College Board Drops Landscape Tool for Broadening Economic Diversity
The College Board has decided to discontinue Landscape, a race-neutral tool that provided admissions officers with insights into students' environments. The decision, made in Summer 2022, was based on internal strategic reasons rather than publicized external factors. The College Board has not provided a detailed official rationale for the move.
Landscape's discontinuation is seen as a setback in efforts to broaden economic diversity at elite institutions. It is also considered another casualty in the Trump administration's impact on diversity initiatives. The College Board cited evolving federal and state policies around the use of demographic and geographic information in admissions as a reason for the tool's discontinuation.
Admissions officers used Landscape to compare a student's SAT score or AP course load to those of their high school classmates, not as a proxy for race. The tool was one of the most extensively studied interventions in college admissions, helping to fill gaps in information about applicants' environments. It provided information about an applicant's high school and local community to admissions readers.
Research found that while Landscape did not increase racial/ethnic diversity in admissions, it did boost the likelihood of admission for low-income students. The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board case likely affirms the legality of race-neutral methods to advance diversity in admissions. Landscape was popular among some admissions offices, offering a standardized way to understand an applicant's context.
The College Board's decision to discontinue Landscape sends a problematic message about defending tools to support diversity, even economic diversity. The tool's discontinuation is a loss for efforts to broaden economic diversity at elite institutions, despite its limited impact on racial/ethnic diversity.
