> The share of black freshmen at elite schools is virtually unchanged since 1980. Black students are just 6 percent of freshmen but 15 percent of college-age Americans
Leading to an "underrepresentedness" figure of -9 (or -10 on the graph in the article, which is probably due to rounding).
But that's a stupid way of calculating underrepresentedness. E.g. if a group has 8 % of the population but none go to university they would be underrepresented by -8, less than blacks but clearly 8->0 is a much larger diparity than 15->6.
I think raw numbers can be helpful, but for comparison in that context, percent underrepresented is probably a better number. So black students are 60% underrepresented. In the second case, it would be 100% underrepresented.
> The share of black freshmen at elite schools is virtually unchanged since 1980. Black students are just 6 percent of freshmen but 15 percent of college-age Americans
Leading to an "underrepresentedness" figure of -9 (or -10 on the graph in the article, which is probably due to rounding).
But that's a stupid way of calculating underrepresentedness. E.g. if a group has 8 % of the population but none go to university they would be underrepresented by -8, less than blacks but clearly 8->0 is a much larger diparity than 15->6.