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The Case
of Latinos,
the SAT,
and the
University
of California
Introduction
Educational underachievement is the best predictor of low earnings and occupational status for racial and ethnic minorities (Tienda and Neidert 1985), and underachievement persists as a critical problem for minorities, especially Latinos. Consider: only 53 percent of all Latinos in 1996 over the age of 25 had earned a high school diploma (US Department of Education 1998) Among all 1992high school graduates, 45 percent attended a postsecondary school within two years of graduation. Among Latinos, only 31 percent attended a four-year college compared to 42 percent of blacks and 47 percent of whites (US Department of Education 1997). Finally, only 6 percent of Latinos aged 25 and older had completed four or more years of college in 1994 (US Census Bureau 1995).
These figures reveal that Latinos drop out more frequently and thus smaller proportions push toward college. But is this the full story? In recent years, sociologists who study access to postsecondary education have argued that academic preparation is a key ingredient to college participation. In comparing college enrollment rates across income and racial and ethnic groups while holding academic preparation constant, merit and motivation become more important in explaining the variation. Put differently, their data over-predict the extent to which access is actually being denied to students who have the motivation as well as the merit to attend four-year institutions.
Less research has been devoted to understanding the motivation to attend college and especially the effects of traditional college entrance requirements and related barriers for Latino students. More attention to this topic is especially needed now because of the eroding support for affirmative action.
At least for public universities in California and Texas, admission criteria have been contorted by recent actions by the legislatures, courts, and Boards of Regents in those states. The bans there on utilizing race, ethnicity and gender as an admission criterion has sent women and underrepresented students tumbling off the playing fields of selective public universities.
For instance, Latinos are rapidly becoming the largest ethnic group in California public schools, now accounting for 33 percent of high school graduates. Meanwhile, at selective University of California campuses like Berkeley, only 7.6 percent of the 1998 admittees...