Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The idea of mismatch and why it matters -- A primer on affirmative action -- The discovery of the mismatch effect -- Law school mismatch -- The debate on law school mismatch -- The breadth of mismatch -- Proposition 209: the high road and the low road -- The warming effect -- Mismatch and the swelling ranks of graduates -- The hydra of preferences: the evasion of prop 209 at the University of California -- Why academics avoid honest debate about affirmative action -- Media, politics, and the accountability void -- The supreme court: rewarding opacity -- The George Mason affair -- Transparency and the California Bar affair -- Class, race, and the targeting of preferences -- Closing the test score gap: better parenting and K-12 education.