Work

The impact of the Texas top ten percent law on college enrollment: A regression discontinuity approach

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: We use regression discontinuity methods on a representative survey of Texas high school seniors to discern the impact on flagship-enrollment behavior of the Texas top 10 percent law, which guarantees admission to any Texas public university to students who graduate in the top decile of their class. By comparing students at and immediately below the cut-point for automatic admission, we find that the top 10 percent law affects flagship enrollment of Hispanic students eligible for the admission guarantee, as well as rank-eligible graduates from high schools where minority students predominate and from high schools with the state average share of economically disadvantaged students. Our findings are robust to various model specifications and different bandwidth choices using local linear estimation.

Source: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

DOI: 10.1002/pam.20480

Authors: Sunny Xinchun Niu, Marta Tienda

Institution: Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Higher Education Research Studies

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development