- Originally published in The Chronicle of Higher Education March 4, 2005
Copyright 2005 The Chronicle of Higher Education
By PETER SCHMIDT
Race-conscious
college-admissions policies often stigmatize black and Hispanic
students as academically inferior, even though the students who gain
entry through such policies generally perform better than others,
according to a study presented here last week at the annual meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The
study was conducted by Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology and
public affairs at Princeton University, and Mary J. Fischer, an
assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.
The
two researchers examined longitudinal student data from 28 selective
colleges in an attempt to determine whether any evidence supported two
of the most common criticisms of race-conscious admissions policies.
Those are the "mismatch hypothesis," which holds that such policies
result in the admission of students who find themselves in over their
heads academically, and the "stereotype-threat hypothesis," which holds
that such policies stigmatize all minority students as academically
subpar, thereby placing them under a form of psychological pressure
that undermines their academic performance.
The
researchers sought to gauge how much weight each college gave to
applicants' race or ethnicity by examining the difference between the
average SAT scores of all students who enrolled as freshmen in the fall
of 1999 and the average SAT scores of the black and Hispanic members of
that entering class.
To try to measure how
much of a role a particular student's race or ethnicity played in his
or her admission, the researchers looked at the difference between that
person's SAT score and the average for the entering class. (On average,
black students' SAT scores were 131 points below the average for all
students at the 28 colleges, while Hispanic students' SAT scores were
76 points below.)
The students in the
study were tracked throughout college. The researchers monitored the
students' grade-point averages, whether they left college by the end of
their junior year, and how they responded to a survey asking about how
happy they were at college.
The
researchers sought to construct the study so that its findings would
not be skewed by such variables as differences in self-esteem, parental
income, and academic preparation for college. They did not, however,
control for differences in students' choice of major.
Positives Outweigh Negatives
The
study found that those black and Hispanic students who had seemed to
get the biggest break in admission actually tended to have slightly
higher grade-point averages than other students, and were much less
likely than other students to leave college. Their level of
satisfaction with college was about the same as that of other students.
"Affirmative-action programs don't set minority students up to fail," Mr. Massey said in an interview.
When
all black and Hispanic students at an institution were examined
collectively, however, evidence of "stereotype threat" emerged. The
more a college used affirmative action, the lower
were the grade-point averages of its minority students, and the more
likely such students were to leave college and express dissatisfaction
with their college experience.
The negative correlation between a college's commitment to affirmative action
and the grade-point averages of its black and Hispanic students grew
stronger the longer the students were in college, suggesting that the
effects of "stereotype threat" mounted as the students became more
accustomed to the campus culture.
Mr. Massey said that, on balance, the positive effects of affirmative action
on minority students outweighed the negative. Moreover, he said,
colleges have found ways to counter the effects of "stereotype threat,"
by, for example, hiring more minority faculty members.
The
study has been submitted for publication in the journal Social Forces,
published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As of
last week it was under review.