As campuses across the country debate and implement holistic review processes for admissions decisions, decision-makers and practitioners must balance an array of factors, including:
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Research implications, in order to use the best sources of information to assess student achievement and potential;
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Legal obligations, to ensure compliance with federal and state laws;
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Institutional climate and culture, to ensure fair, consistent application review and well-defined goals.
Below, experts discuss some of the major issues relating to each factor.
Research-based decisions. In order to develop a meaningful assessment of non-cognitive variables, researchers must define which factors they want to measure, how the information will be used, and how to assess these skills with any validity.
“If we’re going to talk about the importance of non-cognitive skills, we need to include them in what we’re assessing,” said Ross Markle, Senior Research & Assessment Director, Educational Testing Service. “It’s important to understand why we want this information--to make admissions decisions? To better support students after they’re accepted? To tip the scale in a case where two students are otherwise equal?” In addition, researchers must build consensus around what constitutes “holistic skills.” Time management? Organization? Leadership? Creativity?
“We’ve got to iron out which of these constructs are really important to the global conversation, and also to individual institutions,” Markle said.
Legal issues. Can race-conscious holistic admissions practices be constitutional? For the time being, at least, the question seems to be settled. According to the 2016 Supreme Court Fisher II decision, an institution is able to consider race and ethnicity in college admissions decisions so long as it is “tailoring its approach to ensure that race plays no greater role than is necessary to meet its compelling interests.” However, the Court also indicated that institutions have the legal burden of periodically reassessing their admissions programs to ensure that race-conscious holistic review policies and procedures are constitutional. So it’s important to clearly articulate the goals of their race-conscious review policy in terms of institutional academic and social mission.
“The decision in Fisher II doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about this anymore,” said Terri Taylor, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor with the Education Counsel. “Institutions must build an evidence base to support race-conscious admissions. The whole field must commit itself to continual review and evidence-building using data.”
In Fisher II, the Court gave new guidance about what types of quantitative and qualitative data and information colleges can use to demonstrate if they are challenged. Notably, this legal guidance aligns with what other stakeholders--students, activists, and boards of trustees--are asking for. Schools can use data such as admissions yield, campus climate, and even student perspectives and anecdotes to justify their review process and - more importantly - to meet their institution’s educational goals related to diversity and inclusion.
“In responding to questions the Supreme Court asked, schools can do better. ‘What is our mission?’ ‘How do we define success?’” Taylor said. “And colleges need to do more--not just say they care about diversity, but actually do more to support a diverse campus. For example, can the holistic review process and admissions do a better hand off to student support services in the first year?”
Institutional culture. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, part of the College Board’s Access and Diversity Collaborative, has a well-established holistic review process.
“We look at six main factors when looking at freshmen and transfer applications,” Nancy Walsh, Director of Admissions Operations. One of those factors is “personal characteristics”--which includes factors like race and ethnicity, first generation, low-income, and military service, as well as geographic considerations, in order to boost enrollment from low-sending counties or increase global recruitment. “The end goal is to build a class where students are not only educated in the classroom but also by the other cultures they’re around.”
Walsh, Taylor and Markle will lead an in-depth conversation about holistic review, discuss the implications of the Fisher decision, and review the research on using non-cognitive assessments to admit and retain successful students in a half-day workshop at this year’s AACRAO Annual Meeting.
Register now for the Sunday afternoon workshop “Holistic Admissions: A Multifaceted View.
And attend the full AACRAO Annual Meeting, April 2-5 in Minneapolis, for more critical sessions about diversity, access and student success.