensive, shows the potential to yield racial diversity levels comparable to race-based affirmative action; (b) the use of affirmative action policies by some colleges reduces the diversity of similar-quality colleges that do not have such policies; (c) overall, the combination of SES-based affirmative action and race recruiting results in slightly fewer Black and Hispanic students that are academically overmatched than under race-based affirmative action, but the schools that use the combination policy also see an overall reduction in the academic achievement of the students they enroll.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Geography of Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps
    Reardon, Sean F.; Kalogrides, Demetra; Shores, Kenneth A. (Center for Education Policy Analysis, 2018-03-01)
    The authors estimate racial/ethnic achievement gaps in several hundred metropolitan areas and several thousand school districts in the United States using the results of roughly 200 million standardized math and English language arts (ELA) tests administered to public school students from 2009 to 2013. They show that achievement gaps vary substantially, ranging from nearly zero in some places to larger than 1.5 standard deviations in others. Economic, demographic, segregation, and schooling characteristics explain 43%–72% of the geographic variation in these gaps. The strongest correlates of achievement gaps are local racial/ethnic differences in parental income and educational attainment, local average parental education levels, and patterns of racial/ethnic segregation, consistent with a theoretical model in which family socioeconomic factors affect educational opportunity partly through residential and school segregation patterns.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Is Separate Still Unequal? New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps
    Reardon, Sean F.; Weathers, Ericka; Fahle, Erin; Jang, Heewon; Kalogrides, Demetra (Center for Education Policy Analysis, 2019-09-01)
    U.S. public schools are highly segregated by both race and class. Prior research shows that the desegregation of Southern schools in the 1960s and 1970s led to significant benefits for black students, including increased educational attainment and higher earnings. We do not know, however, whether segregation today has the same harmful effects as it did 50 years ago, nor do we have clear evidence about the mechanisms through which segregation affects achievement patterns. In this paper the authors estimate the effects of current-day school segregation on racial achievement gaps.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Race and Stratification in College Enrollment Over Time
    Baker, Rachel B.; Klasik, Daniel; Reardon, Sean F. (SAGE, 2018-01-18)
    In this article, the authors measure college enrollment selectivity gaps by race-ethnicity using a novel method that is sensitive to both the level (2- vs. 4-year) and selectivity of the college in which students enroll. We find that overall Hispanic–White and Black–White enrollment selectivity gaps closed in the United States between 1986 and 2014. This overall closing of gaps appears to be related to the closing of high school graduation gaps. However, this contraction was driven almost entirely by students at the margin between no college and college enrolling in non-degree-granting programs. Among students who enrolled in degree-granting schools, Black students have enrolled at increasingly less selective institutions than White students, whereas Hispanic–White gaps remained relatively unchanged over the nearly 30 years of our study. These gaps are concerning because of their implications for long-term economic inequality.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Race, income, and enrollment patterns in highly selective colleges, 1982-2004
    Reardon, Sean F.; Baker, Rachel B.; Klasik, Daniel (Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA), 2012-08-03)
    Where a student attends college has become increasingly important in the last few decades. As education has grown significantly more important in the labor market, competition among students for access to the most selective colleges and universities has grown as well. In this report, the authors examine patterns of enrollment, by race and family income, in the most selective colleges and universities. They also simulate racial and socioeconomic patterns of admission to selective colleges under several types of “race-blind” admissions policies, including policies like the Top Ten Percent admissions policy currently in use in Texas and a similar policy in California.