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1. Bans and Signals: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Applications to Elite Public Colleges in States With and Without Affirmative Action

   https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.3.361  

   Bennett, Pamela R.; Lutz, Amy (October 2022, Harvard educational review)

   In this research article, Pamela R. Bennett and Amy Lutz offer new hypotheses about how state bans on affirmative action affect application decisions based on students’ beneficiary positions vis-à-vis affirmative action and evaluate them for black, white, Latino, and Asian American students separately. They posit that bans discourage applications to selective colleges from prospective students who benefit from affirmative action (black and Latino) and encourage applications from prospective students who do not benefit from the policy (white and Asian American). Members of nonbeneficiary groups that have strong academic credentials are more responsive to bans because they are best positioned for admission under restrictions on race-conscious admissions policies. Citing results from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002–2006, the authors show how state restrictions on race-conscious admissions have contributed to racial inequality in higher education by further drawing into elite institutions’ application pools racial groups that already account for most of their students while also raising the chances that students from those groups will be admitted. 

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2. How Affirmative Action Context Shapes Collegiate Outcomes at America’s Selective Colleges and Universities

   Lutz, Amy; Bennett, Pamela R.; Wang, Rebecca (January 2019, Journal of law and social policy)

   null (Ed.)

   During the 1990s and early 2000s, the affirmative action context in the United States changed. Affirmative action in higher education was banned in several states, and the Supreme Court ruled in Grutter (2003) that affirmative action, while constitutional, should be implemented via holistic evaluation of applicants. In this article, we use two datasets to examine how affirmative action context relates to academic outcomes at selective colleges and universities in the United States before and after the Grutter decision and in states with and without bans on affirmative action. Underrepresented minority students earned higher grades in the period after the Grutter decision than before it, indicating that the holistic evaluation method required by Grutter may enhance educational outcomes for these students. In contrast, we find no support for the idea, proposed by critics of the policy, that banning affirmative action leads to better collegiate outcomes for Black and Latino students at selective institutions. 

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3. Shifting Tides: The Evolution of Racial Inequality in Higher Education from the 1980s through the 2010s

   Oh, Byeongdon; Tilbrook, Ned; Shifrer, Dara (January 2024, Socius)

   Amid the proliferation of state-level bans on race-based affirmative action in higher education, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2023, dismantled race-conscious college admission policies, intensifying concerns about the persistence and potential increase of racial inequality in higher education. The authors analyze four restricted-use national survey datasets to investigate racial disparities in college attendance outcomes from the 1980s through the 2010s. Although college entrance rates increased for all racial groups, Black and Hispanic youth became increasingly less likely than their White peers to attend four-year selective colleges. In the 2010s cohort, Black and Hispanic youth were 8 and 7 percentage points, respectively, less likely than their White counterparts to secure admission to four-year selective colleges, even after controlling for parents’ income, education, and other family background variables. The findings underscore the urgent need for proactive policy interventions to address the widening racial inequality in attending selective postsecondary institutions. 

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4. US Abortion Bans and Fertility

   https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.28527  

   Bell, Suzanne O; Franks, Alexander M; Arbour, David; Anjur-Dietrich, Selena; Stuart, Elizabeth A; Ben-Michael, Eli; Feller, Avi; Gemmill, Alison (April 2025, JAMA)

   ImportanceAbortion bans may lead to births among those who are unable to overcome barriers to abortion. The population-level effects of these policies, particularly their unequal impacts across subpopulations in the US, remain unclear. ObjectiveTo assess heterogeneity in the association of abortion bans with changes in fertility in the US, within and across states. Design, Setting, and ParticipantsDrawing from birth certificate and US Census Bureau data from 2012 through 2023 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, this study used a bayesian panel data model to evaluate state-by-subgroup-specific changes in fertility associated with complete or 6-week abortion bans in 14 US states. The average percent and absolute change in the fertility rate among females aged 15 through 44 years was estimated overall and by state, and within and across states by age, race and ethnicity, marital status, education, and insurance payer. ExposureComplete or 6-week abortion ban. Main outcome and MeasuresFertility rate (births per 1000 reproductive-aged females) overall and by subgroups. ResultsThere were an estimated 1.01 (95% credible interval [CrI], 0.45-1.64) additional births above expectation per 1000 females aged 15 through 44 years (reproductive age) in states following adoption of abortion bans (60.55 observed vs 59.54 expected; 1.70% increase; 95% CrI, 0.75%-2.78%), equivalent to 22 180 excess births, with evidence of variation by state and subgroup. Estimated differences above expectation were largest for racially minoritized individuals (≈2.0%), unmarried individuals (1.79%), individuals younger than 35 years (≈2.0%), Medicaid beneficiaries (2.41%), and those without college degrees (high school diploma, 2.36%; some college, 1.58%), particularly in southern states. Differences in race and ethnicity and education across states explain most of the variability in the state-level association between abortion bans and fertility rates. Conclusion and RelevanceThese findings provide evidence that fertility rates in states with abortion bans were higher than would have been expected in the absence of these policies, with the largest estimated differences among subpopulations experiencing the greatest structural disadvantages and in states with among the worst maternal and child health and well-being outcomes. 

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5. On Transfer Student Success: Exploring the Academic Trajectories of Black Transfer Engineering Students from Community Colleges

   Berhane, B; Hayes, S; Koonce, D; Salley, C (June 2019, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   According to the National Science Foundation, 50% of Black engineering students who have received a bachelor’s and master’s degree attended a community college at some point during their academic career. However, while research highlights the importance of supporting underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities (URMs) in STEM disciplines, there is a dearth of literature focusing on URMs in community colleges who pursue engineering and other science/math-based majors. Further, Black undergraduates in community colleges are often homogenized by area of study, with little regard for their specific major/discipline. Similarly, while engineering education research has begun to focus on the population of community college students, less attention has been paid to unpacking the experiences of racial subgroups of community college attendees. The engineering student transfer process has specific aspects related to it being a selective and challenging discipline (e.g., limited enrollment policies, engineering culture shock) that warrants a closer investigation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of a small population of students who have recently transferred from several community colleges to one four-year engineering school. Specifically, we will present preliminary findings derived from interviews with three Black students who started their academic careers at several community colleges in a Mid-Atlantic state, before transferring to the flagship institution of that same state. Interview transcripts will undergo a thorough analysis and will be coded to document rich themes. Multiple analyses of coded interview data will be performed by several members of the research team, as well as external evaluation members who are leading scholars in STEM and/or transfer education research. This research is part of a larger-scale, three year qualitative study, which will examine the academic trajectories of two distinct groups of Blacks in engineering majors: 1) Blacks born and educated in the United States and 2) Those born and educated in other countries. By looking at these populations distinctly, we will build upon past literature that disaggregates the experiences of Black STEM students who represent multiple identities across the African diaspora. Through this lens, we hope to highlight the impact that cultural background may have on the transfer experience. The theoretical framework guiding this study posits that the persistence of Black transfer students in engineering is a longitudinal process influenced by the intersection of both individual and institutional factors. We draw from the STEM transfer model, noting that the transfer process commences during a student’s community college education and continues through his/her transfer and enrollment in an engineering program at a four-year institution. The following factors contribute to our conceptualization of this process: pre-college background, community college prior to transfer, initial transfer to the four-year university, nearing 4-year degree completion. 

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