Race, Socioeconomic Status and Representation: Redefining Affirmative Action in Chicago
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Psenka, Renee
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
- Abstract
- As the legal foundation of racial affirmative action in public education erodes, alternatives to these policies must be examined where diversity is socially and pedagogically valued. The purpose of this thesis is to determine if race-neutral, socioeconomic status-based affirmative action policies can be applied to produce comparable levels of racial/ethnic enrollment proportions within schools (versus racial affirmative action). My study examines the Chicago Public Schools’ Admissions Policy for Magnet, Selective Enrollment and Other Options For Knowledge Schools and Programs, which applied a SES-based admissions standard to the Selective Enrollment High School program in 2011. Using data on Selective Enrollment High Schools and CPS demographic enrollment, this thesis determines the treatment effect of the new policy on enrollment proportions through multiple linear regression. The analysis provides empirical evidence that SES-based admissions policies yield statistically significant decreases in Black and minority student enrollment proportions, which are 5.8% and 7% lower than enrollment under a racial affirmative action admissions policy, respectively. However, based on anecdotal evidence, the CPS policy provides one of the strongest race-neutral affirmative action policy formulas available to date, and nonetheless works to ensure the presence of a critical mass of minority students.
- Date of publication
- spring 2014
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Gitterman, Daniel
- Degree
- Bachelor of Science
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 68
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