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By Arj Arjunan

Daily Bruin Contributor

With encouragement from University of California chancellors, UCLA established the UC All Campus Consortium on Research and Diversity to study issues of equity and access in the UC system.

UC ACCORD will enlist educators, outreach professionals and policy makers to focus on the educational system and seek answers to disparities in achievement gaps that affect admission to the university.

“It was created to increase the knowledge base about educational access, eligibility and retention for students from traditionally underrepresented minority groups,” said Abby Lunardini, spokeswoman for UC President Richard Atkinson.

Currently, little research focuses on content instruction and diverse student populations, Lunardini said.

Student regent Tracy Davis said the new center can increase the number of underrepresented students at the UC.

The center comes after the regents rescinded SP-1 and 2, policies which had banned affirmative action in admissions and hiring throughout the UC.

Because Proposition 209 sets a statewide ban on the use of affirmative action, the move by the regents is largely symbolic.

Jeannie Oakes, co-director of UC ACCORD, said research should guide educators, policy makers, accountability systems and the public perception.

“There are 20 years of research in patterns of inequality and achievement gaps,” Oakes said. “The goal is to have research inform solutions and inject knowledge into the political process.”

Oakes said disparities in admissions stem from a lack of qualified teachers, the absence of a rigorous curriculum and poor college guidance for students in K-12. She added that adequate understanding of the inequities must involve testing that reveals these problems and emphasizes subjective criteria.

“California tests are poor instruments,” Oakes said. “Multiple-choice tests will miss a wide range that authentically measures the knowledge of students,”

While gauging disparities between schools, UC ACCORD research will also focus on unequal access to resources and opportunity within schools, Oakes said.

She said African Americans and Latinos encounter stereotypes in school that include having teachers underestimate their capabilities.

Oakes welcomes the passage of the dual admissions program, which grants UC admission to students who graduated in the top 12.5 percent of their high school class and who have fulfilled two years of lower division studies at a community college.

“It’s a promising strategy,” she said. “Students get more preparation and it adds some flexibility in the system.”

But she questioned whether the students involved will face stereotypes once they reach the UC and whether the program will increase diversity. She said admission of the top 12.5 percent of high school students might not be adequate.

Current enrollment limits outlined in the Master Plan for Higher education – written by the state legislature in the 1960s – failed to account for dramatic population growth that calls for expanded enrollment, she said.

Oakes said making the university accessible to more students remains critical if the UC wants to fulfill its responsibilities as a public institution.

“The UC has the choice between traditional excellence or a new excellence that accounts for a democratic and diverse population,” she said.

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