Senate Bill 175 by Senator Shapiro (summarized here initially, and here after the bill was heard by the Senate) would have gone a long way toward reforming this mandate to give the University of Texas, and Texas A&M, more discretion to determine its student enrollment criteria.
Today, Senate Bill 175 was taken up by the Texas House, and was significantly weakened. Top 10% admission under the House amendments will be capped at 75% of the entering freshman class (as opposed to the 81% today). An additional 10% of the class can be from out-of-state. That leaves only 15% of the entering class that can be considered on criteria other than the Top 10%, including such criteria as proficiency in the arts, athletics, speech, debate, SAT/ACT scores, and any other criteria showing that a student is a well-rounded and college-ready. That's 15% vs. 10.3% today. And there are a lot of restrictions on that 15% with more being added through the additional amendments. This minimal improvement means that the brain drain of students leaving Texas will continue.
Below is a summary from Paul Burka (Texas Monthly) on the House amendments.
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Here are the elements of the deal:
* Automatic admissions capped at 75% of resident admits for UT only, starting with the entering class of 2011 and ending in 2015.
* UT may not use legacy status in its admissions process.
* Cap % of non-residents enrolled in the freshman class at 10%.
* Improve notification provisions to students and parents.
* New reforms do not apply if UT admits fewer students from high schools in the bottom quintile of college-going rates, based on a two-year rolling average.
* New reforms do not apply if a court order or board of regents prohibits the use of race or ethnicity in the admissions process.
* New reforms do not apply if UT-Austin fails to improve outreach and recruitment of undergrads from other general academic teaching institutions to their graduate programs.
The fifth item above — “Improve notification provisions to students and parents” — is crucial. One of the problems UT has in recruiting minority students is that school counselors spend far more time on discipline and dropouts than they spend on college advising. Many students in urban high schools never learn that they have an automatic place at the University of Texas if they finish in the top 10% of their class.
1. Please provide data backing up the assertion that the top 10% rule has created a "brain drain".
2. Please explain how Texas can develop university systems with more than two large schools that high school students prefer to attend, like California.
Posted by: Keith Little | Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 07:51 AM