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Few studies have focused on the role of Asian Americans in influencing how race is understood in affirmative action debates. However, accounting for the complicating presence of Asian Americans in the racial politics of affirmative action has become increasingly important. Informed by racial formation theory, this critical discourse analysis of selected \"amicus\" briefs from the \"Fisher v. University of Texas\" Supreme Court cases illuminated how Asian Americans attempted to racialize themselves in efforts to influence the affirmative action debate. Findings highlight a deep ideological divide between Asian Americans engaged in an ongoing discursive struggle over their racialization and affirmative action.

To date, little research has focused solely on rural students’ adjustment and integration on campus after admittance into elite universities through special admission policies. This qualitative inquiry aims to uncover the adjustment concerns faced by rural students enrolled through special admission policies in elite universities in China. The study findings are discussed and analyzed in Bernstein’s conceptual framework. The study revealed that students were mainly faced with two kinds of concerns, academic and social-cultural. The findings of this study have important implications for faculty and administrators at prestigious universities in China. As the elite universities commit themselves to recruiting more rural students, attention must be paid on how to best support and incorporate rural students into the lives of these campuses. It is important to develop a friendlier and more inclusive ethos in elite universities in China.

We examine the role of information in college matching behavior of low- and high-income students, exploiting a state automatic admissions policy that provides some students with perfect a priori certainty of college admissions. We find that admissions certainty encourages college-ready low-income students to seek more rigorous universities. However, low-income students who are less college ready are not influenced by admissions certainty and are more sensitive to college entrance exams scores. Most students also prefer campuses with students of similar demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Only highly qualified, low-income students choose institutions where they have fewer same-race and same-income peers. These results suggest that automatic admission policies can reduce income-based inequities in college quality by encouraging low-income students who are highly qualified for college to seek out better matched institutions.

Despite the potential of tertiary education to generate higher incomes and close the poverty gap within and between countries, it is still a challenge for many countries to ensure equity and quality in their higher education admissions. Compared to the more privileged, students from marginalized backgrounds face inequitable inputs that restrict their academic and personal growth. This comparative analysis used a capabilities approach-based model to examine the personal, discriminatory, institutional, and geographical barriers many students face in the higher education admission processes in Turkey and China. As long as student stratification persists, equity in education cannot be attained; therefore, several gender equality, equity, diversity, and quality-based policy alternatives are presented that focused on grading systems, curriculum and instruction, and quota system changes. Further recommendations are also given for the development of courses and regional development programmes that can assist disadvantaged students convert functionings into capabilities from an early age.

Family factors significantly influence rural-to-urban migrant children’s educational opportunities within the framework of education policies. In this research, we examined rural-to-urban migrant families’ strategies for the urban education of their children in the context of China’s points-based admission policy. We investigated how family capital and willingness to participate impact their children’s access to educational opportunities. The results reveal that the points-based admission policy prioritizes “ability first” while allowing for diverse indicators that accommodate various types of rural-to-urban migrant families. In the points-based admission process, different family types adopt distinct strategies, including the “capital transformation” strategy of high-capital–high-willingness families; the “quit voluntarily” strategy of high-capital–low-willingness families; the “try one’s best” strategy of low-capital–high-willingness families; and the “let nature take its course” strategy of low-capital–low-willingness families. The admission policy based on allocating points favors rural-to-urban migrant children from families with high capital. Nevertheless, those from families with low capital are not entirely excluded from educational opportunities in other locations. These families possess a strong capacity for action, propelled by their eagerness to engage. Within the framework of educational policies, the amalgamation of family capital and willingness to participate serves as the driving force behind rural-to-urban migrant children’s access to educational prospects, with educational expectations serving a regulatory function. Exploring the family strategies for rural-to-urban migrant children’s urban education can enhance educational policies for this demographic and offer valuable recommendations for their sustainable development.

Regardless of the commitments that universities and teacher education programs (TEPs) have publicly stated regarding equity, diversity, inclusion, or decolonization (EDID), rarely do these commitments impact their admission policies or practices. Through examining a small program’s efforts at implementing EDID change over a three-year period, this article provides critical reflections, questions, and action steps for TEPs looking to move beyond talking about the importance of EDID, to actually altering policies and procedures to address systemic change. Utilizing the concepts of “equity in” and “equity through” admissions, intake variables (Multiple Mini Interview [MMI], Program Preparation, GPA) were analyzed quantitatively and used in this beginning participatory action research project. Results illustrate the benefits of the MMI, the need for program admissions to account for capacities in relation to anti-racism directly, rather than just generally referring to equity, and the need for admission practices to reflect an appreciation of the complexities around identity and ethics.

Developing rapid tools for early detection of viral infection is crucial for pandemic containment. This is particularly crucial when testing resources are constrained and/or there are significant delays until the test results are available – as was quite common in the early days of Covid-19 pandemic. We show how predictive analytics methods using machine learning algorithms can be combined with optimal pre-test screening mechanisms, greatly increasing test efficiency (i.e., rate of true positives identified per test), as well as to allow doctors to initiate treatment before the test results are available. Our optimal test admission policies account for imperfect accuracy of both the medical test and the model prediction mechanism. We derive the accuracy required for the optimized admission policies to be effective. We also show how our policies can be extended to re-testing high-risk patients, as well as combined with pool testing approaches. We illustrate our techniques by applying them to a large data reported by the Israeli Ministry of Health for RT-PCR tests from March to September 2020. Our results demonstrate that in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic a pre-test probability screening tool with conventional RT-PCR testing could have potentially increased efficiency by several times, compared to random admission control.

While education equality is considered crucial for broader social equality, policies that aim to equalize educational resources are sometimes suspected of discriminating against high achievers. Such potential discrimination should be examined empirically to provide robust evidence for policymakers and the broader public. Using a quasi-experimental design and longitudinal dataset, this paper reports on research which has investigated potential discrimination arising from China’s high school quota admission policy, which is considered a successful initiative for distributing high achievers across middle schools in ways that equalize achievement, and hence improves overall quality. The results presented in this paper indicate there is basically no such discrimination after controlling for self-selection bias. The paper also reveals the broader value of evaluating potential discrimination as part of similar forms of education development.

The Chinese government has implemented a series of special admission policies in recent years to increase access to elite universities for disadvantaged students from rural areas and less developed inland regions. Using administrative data of 1996–2015 freshman cohorts and survey data of a 2014 freshman cohort at X University in the eastern China, we empirically assess the effectiveness, and the dual concerns of equity and efficiency of these policies. Findings show that these policies have effectively changed the geographic composition of enrollees at X University toward higher proportions of students from the central and western regions and lower share of the local students. While students from the western region underperformed academically, urban students in this region caught up quickly. Low family SES and weak academic preparation largely explained why rural students from the western region underperformed. Importantly, compared with the local students who scored lower in college entrance exam—the proxy for likely displaced students because of the policies, the likely admission policy beneficiaries performed about equally well. These results indicate that the current practice of Chinese special admission policies has effectively promoted equal access to Chinese elite universities with a limited loss in efficiency.

By guaranteeing college admission to all students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class, Texas H.B. 588 replaced an opaque defacto practice of admitting nearly all top 10 percent graduates with a transparent de jure policy that required public institutions to admit all applicants eligible for the guarantee. The new admission regime sent a clear message to students attending high schools that previously sent few students to the Texas flagships. Using 18 years of administrative data to examine sending patterns, we find a sizeable decrease in the concentration of flagship enrollees originating from select feeder schools and growing shares of enrollees originating from high schools located in rural areas, small towns, and midsize cities, as well as from schools with concentrations of poor and minority students. For new sending schools, we find substantial year-to-year persistence in sending behavior, which increased after the top 10 percent policy was implemented.