So, although Mr. McLaughlin, who is white, has gone to court to challenge Boston Latin's quota for minority admissions, his lawsuit, he says, was not about race.

Similar programs pegged to a set percentage, which were established in Texas and California to salvage some vestige of affirmative action, have indeed raised minority admissions.

Even in the best of all possible civil-rights environments, the rate of increase would have to slow down sometime, wouldn't it, as minority admissions approached a fair, non-discriminatory level?

Along came high-school quotas and minority admissions returned to pre-1996 levels.

As they publicly celebrated the court's defense of affirmative action, many university officials were privately worrying that minority admissions would drop sharply at some large public campuses.

California administrators are now reviewing their admissions criteria to find creative ways to increase minority admissions.

The rubric covers issues involving minority admissions and multicultural education.

To avoid a large drop in minority admissions, the Texas Legislature required the top 10 percent of graduating seniors from each school to be admitted.

The two campuses that are known to be least selective, Riverside and Santa Cruz, reported increases in minority admissions.

The data also show that in the period immediately before Proposal 2 was implemented, minority admissions was up 55% from the same period in 2006.