Diversity
The Playbook: Understanding the Role of Race Neutral Strategies in Advancing Higher Education Diversity Goals, 2nd Edition
In this guide, we explore race neutral strategies and factors—“plays”—in the context of an evolving legal, policy, and demographic landscape.
On November 6, 2019 at the College Board Annual Forum, the Access and Diversity Collaborative (ADC) released its latest publication, The Playbook: Understanding the Role of Race Neutral Strategies in Advancing Higher Education Diversity Goals. This resource provides a substantive overview and practical guide to the use of race and ethnicity-neutral strategies and selection criteria, called “plays”, that can advance institutional diversity interests.
In this guide, we explore race neutral strategies and factors—“plays”—in the context of an evolving legal, policy, and demographic landscape. This edition is an updated and expanded version of The Playbook first published in 2014, and includes several new plays, as well as multiple expanded plays. These plays incorporate the expanded guidance continued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 and 2016 decisions in Fisher v. University of Texas (Fisher I and Fisher II, respectively). Building on those legal foundations, this edition also incorporates important developments in the field, including new research on emerging topics.
The Playbook outlines the following plays:
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Race Attentive and Inclusive Outreach and Recruitment |
This play addresses foundational considerations commonly associated with effective enrollment strategy. |
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Flexible Admission and Aid Criteria and Test Use Socioeconomic Status Geography Experience or Service Commitment Associated with Race First-Generation Status and Other Special Circumstances |
These plays illustrate the kinds of selection criteria that may be considered as part of individualized, holistic review of applicants for institutional/program admission, as well as for recruitment, pathways programs, and aid. |
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Percent Plans Educational Collaboration Agreements Cohort Programs |
These plays reflect a broader system design focus, with key elements that may be part of a complement of other enrollment efforts; and some also may enhance the impact of other efforts. |
In addition to the plays, the Playbook includes:
- An expanded “Legal Landscape” section, which provides a more detailed look at the key questions that should be addressed as part of any institutional review of the diversity-associated goals and the means of achieving them. It also describes recommended practices for documenting a process of periodic review that involves those inquiries.
- A new “Legal Lines” component in most of the plays. This component provides a synthesis of play-specific legal takeaways of relevance from court opinions and U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights resolution agreements.
- A “Tools You Can Use” component highlighting tools and resources that may help institutions advance their race- and ethnicity-neutral efforts.
- Expanded and more practical practice highlights in “From Research to Practice” that focus on practice-focused strategies that are promising or proven.
- Over 40 highlighted examples that illustrate applications and outcomes of the plays included in this guide.
This Playbook is intended to spur and inform robust conversations among institutional leaders charged with establishing, implementing, and evaluating institution-specific, diversity-related policies and programs. It does not purport to offer simple, cookie-cutter solutions to highly context-specific and fact-based considerations unique to any single institution.