relationship of high school characteristics to the selection of undergraduate students for admission to the University of California-Berkeley, The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2000 by Chang, Mitchell James

DiSCUSSION

Several conclusions can be drawn from these findings. First, discrepancies in key high school characteristics between those students who were admitted to UCB and those who were denied admission in 1998 and 1999 have generally narrowed to the point where the high school profiles of these two groups closely mirrored each other by 1999. Second, despite this narrowing, this study consistently found that California students who applied for undergraduate admission to UCB attended high schools that were on average better positioned to put forth a larger pool of competitive college applicants. That is, compared to the average high school in California, the high schools attended by most California students who applied to UCB offered more honors/AP courses and had larger percentages of students who took one honors/AP course and the SAT. Those who applied also attended high schools that had on average proportionally fewer students who received free and reduced-cost meals, AFDC students, and LEP students. Lastly, compared to the average high school statewide, students who applied to UCB attended high schools that had larger percentages of Asian American students and smaller percentages of Chicano/Latino students. Students who applied to UCB from large California cities also attended high schools that had on average a smaller percentage of Blacks and a larger percentage of Whites than did students who attended the average large-city high school in California.

These results suggest that the makeup of a high school, particularly the learning opportunities offered, may play an important role in the chances that a student will be admitted, much less even apply, to UCB. Those who apply for undergraduate admissions clearly have better access to honors/AP courses and the SAT. The availability of these educational opportunities also appears to be confounded by economic circumstances and by the racial/ethnic composition of the high school's student body. Not surprisingly, students admitted to UCB from large California cities attended high schools that had on average smaller proportions of AFDC students and smaller percentages of Chicano/Latino and African American students. Indeed, these and other high school characteristics were significantly correlated with each other. Table I shows the relationship between high school racial/ethnic composition and their respective students' economic circumstances and educational opportunities.

Strong and significant relationships were also found to exist between the percentages of Black and Chicano/Latino students in a high school and the proportion of economically disadvantaged and LEP students. As the proportions of Chicano/Latino and Black students increased, so did the proportion of students identified as LEP and the proportion receiving AFDC or free and reduced-cost meals. Comparatively, the percentage of Chicano/Latino students was negatively correlated with the proportions of students who took one honors/AP course and those who took the SAT. In other words, as the percentage of Chicano/Latino students in high schools increases, the proportions of students who take honors/AP courses and the SAT tend to drop. It is unclear with correlational analyses whether these findings are a result of students' academic proclivities-that is, their educational interest or lack thereof-or the availability of educational opportunities at those high schools. Given the relationships between high school racial/ethnic composition and economic indicators reported in Table I, and the finding that schools with fewer resources tend to serve students who are more impoverished (Gandara, 1995; Trent et al., in press), chances are that the availability of resources at these high schools play a critical role in whether students will participate in these educational opportunities.