[WS:] There is also a negative side to it, which college stats do not tell.
The push for college admission in K12 education can have a very negative effect on students coming from disadvantaged environment (drug addicted parents, abuse and neglect, domestic violence, dysfunctional families, etc.). These kids quickly fall behind in their educational attainment, but are nonetheless required to learn academic subjects and are constantly tested on it. Typically, students who cannot perform basic arithmetic operations are nonetheless required to learn advanced algebra, or students with learning or reading disabilities are nonetheless placed in advanced English classes. Each time these students are tested - a requirement under the NCLB - they invariably fail, which has a strong demotivating effect, aka the "learned helplessness effect" in behavioral psychology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness. So at the end, these students have no interest in learning and fail and drop out.
Of course, this situation could be averted by creating different "tracks" - vocational, technical, and college - as many other countries do. But we live a credential society, so this solution is DOA. Instead there is even a stronger push toward college aka the Common Core State Standards Initiative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_Initiative . Its slogan - “Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts" sounds really ominous for those who are not quite ready. It is not that the idea of common national standards is bad - most other countries have them - but in a country that does not have alternative education tracks for people with different interests and abilities - it is a Procrustean bed that is likely to hurt many students.
So again - it is the credentialing system not prejudice that hurts the minority students. The way to fight it is to expand vocational and technical education, or even programs like Job Corps - rather than to push for college admission.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."