The Educational Impact of Changing Student Demographics in Colleges and Universities

Project Director: Richard J. Light, Harvard University richard_light@harvard.edu

The racial and ethnic composition of students entering college is changing rapidly. In 1980, 24 percent of all high school graduates across America were non-white. In 1990, that fraction rose to 29 percent. For the year 2000, it is 34 percent. In 2010, demographic projections suggest 40 percent will be non-white.

College and university enrollments reflect these changes. At both highly selective and less selective institutions, students now arrive with perhaps more different backgrounds than ever before in American history. Yet it is no secret that the type and quality of interactions among these students, and the learning that can take place from such interactions, varies quite a lot among campuses.

The goal of this project is to explore how campus leadership can make a difference. We ask what administrative decisions, and what student decisions, can enhance positive outcomes from these changing demographics. What are some controllable variables that explain why students seem to benefit from racial and ethnic differences quite a lot in some environments, and hardly at all in other environments? What solid evidence can be gathered about campus policies and practices that tend to strengthen educational benefits from student differences, versus other policies that tend to detract?

To explore these questions, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is inviting senior representatives from a group of colleges and universities to participate in a series of research seminars. Thanks to generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this three year project of the American Academy will facilitate work on several campuses to gather, analyze, and share empirical findings. Our focus on sharing concrete evidence is critical. The goal of these efforts is to suggest to campus leaders how they might effectively capitalize on changing demographics, to enhance both students' academic learning and personal growth.

Contact Information

Below are the names and e-mail addresses of the Project's participants. Note: They are best viewed in as large a window as possible.

To send someone an e-mail message: Simply place the cursor on the person's e-mail address (the cursor will become a hand) and click on it. A new mail message with that person's address should appear.

To send a message to all participants: 1) Highlight all of the e-mail addresses. (To do this, place your cursor just to the right of the last address and then click and hold down the left button on your mouse; drag the mouse up to the left of the top address so that all e-mail addresses are highlighted, and let go of the mouse button.) 2) Click on the Edit menu above and select "Copy." 3) Paste the e-mail addresses (Edit menu, Paste) into the "To:" box of the new mail message you will send.

If you want to send a message to a few people, copy and paste each of their addresses into one new mail message. Unfortunately, you cannot highlight two or more addresses that are not listed consecutively.

Participants:

* If you have questions about or need assistance using this web page, please contact Tim McAndrew at tim@amacad.org; or (617) 576-5041.

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