First, at the same time that freshman classes were shrinking at the senior colleges, enrollments generally went up in community colleges and in comprehensive institutions that offer associate degree programs. Among the ten institutions offering associate programs, seven experienced enrollment increases in l998. If many of the academically more vulnerable students left the senior college pool, this would have produced an increase in the percent passing all three tests. Whatever may be the sources of increased pass rates on skills tests, one must not lose sight of the fact that even with improved test performance taken into account, disturbingly high percentages of students will still be barred from admission to bachelor's programs, if the new resolution is implemented. Ethnicity and Enrollments.
Ethnicity is another fundamental aspect of the enrollment issue.
Moreover, since the ethnic composition of freshman classes varies considerably from one senior college to another, enrollments in those schools with the highest proportions of minority students would be diminished the most. Indeed, the data suggest that over time, the survival of institutions with the highest minority enrollments may become problematic. Of critical importance is that even with improved pass rates on skill tests for the 1998 freshman class, stark ethnic inequalities continue. Among the 1998 freshmen, more than half of minority students failed to pass all three assessment tests, compared with 30 percent of whites. Both minority and white students at every senior college would be affected.