WASHINGTON—The Trump administration will begin directing schools and colleges to adopt race-neutral admissions standards, the Education Department said Tuesday, reversing Obama-era guidelines that encouraged the use of race to promote diversity.

The Obama guidelines, issued jointly by the Education and Justice departments, laid out legal recommendations for schools looking to use race as an admissions factor.

The reversal is among the highest-profile actions by the Trump administration to undo President Barack Obama’s approach to race and affirmative action. The role of race in college admissions has fueled a debate for decades, prompting numerous lawsuits and often confronting universities with sensitive decisions.

Trump administration officials and critics of affirmative action said the Obama guidelines, published between 2011 and 2016, went beyond Supreme Court precedent, actively encouraged racial bias and led schools to believe that legal affirmative action is simpler to achieve than the law allows.

“Just because the courts have ruled that some kinds of racial discrimination are legally permissible does not mean it is appropriate for the federal government to encourage as much of it as people can get away with,” said Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Council for Equal Opportunity, which opposes affirmative action in higher education.