Light and Rand, p.19
standardized tests and GPA by far are the best measures of merit,
45
and should not take into
account race and ethnicity.
46
Both implicitly and explicitly in the group discussions, students
conclude that one’s experiences are relevant to both an accurate assessment of merit (for
example, having to work one’s way through college is relevant to assessing one’s undergraduate
GPA) and to classroom diversity (one common thread at UND is the diversity value of students
who are from rural parts of the state). Yet, white students almost uniformly reject the idea
(having considered it usually only with instructor prompting) that one’s race might shape one’s
experiences.
2. Predispositions
Cognitive psychologists have found that when presented with information that is
dissonant from their understanding of events or processes, individuals erect “conceptual blocks”
that make it difficult for them to acquire and process new information – in lay terms, to learn.
47
When teaching about race, one must be especially aware of this tendency, and compensate for it
through creative pedagogy.
48
Even following active-learning exercises like the one we describe
45
Standardized tests are intended to predict a specified amount of the variance in future academic performance. The
SAT successfully predicts just 18% of the variance in first-year college grades; in combination with high school
GPA, the predicted percentage of variance rises to 25%. “These numbers go down sharply each year after and have
marginal value in projecting a college student’s graduating GPA.” Frontline, Secrets of the SAT, What Does the
SAT Measure?, at <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/diversity/sat/hand5.html> (last visited Mar. 10,
2004). The LSAT’s predictive power is similarly low, accounting for only 16% of the variance in first-year law
grades. Peter Sacks, How Admissions Tests Hinder Access to Graduate and Professional Schools, Chron. Higher
Educ. (June 8, 2001), at B12. Even after viewing Secrets of the SAT, in which the history of standardized testing is
discussed, students still see the tests as backward-looking measures of past achievement and merit.
46
As noted above, gender also is off the radar screen for most students. At the time of this writing, Rand’s current
Constitutional Law II class was a week into the affirmative action module. For the first time, several of the small-
group admissions committees included race (often embedded in “diversity” or “life experiences” along with a
number of additional factors, such as socioeconomic class) in the list of relevant factors. It appeared, however, that
none of the groups actually considered the applicant’s race in their assessment of the hypothetical applications.
Constitutional Law II (Rand) (spring 2004).
47
See James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas (Perseus, 4th ed. 2001).
48
For one such example, see Mark R. Brown, Affirmative Inaction: Stories from a Small Southern School, 75
Temple L. Rev. 201 (2002); see also Nancy E. Dowd, Kenneth B. Nunn, Jane E. Pendergast, Diversity Matters:
Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Legal Education, 15 U. Fla. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 11, 39-42 (2003) (discussing
pedagogical approaches meant to provide equal learning opportunities to all students, including participatory,
cooperative, and collaborative methods).
Convention