Overview

Americans overwhelmingly agree that diversity in our schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, and community organizations is enormously positive. Because of strong legal and political trends, many educational institutions are implementing innovative "race-neutral" alternatives to ensure that their student bodies are accessible to people from a wide variety of backgrounds. In other words, they continue to strive for diversity, but are using admissions and college preparatory policies that do not focus on or single out racial or ethnic groups for preferential treatment - they are neutral toward race. For example:

• Many educational institutions are providing preferences on the basis of socioeconomic status;
• Colleges and universities are expanding their recruitment and outreach efforts by targeting students from schools who traditionally have not been "feeder schools" for those institutions;
• States are creating many new "skills development" programs - projects designed to improve educational achievement among students who attend traditionally low-performing schools. Examples include the Texas "Advanced Placement Initiative" and Florida's partnership with the College Board;
• Many universities are entering into partnerships with low-performing public schools to strengthen their students' ability to succeed in college; and,
• Texas, California and Florida have all created admissions plans for students who finish at the top of their high school classes.

The Office for Civil Rights seeks to provide educational institutions with information about the "race-neutral" options available to them. Educational institutions will find that there are dozens of race-neutral options available. They will also find that the early results from these programs are promising. Moreover, the initial positive results are only the beginning; the full advantages of many race-neutral alternatives will not be fully felt until they are seriously implemented and several classes of students have been able to benefit from them.

The Office for Civil Rights does not endorse any particular program. Rather, our hope is to foster innovative thinking about using race-neutral means to produce diversity among educational institutions. We hope to create a positive climate in which race-neutral alternatives can be seriously considered.

Report:

Achieving Diversity:
Race-Neutral Alternatives In American Education (2004)
(Report as MS Word file in zip archive for download) MSWord(273K)

Race-Neutral Approaches in Postsecondary Education: Innovative Approaches to Diversity (2003)
(Report as MS Word file in zip archive for download) MSWord(215K)

Resources:

Letter of Kenneth Marcus, Delegated the Authority of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, to Leaders of the Education Community on Achieving Diversity: Race-Neutral Alternatives in American Education (March 26, 2004)

Remarks by the President on the University of Michigan affirmative action litigation (January 15, 2003)

Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petioners in Gratz and Hamacher v. Bollinger, et. al. PDF (90K)

Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioner in Grutter v. Bollinger, et. al. PDF (106K)

Remarks by Secretary Rod Paige at the National Center for Educational Accountability Region VI Conference (January 24, 2003)

Paige to Highlight Race-Neutral Alternatives in Higher Education (January 24, 2003) (Press Release)