Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action.

311 Pages·2012·3.05 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 456 190
UD 034 365
AUTHOR
Orfield, Gary, Ed.
TITLE
Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative
Action.
INSTITUTION
Harvard Civil Rights Project, Cambridge, MA.
SPONS AGENCY
Ford Foundation, New York, NY.; Spencer Foundation, Chicago,
IL.; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago,
IL.; Mott (C.S.) Foundation, Flint, MI.
ISBN-1-891792-02-4
ISBN
PUB DATE
2001-00-00
NOTE
309p.; With Michal Kurlaendar. For individual chapters, see
UD 034 366-379.
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PUB TYPE
Collected Works
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General (020)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*Affirmative Action; *Civil Rights Legislation; *College
Admission; College Faculty; Court Litigation; *Diversity
(Student); Educational Environment; Educational Policy;
Educational Quality; Educational Research; Elementary
Secondary Education; Equal Opportunities (Jobs); Higher
Education; Law Students; Legal Education (Professions);
Medical Education; Minority Groups; Outcomes of Education;
Politics of Education; Public Schools; Racial Differences;
*School Desegregation; Student Development; Teacher
Attitudes; Wages
IDENTIFIERS
Jefferson County Public Schools KY; Macalester College MN
ABSTRACT
This collection of papers explores research on how
increasing minority enrollment changes and enriches the educational process.
"Student Diversity and Higher Learning" (Neil L.
The papers are:
(1)
"A Policy Framework for Reconceptualizing the Legal Debate
Rudenstine);
(2)
Concerning Affirmative Action in Higher Education" (Scott R. Palmer);
(3)
"Diversity and Affirmative Action: Evolving Principles and Continuing Legal
Battles" (Scott R. Palmer);
"Maximizing the Benefits of Student
(4)
Diversity: Lessons from School Desegregation Research" (Janet Ward
"Is Diversity a Compelling Educational Interest? Evidence
Schofield);
(5)
from Louisville" (Michal Kurlaender and John T. Yun);
"Diversity and
(6)
Legal Education: Student Experiences in Leading Law Schools" (Gary Orfield
and Dean Whitla);
"The Positive Educational Effects of Racial Diversity
(7)
on Campus" (Mitchell J. Chang); "Linking Diversity and Educational
(8)
Purpose: How Diversity Affects the Classroom Environment and Student
Development" (Sylvia Hurtado);
"The Impact of Affirmative Action on
(9)
Medical Education and the Nation's Health" (Timothy Ready);
"Racial
(10)
Differences in the Effects of College Quality and Student Body Diversity on
Wages" (Kermit Daniel, Dan A. Black, and Jeffrey Smith);
(11) "Increasing
Diversity Benefits: How Campus Climate and Teaching Methods Affect Student
Outcomes" (Jeffrey F. Milem);
(12) "Faculty Experience with Diversity: A Case
Study of Macalester College" (Roxane Harvey Gudeman); and (13)
"Reflections
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
+++++ ED456190 Has Multi-page SFR---Leve1.1 +++++
on Affirmative Action: Its Origins, Virtues, Enemies, Champions, and
(Contains 49 endnotes and an author and subject
Prospects" (Paul M. Gaston) .
index.)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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*
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from the original document.
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
CHALLENGED
Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action
Edited by Gary Orfield
with Michal Kurlaender
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DIVERSITY CHALLENGED
3
DIVERSITY CHALLENGED
Evidence on the
Impact of Affirmative Action
Edited by GARY ORFIELD
with Michal Kurlaender
The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University
Harvard Education Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any fotm or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including phofocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
systenis, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Card Number 00-136370
ISBN 1-891792-02-4
Harvard Educational Review
8 Story Street
5th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
Cover Design: Kate Canfield
Cover Photograph: Susie Fitzhugh
Editorial Production: Dody Riggs
typograrihy: Sheila Walsh
Contents
vii
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1
Gary Orfie ld
CHAPTER 1
Student Diversity and Higher Learning
31
Neil L. Rudenstine
CHAPTER 2
A Policy Framework for Reconceptualizing the Legal Debate
49
Concerning Affirmative Action in Higher Education
Scott R. Palmer
CHAPTER 3
Diversity and Affirmative Action: Evolving Principles and
81
Continuing Legal Battles
Scott R. Palmer
CHAPTER 4
Maximizing the Benefits of Student Diversity: Lessons from
99
School Desegregation Research
Janet Ward Schofield
CHAPTER 5
Is Diversity a Compelling Educational Interest?
111
Evidence from Louisville
Michal Kurlaender and John T. Yun
CHAPTER 6
Diversity and Legal Education: Student Experiences in
143
Leading Law Schools
Gary Orfleld and Dean Whitla
CHAPTER 7
The Positive Educational Effects of Racial Diversity on Campus
175
Mitchell J. Chang
CHAPTER 8
Linking Diversity and Educational Purpose: How Diversity
187
Affects the Classroom Environment and Student Development
Sylvia Hurtado
CHAPTER 9
The Impact of Affirmative Action on Medical Education and
205
the Nation's Health
Timothy Ready
CHAPTER 10
Racial Differences in the Effects of College Quality and
221
Student Body Diversity on Wages
Kermit Daniel, Dan A. Black, and Jeffrey Smith
CHAPTER 11
Increasing Diversity Benefits: How Campus Climate and
233
Teaching Methods Affect Student Outcomes
Jeffrey F. Milem
CHAPTER 12
Faculty Experience with Diversity: A Case Study of
251
Macalester College
Roxane Harvey Gudeman
CHAPTER 13
Reflections on Affirmative Action: Its Origins, Virtues,
277
Enemies, Champions, and Prospects
Paul M. Gaston
About the Contributors
295
Author Index
299
Subject Index
303
7
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the support provided to The Civil Rights Project by the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. Christopher
Ed ley, Jr., codirector of The Civil Rights Project, has been a strong and
consistent supporter of this work. We also express our appreciation to the
staff at The Civil Rights Project who contributed to various aspects of this
enterprise, in particular Suenita Lawrence, Marilyn Byrne, Johanna Wald,
and Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi.
We are indebted to the Harvard Education Publishing Group, espe-
cially Dody Riggs, without whose extraordinary work this book could not
have been completed. We also extend our appreciation to Susan Kenyon,
Edward Miller, and Joel Vargas, who contributed at different stages of the
editing process.
Most importantly we want to thank the authors, who put other work
aside to answer our call for new research on this subject and who have
been responsive and patient throughout a long editing process.
vii
Introduction
GARY ORFIELD
In the courts and in referenda campaigns, affirmative action in college ad-
missions is under full-scale attack. Though it was designed to help resolve
a variety of serious racial problems, affirmative action's survival may turn
on just one questionwhether or not the educational value of diversity is
sufficiently compelling to justify consideration of race as a factor in decid-
ing whom to admit to colleges and universities. This book is designed to
address that question.
Concerns about racial justice, about training leaders for the future of
communities and the professions, about purging campuses of racist atti-
tudes, worries about excluding large sectors of the tax-paying popula-
tionall these have influenced university admissions policy but have
been largely ignored by the courts. For almost a quarter century, affirma-
tive admissions policy has rested precariously on a one-vote majority in a
U.S. Supreme Court decision that turned on the educational benefits of
diversity on campus. Future decisions may well turn on whether research-
ers find evidence strong enough to convince skeptical judges that schools
with very few minority students offer a more limited education and an in-
tellectually weaker campus environment.
In Regents of the University of Califormia v. Bakke, the Supreme Court's
closely divided 1978 decision upholding a limited form of affirmative ad-
missions policy, Justice Lewis Powell, who cast the deciding vote, recog-
nized only one legitimate justification for considering race as a factor in a
multidimensional process of selecting studentsthat diverse student
bodies produce better education and more stimulating campus communi-
ties. This was, he said, the reason why universities had traditionally been
given broad latitude in selecting their students and why they sought to re-
flect many forms of diversity on campus. He quoted with approval Har-
vard College's justification for its affirmative action policy as a critical ele-
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