Promoting Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility among Racially, Ethnically, and Economically Diverse Groups after the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Race-Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities

Overview

The initiative focuses on ways to promote educational attainment and economic mobility among racially, ethnically, and economically diverse groups following the court’s ruling that the declared that use of race-conscious admissions policies violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

In a June 2023 decision, the Supreme Court held that admission practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel-Hill were unconstitutionally race-conscious and violated the 14^th Amendment. Proponents of race-conscious admissions policies have argued that such policies acknowledge and help compensate for systemically unequal opportunities in education and contribute to a more diverse workforce. Critics have argued that race-conscious admissions policies limit opportunities for Asian and white applicants. The Court’s decision may also have effects on employment and promotion decisions in the workplace and other settings.

Prior to this decision, ten states had banned the use of race-conscious admissions for their public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. Research on alternative methods for achieving diversity suggests that they do not work as well as race-conscious policies in diversifying college and graduate and professional school enrollment. As a result, the Supreme Court’s decision is likely to generate experimentation with a range of methods to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education and the educational attainment and economic mobility of underrepresented and lower-income groups.

A brief letter of inquiry (LOI; four-page maximum excluding references) must precede a full proposal to determine whether the proposed project is in line with the Foundation’s program priorities and available funds. All applications must be submitted through the Foundation’s online submission system, Fluxx, received by March 11, 2025.

We are especially interested in proposals that will advance social science research on the social, political, and economic effects of the Supreme Court decision and the future of race-conscious policies more generally. Examples of the kinds of topics and questions that are of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• What are the short- and long-run effects of the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling that restricts race-conscious policies in university and college admissions on who attends college and where?
• What has experience with the direct admissions or percentage plans of California, Texas, and other states revealed about what happens to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in enrollment and degree completion when race-conscious admission policies are no longer permissible for undergraduates or graduate students?
• Which alternatives to race-conscious policies, whether independently or in tandem, generate socioeconomic and racial and ethnic diversity in applications, admissions, enrollment, debt-free degree completion, and social mobility?
• To what extent are the beneficiaries of race-conscious admissions policies, who enroll in selective colleges and universities, more or less likely to graduate relative to those attending less-selective institutions?
• To what extent do race-neutral or alternative admissions policies contribute to the promotion of educational attainment and economic mobility among racially, ethnically, and economically diverse groups following the Supreme Court decision?
• What are the racial and socioeconomic composition effects of eliminating other admission practices such as early admissions, the use of standardized test scores, or the preferential treatment of the children of donors, alumni, faculty, and recruited athletes?
• To what extent will the race-conscious admissions ban impact the effort that high school students put into their studies, their educational aspirations, and their subsequent enrollment in higher education?
• What are the educational, social, and civic engagement benefits that derive from students’ interactions with classmates whose backgrounds, race and ethnicity, experiences, and political views differ from their own?
• What can we learn from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI’s) on how to support retention, recruitment, and degree completion for students from marginalized groups?
•  What program or policy changes might provide the basis for addressing historical racial harm in the context of higher education access and economic mobility?
• To what extent might improvements in college affordability lead to the promotion of educational attainment and economic mobility among racially, ethnically, and economically diverse groups?
• To what extent will the Supreme Court decision alter the college-to-career pipeline that many employers rely on to diversify their workforce?
• To what extent is the Supreme Court decision affecting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (D.E.I) initiatives in the recruitment, hiring, retention, promotion, and advancement of workers of color and or/other groups in higher education and in the private and public sectors?

How are attitudes towards the use of race, ethnicity, or gender criteria in admissions, hiring, or contracting preferences formed? What factors are associated with opposition to and support for race-conscious policies? How might the framing of diversity, bias, opportunity, and/or mobility affect opposition or support for race-conscious policies?