Lesson Overview
Featured Article: “Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action Programs at Harvard and U.N.C.” by Adam Liptak
The Supreme Court’s decision in June to reject race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities around the nation upended decades of law and the higher education landscape. The ruling will shift the makeup of many of America’s top universities as well as the prospects of students who want to attend them.
In this lesson, students will learn more about the decision and what it will mean for them. Through interactive activities we invite them to explore the questions at the heart of the debate: How much does diversity matter in higher education? To what extent do colleges and universities have a responsibility to be equitable, inclusive and fair?
Warm-Up
Part 1: Four Corners Activity
To help students begin to understand the intent of race-based affirmative action and the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision, you might start with a Four Corners activity.
Invite them to imagine they are admissions officers at a college or university. What factors should their school take into account when considering whom to admit?
Read aloud a variety of factors colleges might consider, allowing students to move into a corner of the room that indicates whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree for each one. After each statement, give students time to reflect on and discuss their stance. (For more on conducting a Four Corners activity, see this resource from our friends at Facing History and Ourselves.)
We suggest starting with a factor that most students would probably agree with, such as grades or test scores, and then moving into increasingly more debatable territory, such as gender or the ability to pay tuition, and finally ending with race, the subject of the recent Supreme Court decision. For example, you might follow this sequence:
Colleges should consider a student’s _________ in the admissions process.
grades
test scores
potential to be a college athlete
gender
ability to pay tuition
legacy status (whether parents or relatives are alumni of the university)
experience in overcoming obstacles or adversity
race
This activity might provoke conversations about what the purpose of college is, what diversity is and to what extent it is important when it comes to education. It might also raise questions about what is fair. Wrap up the activity by having students write about or discuss the following questions, each of which touch on issues that have been used as a rationale for race-based affirmative action:
To what extent should colleges prioritize building a diverse incoming class of students? What does “diversity” mean to you? What factors should admissions officers be able to consider when it comes to building a diverse student body? What factors, if any, should they be prohibited from considering?
Do you believe that colleges have a responsibility to ensure that some students from disadvantaged backgrounds whose applications may not be as polished as those of their wealthier peers, have the opportunity to attend? Why, or why not? What if the university can admit only a limited number of students?
Part 2: The History of Affirmative Action
Have students watch this two-minute video from 2017 to understand the history of affirmative action. The Harvard case mentioned in the video was one of two cases decided by the Supreme Court in June.
Now, consider this question: In earlier decisions, the Supreme Court endorsed “affirmative action” — the taking account of race as one factor among many to promote educational diversity. But this summer the court ruled that race can no longer be used as part of the admissions process. What do you think: Should race be used as one factor, but not the only factor, in the admissions process to help make sure that college campuses are diverse? Why, or why not?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Have students read the featured article, then answer the following questions:
1. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. What were his primary arguments why affirmative action, even after so many years of being allowed by the courts, should now be ruled unlawful?
2. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent. What were her primary arguments for why affirmative action was still important and for why she disagreed with the majority decision?
3. The two cases decided in June were not identical. What were the two cases about? How were they different?
4. Who brought the lawsuits? For what purpose?
5. The 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger had been the key precedent before the June ruling. What was the court’s decision in that case?
6. What is your reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision? Which arguments do you find more compelling — those written by Chief Justice Roberts or those written by Justice Sotomayor? Why?
Going Further
What does the end of affirmative action mean for the future of higher education? What will it mean for students who are planning to apply to college in the near future? In these activities, which build upon one another, students can explore these questions further:
Invite students to share their reactions to the end of affirmative action in our related student forum.
Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision? Should colleges be allowed to use race as a factor in deciding which students to admit, whether to address racial discrimination or to build a more diverse student body? Why, or why not?
Students can read an article about young people’s reactions to the decision and then weigh in with their own thoughts in our public forum.
Explore what the college admissions process looks like now.
If students are confused about what the end of race-based affirmative action means for them, they might look at these resources from The Times:
Students can read one or more of these articles and then write about or discuss the following questions:
In what ways will the end of race-conscious admissions affect you: where you decide to apply to college, what you might write about in your admissions essay, or anything else?
Which changes are most concerning to you? Are there any that you think are positive?
What questions do you still have about how the court’s decision will affect college admissions? You might write these down and bring them to your guidance counselor to discuss further.
Envision a future of higher education that is inclusive, equitable and fair.
“With the Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down affirmative action, the world of college admissions is poised for a transformation — which could also be an opportunity,” begins “How to Fix College Admissions Now,” a series from The Opinion section.
Tomiko Brown-Nagin writes in the opening essay, “Why We Can’t Give Up on Difference”:
AS OF LAST WEEK, universities face a new legal constraint: the Supreme Court has profoundly restricted the use of race as a factor in admissions. Nothing in its decision, however, frees universities from their moral obligation to create on-ramps for talented students from all backgrounds. Talent exists everywhere; opportunity does not. Finding it and nurturing it remain entirely consistent with the mission of higher education and, indeed, vital to our democracy.
More than in any other setting, students who are raised in homogeneous neighborhoods and schools first encounter difference — class, racial, ethnic and religious — in college.
It is in college that many students first have the opportunity to form meaningful relationships and exchange ideas across difference and prepare for a society and a work force comprising people from all walks of life. The process of learning from one another is both rewarding and challenging; speaking as someone whose educational journey began with being bused to formerly all-white public schools and eventually took me to the Ivy League, I can say this was as true for me as it was for my peers.
Do your students agree? What should the goals of college be? What should schools prioritize during the admissions process? How can the process become more inclusive, equitable and fair now that race-conscious admissions is no longer legal?
We rounded up ideas from this series and elsewhere in The Times to give students the chance to rethink the college admissions process. For this activity, we imagine students working in small groups or individually to read one of these pieces, summarize its argument, and then decide to what extent they agree or disagree, and why. Then larger groups (as a jigsaw), or the whole class, can share the different proposed solutions and consider the questions above.
