Too Many Crackers at UT-Austin

At least, that's what I extracted from this article

College entrance exam scores are falling among University of Texas applicants admitted under the Texas top 10 percent law, and the measure has failed to substantially improve ethnic diversity on campus, an Austin American-Statesman analysis has found.

Gentlemen/women/children, Start Your Engines!

Since 1996, when UT was still using affirmative action, the median SAT score of admitted students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class has fallen 20 points, to 1250. The median score of all other students has increased 30 points, to 1240.

Personally, I think it's because Texans are getting stupider, yet remain smart enough to graduate in the top 10% of their high school class. Crazy!

The number of admitted top 10 percent applicants whose SAT scores dipped below the national average of 1020 has more than doubled from about 350 in 1996 to about 730 in 2002.

Of course, it's also possible Texas public teachers have acheived the impossible and have actually gotten worse. The jury is out on this one.

Although UT officials have expanded recruiting efforts to more Texas high schools than ever before, including many with high minority populations, Hispanic and African American students have made only marginal gains in admissions. Asian enrollments have increased, while enrollment of white students has declined.

I'll be serious here.

You can herd, cajole, threaten, bribe, and use all other manner of incitements on people to change their behavior...but if they don't want to fucking do it then the only thing you can do is force them. It is ass-scorchingly obvious that even determined attempts to get minorities enrolled at UT-Austin failed because they either don't want to go or they are too stupid to get anywhere in college...and interestingly enough, everyone else (caucasian or not) is the same gawddamn way.

The percentage of white and minority students admitted to UT has changed only slightly since the law was enacted, but these students are being recruited from a wider variety of high schools throughout the state. Many of those schools received midrange ratings of "recognized" or "acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency.

This is just asinine. Next!

The largest number of admitted UT students overall still comes from schools located mostly in predominantly white areas, such as Westlake High School, where 88 percent of the graduating seniors are white.

No surprise there.

Supporters, including UT admissions director Bruce Walker, said the law has been vital in bridging the diversity gap created by the Hopwood ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that eliminated race-based college admissions in Texas in 1996.

"We don't know what our world would be if we didn't have the top 10 percent bill," Walker said. "We would have stumbled around and struggled to try to find a way back to diversity without affirmative action."

Man, you'd think that the way people moan about "diversity" it doesn't mean variety within a set but rather THE VERY AIR WE BREATHE. Look at this Walker twat. I can picture him sitting on the edge of his interview chair, hat clutched agonizingly in his hands, trying to appeal to the forgiving side of the reporter and the public.

"I...I did all I could."

Some critics say the law isn't doing enough to achieve diversity despite efforts to recruit students of color. They point out that the number of Hispanic and African American freshmen who enrolled at UT between 1998 and 2002 held steady at about 14 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

And people say quotas are dead! HA! They come in all forms, guys.

The American-Statesman analysis was based on an examination of two separate databases — one with SAT and ACT scores and other academic indicators, and another with demographic information for first-year applicants before and after the law was implemented. UT declined to release one database containing all the information, because federal laws prohibit the release of personally identifiable academic records.

In the absence of a complete, combined database, it's impossible to verify what many believe: that students graduating in the top 10 percent of average Texas high schools are displacing non-top 10 graduates from high-performing schools in more affluent areas.

Oh. I must be getting worked up for nothing then. :)

The newspaper's analysis underlines both the concerns about diversity and questions about whether the law, with its emphasis on class rank, is producing academically weaker UT students.

"They don't account for the quality of education in the high school," said Ann Springer, associate counsel for the Washington-based American Association of University Professors, of percent plans such as the one in Texas. "You could have a failing high school that is giving a terrible education, and you're going to guarantee them admission when they're not ready to succeed at a university."

No shit. An arbitrary state-mandated standard will create those kinds of unintended consequences.

Walker counters such concerns by citing a study he completed in January, along with Gary Lavergne, UT director of admissions research, showing that from 1996 to 2001, students admitted under the top 10 percent law made higher grade-point averages in their first year at UT than non-top 10 percent students.

Even if these 10%-ers (and I was one of them) did do better than the rest, it doesn't change anything when the express purpose of the ten percent rule is to create a more diverse campus.

The Legislature passed the top 10 percent law in 1997, the year after a federal court effectively dismantled affirmative action admissions policies here. Intended as a colorblind mechanism to ensure ethnic diversity, the law guarantees those who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes a place at the Texas public campus of their choice.

Especially since the entire ordeal is just another state entitlement.

The law has brought about a monumental shift in priorities among thousands of Texas' college-bound students. Instead of focusing on the traditional SAT exam, application essay and extracurricular activities, students are scrambling for top 10 percent class rank. They are taking advanced placement classes, which tend to boost class rank, and enrolling in community college classes which gain them credits that don't factor into their GPA. Further, anecdotes abound about students transferring to less challenging schools to guarantee admission to UT.

[...]

Under the state's top 10 percent system, the importance of the SAT in college admissions has lessened because students with low scores can still graduate at the top of their classes.

Walker and other UT officials said that's fine because the SAT is only a benchmark, not the best measure of academic quality. Walker said he's not surprised the scores are falling because students in the top 10 percent know they'll get in regardless of how they do on the SAT.

The student market is correcting itself. Anyone could have predicted this. But since diversity is important, it doesn't matter. As long as you look like you're "doing something" for diversity, you get the political points.

The schools with the most percentage growth in top 10 percent students had predominantly minority enrollments, such as O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Kerr High School in Houston and several schools in the Rio Grande Valley. Kerr received an "exemplary" rating from the Texas Education Agency — the highest rating the state gives based on statewide accountability test scores and dropout rates. Most of the other schools achieved "acceptable" to "recognized" ratings for their performance.

That hasn't stopped university officials such as Faulkner from making recruiting visits. As part of its efforts, the university also established recruiting centers in Dallas and Houston and offers scholarships to help attract minority applicants in the top 10 percent of their classes.

Here's what UT-Austin says for the first line of it's Mission Statement:

The mission of The University of Texas at Austin is to achieve excellence in the interrelated areas of undergraduate education, graduate education, research, and public service.

If this is true, then recruitment efforts shouldn't be based on racial discrimination. Demonstrated and potential academic performance should remain the single most important factors in recruitment efforts.

Posted by Drizzten at May 27, 2003 11:38 PM