“˜Dual admissions’ plan step in right direction

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The UC Board of Regents’ 14-3 decision last week to pass
the “dual admissions” plan is a good step toward making
access to education more equitable, but there is still more to
do.

Under new guidelines, admission is guaranteed to the top 12.5
percent of graduating students at each high school, if they first
complete specific requirements at a community college.

UC officials point out that 36 percent of the students to be
admitted under this new policy will be underrepresented minorities.
Currently, African American, Latino and American Indian students
compose only 18 percent of next fall’s entering class.

Likewise, this plan should help students in rural areas who are
often just as underrepresented and whose schools are
inadequate.

The proposal is certainly a positive step in the post SP-1 and 2
era, when the UC spends more than $300 million on outreach efforts,
toward increasing accessibility and diversity ““ particularly
at the most competitive campuses: UC Berkeley and UCLA ““ but
it should not be used as an excuse to ignore large-scale problems
in California’s K-12 education system.

It’s time for the regents to look at the origins of the
disparity between the haves and the have-nots when restructuring
admissions.

One way to bridge this gap is to draft a formal resolution
encouraging the state to aggressively review its priorities and
make sure that economically disadvantaged students have the
resources they need from the start.

The Academic Performance Index, which rates California schools
on a scale of 1-10 based on academic performance, gives Cabrillo
High School in Long Beach an index of 1, while San Marino High
School in Pasadena received a score of 10. This difference
illustrates the inherent academic inequalities that separate
students coming from high schools in different socioeconomic
areas.

The UC must work alongside the state in a more significant way
to ensure that students like those both at Cabrillo and San Marino
high schools have the resources to compete and pursue a college
education.

Even though much of the responsibility falls to the state, the
UC regents should be pursuing those changes that are under its
jurisdiction.

To fully level out the playing field, the regents must rule out
the SAT I placement test in admissions ““ an exam that has
been historically biased against women, students of color and those
from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The regents must also redefine the value of rewarding students
for AP and honors courses, when these are not equally available to
all high school students.

Likewise, in determining the top 12.5 percent at each school,
the university should make sure that students are evaluated on
equal criteria. Students should not suffer because school
administrators unfairly place certain students into
“remedial” or simply non-AP tracks where they
aren’t given the opportunity to earn weighted grades.

If the dual-admissions proposal is the regents’ idea of
providing a stepping stone for students from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds to have more access to the UC, then they have
succeeded.

But if the regents think that this proposal is a cure-all that
will solve the problems of equal educational access, then they need
some serious educating.