Thursday, October 20, 2005

Public-university officials in Florida and Kentucky are taking heat for declines in black enrollment

Peter Schmidt:

The University of Kentucky enrolled 40 percent fewer black freshmen this fall than last year, while black students' share of the total freshman enrollment at Florida's public universities is the smallest it has been since 1999.

At Kentucky -- where the number of black freshmen dropped from 256, or 6 percent of the entering class, to 151, or 4 percent -- administrators initially blamed the lower numbers on a slight increase in the minimum ACT score required for admission. They said the university had chosen not to admit students whose borderline test scores suggested they might not be able to compete academically.

That explanation brought an angry response from several black Kentucky lawmakers, who accused the university of offering poor excuses for its own failure to maintain diversity, and of operating on the offensive assumption that black applicants could not cut it there.

They called for a meeting with the university's president, Lee T. Todd Jr., who sought to reassure them by outlining a list of steps that his institution was taking to reverse the enrollment decline. Those included adding three new recruiters, reallocating $500,000 to diversity-related scholarships, and adopting a new "holistic" admissions system that will look beyond an applicants' grades and test scores.

Black-White-East Asian IQ differences at least 50% genetic, scientists conclude in major law journal

The Inequality Taboo

Achievement gap between whites and blacks shows little change

Achievement gap divides candidates

Black students' test scores lag; city schools try to reduce gap

Mass. reading, math scores top nation, but racial gap remains

Michigan's African-American students score below national average in reading

Scores show Nevada lagging

N.M. students score below national average in math, reading

Arizona students lag on national test

Test Scores Move Little in Math, Reading

Trashing 'The Bell Curve.'

2 Comments:

At 6:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"offensive assumption"

Well, presumably if the blacks could "cut it", this would've shown up in their previous academic performance -- grades and test scores. Especially test scores, which have been found to be a better predictor of success in college than HS grades -- this is why they make students take the tests.

While the "black lawmakers" will no doubt lobby for changes that will enable more blacks to be admitted, one more thing is also certain: whites will show no such racial solidarity, even though in the zero sum process of college admissions their children will be the losers.

 
At 3:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

adopting a new "holistic" admissions system that will look beyond an applicants' grades and test scores

No wonder no great civilization has ever flourished in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home


View My Stats