Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education

Black Issues in Higher Education, March 10, 2005

Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education By William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil and Eugene M. Tobin University of Virginia Press, April 2005 480 pp., $27.95 Cloth ISBN: 0-8139-2350-6

Thomas Jefferson once stated that the foremost goal of American education must be to nurture the "natural aristocracy of talent and virtue." Although in many ways American higher education has fulfilled Jefferson's vision by achieving a widespread level of excellence, it has not achieved the objective of equity implicit in Jefferson's statement. After identifying the "equity" problem at the national level and studying 19 selective colleges and universities, the authors urge all selective colleges and universities to continue race-sensitive admissions policies, while urging the most selective (and privileged) institutions to enroll more well-qualified students from families with low socioeconomic status.