The analysis transient paperwork how California has labored to broaden faculty alternative since voters accredited Proposition 209 in 1996, which successfully banned affirmative motion within the state’s public schools and universities.
The impression was quick and extreme. Following the measure’s enactment in 1998, enrollment of Black, Latinx, and Native American college students at UC Berkeley and UCLA fell by 50 p.c and 40 p.c, respectively.
Since then, California has employed a number of race-neutral methods to handle these declines, although challenges persist. The report highlights three key approaches: strengthening pathways from highschool and group schools to four-year establishments, investing in sturdy knowledge infrastructure, and rethinking recruitment and admissions practices at selective universities.
California has expanded twin enrollment applications, with roughly one-third of the state’s highschool class of 2025 taking twin enrollment coursework. The state’s Profession and Faculty Entry Pathways (CCAP) program has grown quickly, with 82 p.c of CCAP college students enrolling in faculty in comparison with 66 p.c of highschool graduates statewide.
The Affiliate Diploma for Switch (ADT) program ensures group faculty college students a spot within the California State College system as juniors. College students within the ADT program graduate with a median of 6.5 fewer extra credit than friends pursuing conventional affiliate levels, and greater than 50 p.c of ADT switch college students at CSU graduate inside two years.
California’s Cradle-to-Profession Knowledge System connects data from 9 state companies throughout Okay-12, larger training, and workforce sectors. This integration enabled CSU to launch a direct admissions pilot program in partnership with Riverside County, the place eligible highschool seniors acquired assured admission to collaborating CSU campuses earlier than making use of.
In its first yr, this system despatched greater than 17,000 direct admissions letters to Riverside County college students, leading to a 15 p.c improve in functions, a 9 p.c improve in admissions, and a 43 p.c improve in college students who dedicated to attend a collaborating CSU campus.
On the College of California system, all campuses now use holistic assessment processes and eliminated standardized testing necessities in 2020. Analysis exhibits the implementation of holistic assessment at six UC campuses in 2002 resulted in a 7 p.c improve within the variety of college students of coloration between 2002-2012.
Neither UC nor CSU considers legacy standing in admissions selections. In September 2025, new state laws prohibited the apply at non-public schools and universities as effectively, making California one of many solely states to increase legacy bans to personal establishments.
Regardless of these efforts, vital disparities stay. At UCLA in fall 2023, there was a 31 share level distinction between the share of Latinx highschool graduates statewide (54 p.c) and the share of Latinx college students enrolled (23 p.c).
Nevertheless, latest knowledge suggests progress. In fall 2024, UC introduced it had admitted its largest class up to now, with Black enrollment rising by 5 p.c and Latinx enrollment by 3 p.c.
“California’s expertise supplies priceless classes on increasing faculty entry in a race-neutral context,” mentioned Janiel Santos, assistant director of analysis at IHEP and lead creator of the transient. “By providing a number of entry factors and versatile pathways right into a postsecondary training, the methods pioneered there supply vital proof factors for different states searching for to construct extra equitable programs of upper training.”
Dr. April Grommo, assistant vice chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Administration at California State College, famous  the great nature of the state’s strategy.
“For almost thirty years, California has opened faculty doorways with out utilizing race-conscious admissions. That problem has impressed the CSU system to strengthen each instrument we now have to succeed in and assist California’s college students,” she mentioned. “We have listened, discovered, and reimagined how we join with college students—as a result of each outreach effort, partnership, and pathway is about serving to extra college students see themselves on the CSU.”
Collectively, the UC and CSU programs serve greater than 600,000 undergraduates, alongside a sprawling group faculty system that reaches a extremely various scholar inhabitants.
The report comes as establishments nationwide proceed adjusting to the College students for Honest Admissions v. Harvard resolution, which restricted race-conscious admissions practices nationally in 2023.
