Janiel Santos
The research brief documents how California has worked to broaden college opportunity since voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996, which effectively banned affirmative action in the state's public colleges and universities.
The impact was immediate and severe. Following the measure's enactment in 1998, enrollment of Black, Latinx, and Native American students at UC Berkeley and UCLA fell by 50 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
Since then, California has employed multiple race-neutral strategies to address these declines, though challenges persist. The report highlights three key approaches: strengthening pathways from high school and community colleges to four-year institutions, investing in robust data infrastructure, and rethinking recruitment and admissions practices at selective universities.
California has expanded dual enrollment programs, with roughly one-third of the state's high school class of 2025 taking dual enrollment coursework. The state's Career and College Access Pathways (CCAP) program has grown rapidly, with 82 percent of CCAP students enrolling in college compared to 66 percent of high school graduates statewide.
The Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) program guarantees community college students a spot in the California State University system as juniors. Students in the ADT program graduate with an average of 6.5 fewer excess credits than peers pursuing traditional associate degrees, and more than 50 percent of ADT transfer students at CSU graduate within two years.
California's Cradle-to-Career Data System connects information from nine state agencies across K-12, higher education, and workforce sectors. This integration enabled CSU to launch a direct admissions pilot program in partnership with Riverside County, where eligible high school seniors received guaranteed admission to participating CSU campuses before applying.
