A Question of Intent

To the Editors of the Crimson:

Regarding the Harvard study of admissions recently reported, I present two observations and a few facts that differ from those of Robert Klitgaard, author of the preliminary report.

First, I am grateful for the statement of Harvard President Derek Bok that the preliminary report is unofficial, represents the views of just one young person, and that anything that suggests women and minorities are not wanted at Harvard is cause for concern and quite destructive. His is a statement of inclusiveness that accepts women and minorities.

Second, I was saddened by the opinions of researcher Klitgaard that how students benefit from attending college with Blacks is unclear, that evidence has not been found to demonstrate the beneficial effects to education of diversity, and that "if elite universities did not compete so heavily for Blacks, these students might attend slightly lesser institutions where they might compete as intellectual equals." His is a statement of exclusiveness that rejects minorities.

Finally, may I present evidence against the opinions of Klitgaard:

*My New York state study of "Black Students at White Colleges" revealed that Blacks who lag behind whites in the proportion who get good grades at A and B levels the first, second, and third years of college are ahead of whites in the proportion who get good grades the fourth year.

*A North Carolina state study by Junius A. Davis and Ann Borders-Patterson of the Educational Testing Service found that "most Blacks in predominantly white institutions had achieved exemplary high school records, whatever their admissions test scores had been."

*A survey of a national sample of private and public institutions by Langley A. Spurlock for the American Council on Education discovered that the first-year attrition rate for minorities is higher than for non-minorities but that the dropout rates for these two groups of undergraduates "approach each other after the first year and ultimately become insignificantly different."

*A nationwide study of Black students by William M. Boyd II indicates that the intense competition which Black students in white schools feel has motivated them "to work harder much more frequently than to lose their self-confidence."

*The standardized aptitude test score predicts how well one will perform the first year of college but that minority students tend to emerge as outstanding in academic performance, in some instances, as late as the fourth year of college.

*A test anxiety scale for children developed by Yale researchers found that test anxiety scores were higher among low academic achievers than among the high achievers and that test anxious children typically react with strong unconscious hostility against others who they think are passing judgement on their adequacy as persons. This feeling may undermine the morale and capacity to perform well on tests by some minorities.

*Caroline Hodges Persell of New York University states that "most ... scholastic aptitude tests used in schools are nationally standardized on white middle-class populations" and, therefore, cannot be said to be without bias so far as Blacks or people of other class positions are concerned.

*Frederick Hart states that the undergraduate grade point average "is normally a better indicator of law school performance than is the LSAT."

These facts lead one to seriously question the intent of a researcher who concludes on the basis of test scores, that minorities are not capable of competing with whites at "elite universities." The facts I have presented are contrary to the Klitgaard assertions. Charles V. Willie   Professor of Education and Urban Studies   Harvard Graduate School of Education