Willian McGaghie and Clarence Kreiter.
Teaching and Learning in Medicine
Winter 2005, Vol. 17, Issue #1, pg. 89-91.
Review by: Linda Heun, Ph.D. <lheun@aacom.org>
The authors review and critique professional and academic literature on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 that, while affirmative action selection policies aimed at student diversity are constitutional, the policies must be holistic/individualized rather than mechanical. Mechanistic refers to a formulary approach that lead to a fixed number of underrepresented students that will be admitted. Holistic approaches, on the other hand, are subjective decisions that function on a case-by-case basis.
The authors posit that Supreme Court justices are schooled in constitutional law, not decision science and that their decision ignores research that actuarial decision-making methods are superior to holistic, subjective methods. They innumerate the reasons for the superiority of actuarial methods and support the call for research on the determinants of success in medical education.
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