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Policy Transparency and College Enrollment: Did the Texas Top Ten Percent Law Broaden Access to the Public Flagships?

Author

Listed:
  • Mark C. Long

    (Daniel Evans School at the University of Washington)

  • Victor Saenz

    (Department of Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin)

  • Marta Tienda

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

By guaranteeing college admission to all students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class, Texas H.B. 588 replaced an opaque de facto practice of admitting nearly all top 10 percent graduates with a transparent de jure policy that required public institutions to admit all applicants eligible for the guarantee. The new admission regime sent a clear message to students attending high schools that previously sent few students to the Texas flagships. Using 18 years of administrative data to examine sending patterns, we find a sizeable decrease in the concentration of flagship enrollees originating from select feeder schools and growing shares of enrollees originating from high schools located in rural areas, small towns, and midsize cities, as well as from schools with concentrations of poor and minority students. For new sending schools, we find substantial year-to-year persistence in sending behavior, which increased after the top 10 percent policy was implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark C. Long & Victor Saenz & Marta Tienda, 2010. "Policy Transparency and College Enrollment: Did the Texas Top Ten Percent Law Broaden Access to the Public Flagships?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 627(1), pages 82-105, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:627:y:2010:i:1:p:82-105
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716209348741
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cynthia Bansak & Steven Raphael, 2007. "The effects of state policy design features on take-up and crowd-out rates for the state children's health insurance program," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 149-175.
    2. Marta Tienda & Sunny Xinchun Niu, 2006. "Flagships, Feeders, and the Texas Top 10% Law: A Test of the “Brain Drain” Hypothesis," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 712-739, July.
    3. Anna Aizer, 2007. "Public Health Insurance, Program Take-Up, and Child Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 400-415, August.
    4. Janet Currie, 2004. "The Take Up of Social Benefits," NBER Working Papers 10488, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Sunny Xinchun Niu & Teresa Sullivan & Marta Tienda, 2008. "Minority Talent Loss and the Texas Top 10 Percent Law," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(4), pages 831-845, December.
    6. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Wojciech Kopczuk, 2011. "Transfer Program Complexity and the Take-Up of Social Benefits," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 54-90, February.
    7. Niu, Sunny Xinchun & Tienda, Marta & Cortes, Kalena, 2006. "College selectivity and the Texas top 10% law," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 259-272, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bleemer, Zachary, 2019. "DIVERSITY IN UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS: Affirmative Action, Percent Plans, and Holistic Review," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt1kb1b4cq, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    2. Klasik, Daniel & Cortes, Kalena E., 2022. "Uniform admissions, unequal access: Did the top 10% plan increase access to selective flagship institutions?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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