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Hot News! Merit-Based Aid Produces More Bright Students! Too Bad....

Who?d a thunk? Well, those doubters among you, a new study has found that ?the adoption of merit aid by private colleges may achieve something for colleges that care about SAT averages.?

Really? Positively? Yes, ?[o]ver all [sic], SAT medians go up after the introduction of merit aid.?

Good news, right? Wrong. In fact, if you think this is good news you?re obviously not familiar with the world of higher education. The author, Amanda L. Griffith, an assistant professor of economics at Wake Forest University,? concludes her study

by expressing concerns about the trends it documents. ?It is worrisome, given the already low levels of representation of low-income and minority students at four-year colleges, to find that the introduction of a merit aid policy is associated with a decrease in the percentage of low-income and black students, particularly at the more selective institutions in the sample....?

The decline in the number of black and Latino students was modest ?

In the immediate few years after merit aid starts, there is not a notable impact on the enrollment of black students. But after that, top and middle tier institutions start to see a decrease of 1.5 percentage points in black enrollment, growing to 2 percentage points 10 years out. (Much smaller shifts are seen for Latino students.)

Even with this modest decline, ?diversity? does not really take a hit, since ?Merit aid may have a positive impact on diversity with regard to international students.? For some reason, perhaps to be reconsidered,

[m]any American colleges provide relatively little if any need-based aid to students from outside the United States, so relatively modest merit awards may have a significant impact on enrollments. Within five years after starting merit aid, middle and top tier colleges see a 2 percentage point increase in international enrollments, and bottom tier colleges see an increase of 3.5 percentage points.

So, merit-based aid leads to more bright students and more (or at least not a decline in) real (as opposed to merely pigmentary) diversity. No wonder higher education researchers and their audience are upset.

Full post as published by Discriminations on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).