Chapter 7: Systems Of Support: Home and School Contexts of Asian and Latina/o High School Students

Even after the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 2004, educational racial equality in the United States is a goal yet to be attained. The ongoing dispute over affirmative action policies at all levels of education show discussions on race and education continue to occupy a prominent position in public policy and engender argument as passionate as those made more than 50 years ago. At the University of California (UC) and other institutions of higher education, for example, achieving a diverse student body continues to be a top priority and elusive goal. Proposition 209 eliminated the use of race in all admissions and financial aid decisions at California public institutions in 1997, leading to steep declines in the number of underrepresented minority students enrolled at the UC system’s most prestigious campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA, as well as in many graduate and professional schools (Bunche Research Report, 2006a,b). After finding “colorblind” admissions policies are not equitable after years of detailed examination, UC Berkeley and UCLA instituted new holistic policies which have led to promising increases in the number of Black and Latina/o students admitted. Students from both groups, however, continue to be grossly underrepresented, and sustained efforts at diversity continue.