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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^^But the article posted #1 is from 1998. Also it does not state that black kids with 200-400 points lower than white kids are getting into Ivy League schools.  That's the evidence I want to see.

I think it has been proven that black kids even of higher SES score lower but I will maintain that there are enough black students within a reasonable range who are admitted to top schools.

I'm reposting an op-ed piece that discusses the recent study about race and test scores where it did indeed show a gap for black students. However, the investigators for the study acknowledge that they did not take into account any other measures for admission (grades, essays, ECs, character). The author is Asian and an alum of Yale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/white-students-unfair-advantage-in-admissions.html

"I’ve often heard Asian-Americans express resentment toward blacks and Latinos for benefiting from affirmative action. As a Yale senior, I remember feeling disillusioned myself when an upper-middle-class black classmate with significantly less academic achievement than I was admitted to a top medical school that had rejected me.

But if Asians are being held back, it’s not so much because of affirmative action but because of preference for whites. [b]The 450-point advantage that the Princeton study demonstrated blacks have over Asians draws the most attention. But the number that is most revealing is the 140-point advantage for whites over Asians."[/b][/quote]

PP, that's a great article!  Here's another fascinating quote from the author: [i]"The study isolated race as a factor by [b]controlling for variables like academic performance, legacy status, social class, type of high school (public or private) and participation in athletics.[/b] So that 140-point gap is between a white student and an Asian student who differ by little more than race."  
[/i]
Giving that big a preference to whites over Asians is wrong.  I'll just note that the study also indicates that the 450-point advantage blacks have over Asians is between a black student and an Asian student who differ by little more than race.  That's a heck of an advantage for an upper-middle-class black student to have over an upper-middle-class Asian student.  I support some advantage being accorded to the well-to-do African American student (not to the well-to-do Nigerian boarding school student), but I don't know why it needs to be 450 points.

I support affirmative action, but when the advantage is this large (actually, massive) REGARDLESS of socio-economic status, then I question the application of that kind of preference in the name of affirmative action.[/quote]

If you look at the link to the actual study, the researcher does not feel they have a "smoking gun". In fact they ran models of different policy actions that could be taken and you would not achieve a similar level of diversity by just using SES as the measure. (I'm operating on the assumption that most of us value diversity in higher education).  As an AA, though this study does give me pause and I agree 450 points is just crazy.  Our approach with my DC who will be entering college next year has been to focus on getting a high test score, high grades and stellar ECs - all of which DC has in place.  My DC is planning to apply to top schools. However, I have a lot of skepticism that it will be a slam dunk.  At the same time if it is a slam dunk, I will not apologize for it. IMO everyone should take any advantage they can to get ahead. Isn't that they way of the college admissions world, anyway?[/quote]

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