Shockwaves: Tracing the Effects of Affirmative Action Bans Through the High School to College Transition

Investigator: Thad Domina

Purpose of the Study

In the late 1990s, a wave of voter initiatives, judicial decisions, and legislative policies prohibiting the consideration of race in higher education recruiting, admissions, and financial aid swept across several of the nation's largest and most diverse states. In this project, I estimate the effects of affirmative action bans on students' college enrollment outcomes, as well as their pre-collegiate educational orientations and behavior.

Study Design and Methods

Using nationally representative data describing students in high school class of 1992 and 2004, I generate difference-in-difference estimates of the consequences of affirmative action bans on racial inequality.

Findings

The analyses indicate that even though affirmative action bans had no independent effect on college access, they depressed black and Hispanic students college expectations and negatively affected their academic engagement.

Policy Implications

These findings highlight the important role that perceived opportunities play in the formation of students' prefigurative educational commitments. They suggest that educational policy-makers, analysts, and practitioners must look beyond the direct effects of higher education access policies, and appreciate the important role that these policies play in shaping high school students' orientations toward schooling.