| Kim Lloyd
Washington State University
Affirmative action and the Texas top 10% policy: Minority representation and success in selective public and private universities under alternative policy regimes
FIINAL REPORT:
The Supreme Court in the recent Grutter and Gratz decisions require that in order to practice affirmative action universities must demonstrate that they have given serious consideration to race-neutral means of admission, of which the most common are the percent plans. After the 5th Circuit Court's Hopwood (1996) ruling banned the use of race or ethnicity in college admissions decisions, the Texas legislature passed the Top Ten Percent Law guaranteeing automatic admission to any Texas public college or university for seniors who graduate in the top decile of their high school class. Using data on a representative sample of seniors (N=12,029) enrolled in 96 Texas public high schools during the spring of 2002, we examine whether and how this law affects the educational aspirations and expectations of graduating seniors, as well as whether they have actually applied to college. Hierarchical generalized linear models demonstrate that, at least in Texas, the knowledge of a percent plan has played an important role in raising the sights of students who might not otherwise consider college. This effect is particularly pronounced for minority students, although peer, family, and high school context play pivotal roles, particularly for Hispanic seniors. This analysis provides some of the first systematic evidence of how percent plans influence students' decisions to pursue higher education.
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