Commentary Magazine Discusses College Board's 'Landscape' Tool and Affirmative Action

The Demise of the College Board's 'Landscape' Tool

• 🏆 Naomi Schaefer Riley's article "College Board Games" exposed a program designed to circumvent the Supreme Court's ban on affirmative action.
• 📉 The College Board eliminated its 'Landscape' tool immediately after the article's publication, a significant win for Commentary Magazine.
• 🗺️ The 'Landscape' tool used census tract data to infer demographic and sociological information about students, providing a proxy for race to universities.

Circumventing Affirmative Action Bans

• 🧐 Colleges sought ways to maintain racial diversity after the Supreme Court ruling, leading to tools like 'Landscape'.
• 📊 The 'Landscape' tool analyzed census data, including home ownership, proximity to medical facilities, and per-pupil spending, to discern racial and economic backgrounds.
• 🚗 Proxies like car ownership were used to differentiate between disadvantaged groups, with urban poverty (often associated with minority groups) being favored over rural poverty (often associated with white groups).

The Role and Opacity of the College Board

• 📚 The College Board, a non-profit organization, generates significant revenue from administering tests like the SAT, AP exams, and PSAT.
• ❓ Despite its influence, the College Board operates with considerable opacity, with parents having little insight into test development or scoring methodologies.
• 🤝 The College Board is seen as a handmaiden to university admissions departments, serving their needs by providing tools and tests that influence admissions decisions.

Shifting Goals in Higher Education

• 🎓 The traditional goal of higher education to cultivate educated citizens has been supplanted by a focus on job placement and vocational training.
• 📈 Colleges now emphasize career outcomes and alumni networks as primary selling points, acknowledging that admission often serves as a key to the middle or upper-middle class.
• 💡 The concept of diversity as an educational benefit, once a cornerstone of admissions, is now being questioned due to a lack of empirical evidence.

Challenges to Affirmative Action Enforcement

• ⚖️ While the Supreme Court banned affirmative action, colleges are finding ways to navigate or circumvent the ruling, leading to a complex enforcement landscape.
• 🏛️ Legal challenges, such as the one against Harvard, highlight the ongoing battles over admissions policies and civil rights violations.
• 🧩 The shift in focus from educational ideals to job prospects and social mobility raises questions about the true purpose and value of a university education.