2026-09-20T11:58:54Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/1048212022-01-31T20:59:11Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Richard C. Larson.
Akinpelu, Mobolaji Olatokunbo
Technology and Policy Program.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Technology and Policy Program
2016-10-14T15:54:14Z
2016-10-14T15:54:14Z
2016
2016
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104821
958277850
Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-110).
An overview of American education reveals a concerning pattern: when outcomes are disaggregated by race, students from certain racial minority groups often have poorer outcomes than White students. This pattern, the racial education achievement gap, can be seen in different sorts of measures from the literature, including in the low representation of minority students at elite public institutions. To address this low representation, and to keep universities racially diverse, administrators and policymakers often turn to race-based affirmative action, the explicit (and contentious) consideration of an applicant's race in admissions decisions. College-centered education intervention programs are another tool administrators and policymakers use to address the gap reflected in elite college enrollment and to keep campuses diverse. This thesis asks how do and how can appropriately designed college-based education intervention programs help to both keep racial diversity and close the racial educational achievement gap in America's colleges? To this end, chapter one lays out the motivating issues - the gap, affirmative action, and education intervention programs; chapter two contains the case study of two successful programs, focusing on the programs' designs, the participants' experiences, and the conditions that foster academic excellence in minority students; chapter three, in part using causal loop diagrams from system dynamics modelling, makes the case for appreciating education as a complex system - one with interlocking political, economic, pedagogic, and sociocultural forces - and thus urges caution in drawing conclusions from chapter two; and chapter four, drawing from the two preceding chapters, proposes three policy recommendations to improve not just the presence of minority students at selective institutions, but, more importantly, their overall academic thriving.
by Mobolaji Olatokunbo Akinpelu.
S.M. in Technology and Policy
110 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
Engineering Systems Division.
Technology and Policy Program.
Scaling Success : learning from education intervention programs to close the racial education achievement gap
Learning from education intervention programs to close the racial education achievement gap
Thesis
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<Abstract>An overview of American education reveals a concerning pattern: when outcomes are disaggregated by race, students from certain racial minority groups often have poorer outcomes than White students. This pattern, the racial education achievement gap, can be seen in different sorts of measures from the literature, including in the low representation of minority students at elite public institutions. To address this low representation, and to keep universities racially diverse, administrators and policymakers often turn to race-based affirmative action, the explicit (and contentious) consideration of an applicant's race in admissions decisions. College-centered education intervention programs are another tool administrators and policymakers use to address the gap reflected in elite college enrollment and to keep campuses diverse. This thesis asks how do and how can appropriately designed college-based education intervention programs help to both keep racial diversity and close the racial educational achievement gap in America's colleges? To this end, chapter one lays out the motivating issues - the gap, affirmative action, and education intervention programs; chapter two contains the case study of two successful programs, focusing on the programs' designs, the participants' experiences, and the conditions that foster academic excellence in minority students; chapter three, in part using causal loop diagrams from system dynamics modelling, makes the case for appreciating education as a complex system - one with interlocking political, economic, pedagogic, and sociocultural forces - and thus urges caution in drawing conclusions from chapter two; and chapter four, drawing from the two preceding chapters, proposes three policy recommendations to improve not just the presence of minority students at selective institutions, but, more importantly, their overall academic thriving.</Abstract>
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