A new study based on University of California data lends support to an argument that the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia caused a furor in raising last week: that affirmative action can hinder some black students’ prospects of becoming scientists by channeling them into top colleges where their poor academic preparation causes them to struggle.
Like Justice Scalia, the new study explains gaps between races in graduation rates by invoking the controversial academic "mismatch" theory, which holds that race-conscious admissions policies place many minority students in highly selective academic environments where they end up over their heads academically.
In contrast with Justice Scalia, however, the researchers behind the new peer-reviewed study treat the subject as complex. Although they have reputations as critics of race-conscious admissions, they did not find such policies to be harmful to all students, only those who ended up pursuing science-related careers at highly selective campuses for which they were academically unprepared.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/New-Study-Fuels-Debate-Over/234643