ERIC Number: EJ1466579
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Mar
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0162-3737
EISSN: EISSN-1935-1062
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Redefining Merit through New Routines: Holistic Admissions Policy Implementation in Graduate Education
Julie Posselt1; Deborah Southern2; Theresa Hernandez3; Steve Desir1; Fatima Alleyne4; Casey W. Miller5
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, v47 n1 p159-184 2025
Despite a growing body of research on the outcomes of holistic admissions and eliminating standardized test score requirements throughout education, few have documented how organizations transition to holistic review. Implementation, however, may help explain variation in impacts of holistic admissions. This article draws upon theories of organizational routines to examine adoption of holistic review in 13 STEM PhD programs from five universities. We conducted 60- to 90-min interviews with admissions leaders, including a COVID-19 transcript review activity. Data reveal change is multilevel, involving new policy/structural, practice/cultural, and cognitive/interpretive routines, which carry promise for disrupting institutionalized inequities where the politics of changing these routines can be managed. We discuss implications for policy, organizational practice, and future research on academic evaluations.
Descriptors: Holistic Approach, Admission Criteria, Admission (School), Educational Policy, Graduate Study, Organizational Change, Higher Education, STEM Education, Universities, Equal Education, Educational Assessment, Decision Making, Program Implementation, Affordances, Barriers
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1806705; 1807047
Author Affiliations: 1University of Southern California; 2University of California, Los Angeles; 3Northern Arizona University; 4University of California, Berkeley; 5Rochester Institute of Technology