The College Board this month changed the
criteria for its National Recognition Program awards in a move that
could shift tens of thousands of scholarship dollars from Black and
Latino students to white students.
Colleges used the awards to
recruit and offer scholarships to high-performing students from groups
underrepresented in higher education. The award previously recognized
academic achievement by students in five categories — Black, Hispanic,
Native American, first-generation and those living in rural areas or
small towns.
The racial categories have been eliminated.
Now, students living in small towns and rural areas can
still earn the award if they score in the top 10 percent among all
small-town and rural students in their state on the PSAT — a precursor
to the SAT that is administered in high schools around the country. The
same is true for first-generation students but not for students in
underrepresented racial categories.
Critics said they were disappointed by the College Board’s decision.
“They
believed racial inequality was something important to address
yesterday, and by changing that, they’re implying that it’s not
something important to fight for now,” said Rachel Perera, a fellow in
government studies at the liberal Brookings Institution. “That’s the
heart of the question that’s being debated — although it’s not being
debated in explicit terms — does racial discrimination exist?”
In a statement on its website, the College Board noted the 2023 Supreme Court ruling
that prohibited the use of race in admissions, although the National
Recognition Program awards were used for scholarships and recruitment,
not admissions.
“Recent legal and regulatory actions have further limited the utility of these awards for students and colleges,” the statement says. Also, President Donald Trump has repeatedly made clear his disapproval of race-conscious policies in higher education, and some states have banned consideration of race in scholarship decisions.
In 2023-24, the College Board issued 115,000 recognition
awards, and a little less than half were in the racial categories. The
previous year there were more than 80,000 awards and the majority were
for Black, Hispanic and Native American students. While the College
Board doesn’t hand out money itself, universities use it to select
students for scholarships. The Board has not maintained a list of which
institutions used the racial categories, according to Holly Stepp,
College Board’s director of communications.
The College Board
started the program in 1983 to recognize high-performing Hispanic
students. In 2020, the other two racial categories and the small town
and rural designations were added. First-generation students could win
the award starting last year. Small towns could include those with
modest incomes or wealthy enclaves like Aspen, Colorado. All students
must also have at least a B+ average.
While students of all races can now earn the awards, the removal of
the racial categories will likely disproportionately affect Black and
Hispanic students.
On average, Asian and white students score higher on PSATs. White students’ average score
on the PSAT last year was 994 last year compared with 821 for Black
students — a gap of 173 points. Asian students’ average was even higher
at 1108 while Hispanic and Native American students averaged 852 and 828
respectively.
“It’s a move towards race-blind categories when we
know that education and access to education isn’t race-blind,” said Wil
Del Pilar, senior vice president at the left-leaning policy and advocacy
group EdTrust.
Some conservatives praised the move, however, arguing that
race-conscious scholarship and recruitment programs were ways to get
around the Supreme Court’s rulings on affirmative action and that they
were a form of reverse discrimination.
Jonathan Butcher, senior
research fellow in education policy at the conservative Heritage
Foundation, said he believes that racial discrimination does exist and
should be addressed, but that race-conscious education policies were
both illegal and ineffective.
“If you are using racial
preferences, you are setting students up for a loss of confidence when
they struggle in a situation they’re not prepared for,” Butcher said.
In place of the racial categories, a new designation has been added
this year that recognizes students who score in the top 10 percent of
their high school on the PSAT.
Experts say colleges are unlikely
to offer scholarships to all students who score in the top 10 percent of
every high school in the country, given the cost that would entail.
Officials at the University of New Mexico, for example, said they would
stop using the College Board designations beginning in the 2026-27
school year.
“We’re currently analyzing our scholarship strategy,
but changes will be made across the board,” said Steve Carr, the
university’s director of communications, in an email.
In 2023-24,
the University of New Mexico awarded scholarships based on the College
Board designations worth $15,000 each to 149 Black, Hispanic and Native
American students.
The University of Arizona also offered
scholarships to students who earned National Recognition Program awards
in the racial designations last year.
“The university was already
evaluating its scholarship strategy and will consider the College
Board’s announcement as we determine how best to move forward and
support our students,” said Mitch Zak, spokesman for the University of
Arizona, in an email.
In addition to the PSAT scores, students are
eligible for the College Board award if they score a 3 or higher out of
5 on two Advanced Placement exams taken during their ninth and/or 10th
grade year, although many high schools don’t uniformly offer AP courses
to freshmen and sophomores.
“We can’t really have a conversation
around merit if we’re not all at the same starting point in terms of
what we receive from our K-12 education,” said Del Pilar, “and how we’re
able to navigate the test prep environment, or the lack of test prep
that certain communities receive.”
This story about the College Board was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
