Texas top 10% HS admissions challenged (again)

[Papa_Chicken]

<p>Inside Higher Ed has picked up this story, with a minority student perspective…
[The</a> 10% Fight Is Back :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/12/tenpercent]The”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/12/tenpercent)</p>

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Location. Location. Location.</p>

<p>That’s the theory in real estate, and new research suggests that the same theory may apply to graduation rates, too. Attend a more selective institution and you are more likely to graduate. That may not seem shocking, if you assume that better students attend more competitive institutions. But the new study focuses on the impact of the “10 percent” admissions system in Texas and was done in a way that challenges the theory of “minority mismatch,” in which some critics of affirmative action say that graduation rates for minority students would be better if they attended institutions they could enroll at without any special admissions system in place.</p>

<p>The key finding is that minority students in Texas are significantly more likely to graduate if they enroll at a competitive institution through the 10 percent plan than if they enroll at a less competitive, and theoretically easier, institution. In fact the only minority students who don’t appear to benefit from 10 percent are those who are below the top decile of their high school classes and who might have previously won admission to a highly competitive institution, but now frequently lose their spots and end up at other institutions. These students see a decline in graduation rates.

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