Colleges Must Recruit Scholars

The Supreme Court’s recent decision on affirmative action will wreak havoc at college admissions offices. While a majority of Americans are ready to say good riddance to race-based admissions, many researchers and pundits have warned that this decision will lead to a massive drop in historically underrepresented students at highly selective schools. What should colleges do to avoid that fate?

Colleges that care about diversifying their student bodies in a post-affirmative-action world should take a lesson from the athletic department. Coaches fly around the country in search of the most gifted athletes and build relationships that encourage students to attend their schools and join their teams. Scouts routinely track athletes’ progress starting in their freshman or sophomore years of high school.

Why not do the same for young scholars? Unlike athletic recruiting, academic recruiting today is passive, relying on prospective students to take the initiative and seek out a school rather than searching the country to find and support promising minds wherever they live.

The majority of talented students from low-income backgrounds never apply to selective colleges. No scouts track these young people, who may miss out on opportunities to fulfill their potential. That loss is a travesty.

The end of affirmative action is an opportunity to redesign the whole system. But the ideas that colleges have floated so far are mostly milquetoast: more outreach to guidance counselors, more information sessions, and optional standardized tests.

This approach is too passive. What if instead of asking students to find the “right” schools, we brought college to students?

Here’s what it might look like: Colleges could identify skills and achievements that are likely to result in academic success. Then, instead of considering the robotics, debate and geography accomplishments of high-school students only after they apply to college, schools could sponsor events that measure students’ skills in areas like these as a recruitment tool.

Digital learning models can also help colleges discover talent at a scale that was previously inconceivable. And schools should refocus on socioeconomic status, which the Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t restrict. A dozen leading universities, including Stanford, Penn and Howard are already changing the admissions paradigm by offering courses in a hybrid format for students in low-income schools.

Through a partnership with the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab, these schools encourage juniors and seniors at low-income high schools to enroll in their courses online. Those who pass receive both high school and college credit. Over the past four years, some 15,000 students have enrolled in these courses and that number should grow dramatically over the next decade. With a pass rate above 80%, these students are doing well and the program is leveling the playing field.

Every college should actively recruit socioeconomically diverse talent. Students in low-income urban and rural communities who participate in early college digital courses have shown the persistence, curiosity and enthusiasm that will translate to success in college and beyond. If students can ace Stanford’s Introduction to Computer Science course, they shouldn’t hesitate to apply to Stanford or any other selective college.

Decades of race-based preferential treatment haven’t gotten us as far as we hoped, and the Supreme Court’s decision is forcing colleges to rethink their efforts to achieve diversity. Recruiting students based on the skills and talents they demonstrate in college-level digital courses offers hope for the future of college admissions. We have the capacity and technology to offer such programs nationwide, so let’s make it happen.

Mr. Pianko is managing director at Achieve Partners. Mr. Rascoff is vice provost for digital education at Stanford University.