Diversity has been a focus of higher education policy, law, and scholarship for decades, continually expanding to include not only race, ethnicity and gender, but also socioeconomic status, sexual and political orientation, and more. However, existing collections still tend to focus on a narrow definition of diversity in education, or in relation to singular topics like access to higher education, financial aid, and affirmative action. By contrast, "Diversity in American Higher Education" captures in one volume the wide range of critical issues that comprise the current discourse on diversity on the college campus in its broadest sense. This edited collection explores: (1) legal perspectives on diversity and affirmative action; (2) higher education's relationship to the deeper roots of K-12 equity and access; and (3) policy, politics, and practice's effects on students, faculty, and staff. Bringing together the leading experts on diversity in higher education scholarship, "Diversity in American Higher Education" redefines the agenda for diversity as individuals know it today. This book begins with an introduction by Lisa M. Stulberg and Sharon Lawner Weinberg. Part I, The K-12 Pipeline: Impacts on Educational Equity, contains: (1) Ethnic and Social Class Disparities in Academic Skills: Their Origins and Consequences (Meredith Phillips); (2) Inside the K-12 Pipeline for Black and Latino Students (Amanda E. Lewis and Michelle J. Manno); and (3) Testing, No Child Left Behind, and Educational Equity (Linda Darling-Hammond). Part II, The Diversity Imperative: Postsecondary Institutional and Legal Ramifications, contains: (4) A Long View on "Diversity": A Century of American College Admissions Debates (Lisa M. Stulberg and Anthony S. Chen); (5) The Diversity Imperative in Elite Admissions (Mitchell L. Stevens and Josipa Roksa); (6) The Diversity Rationale: Its Limitations for Educational Practice (Mitchell J. Chang and Maria C. Ledesma); and (7) The Official Organization of Diversity in American Higher Education: A Retreat from Race? (Anthony Lising Antonio and Chris Gonzalez Clarke). Section III, Understanding Progress and Continuing Challenges in American Higher Education, contains: (8) Trends in the Education of Underrepresented Racial Minority Students (Peter Teitelbaum); (9) Gender Equity in Higher Education (Claudia Buchmann and Thomas A. DiPrete); (10) LGBT Students, Faculty, and Staff: Past, Present, and Future Directions (Debbie Bazarsky and Ronni Sanlo); (11) Identifying Talent, Interrupting the Usual: Diversifying the Faculty (Daryl G. Smith); (12) Asian Americans and Diversity Talk: The Limits of the Numbers Game (Dana Takagi); (13) Conservative Critics and Conservative College Students: Variations in Discourses of Exclusion (Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood); (14) Explaining Professors' Politics: Is It a Matter of Self-Selection? (Neil Gross and Catherine Cheng); and (15) Experiences of Exclusion and Marginalization: A Study at the Individual Student Level (Bonita London, Vanessa Anderson, and Geraldine Downey). Part IV, Future Implications for Diversity: Practice, Policy, and the Law, contains: (16) HBCUs: Continued Relevance in the New Century (Sarah Willie-LeBreton); (17) The Role of Women's Colleges in the 21st Century (Leslie Miller-Bernal); (18) The New Financial Aid Policies: Their Impact on Access and Equity for Low-Income Students (Bridget Terry Long); (19) Improving Assessments of Faculty Diversity (Sharon Lawner Weinberg); and (20) New Legal Perspectives: Implications for Diversity in the Post-Grutter Era (Lia Epperson).