DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 415 239 TM 027 841

AUTHOR Wenglinsky, HaroldTITLE Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

Their Aspirations & Accomplishments. Policy InformationReport.

INSTITUTION Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. PolicyInformation Center.

PUB DATE 1997-08-00NOTE 29p.

AVAILABLE FROM Policy Information Center, Mailstop 04-R, EducationalTesting Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541-0001($9.50); World Wide Web: http://www.ets.org

PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Academic Aspiration; *Black Colleges; Black Students;

Career Choice; College Segregation; Court Litigation;*Educational Attainment; Educational Experience;Engineering; *Equal Education; *Graduate Students; HigherEducation; School Holding Power; Sciences; Student Costs;*Undergraduate Students

IDENTIFIERS Graduate Record Examinations; National Postsecondary StudentAid Study

ABSTRACTFew studies have compared the educational experiences and

outcomes of students attending historically black colleges and universities(HBCU) to those of students attending traditionally white institutions. Thisstudy consists of three analyses that contain some justification for thecontinued existence of HBCUs, threatened by court decisions that questiontheir role in equal educational systems. The study first reviews findingsfrom a previously published study of undergraduates (H. Wenglinsky, 1996)that used a nationally representative database (the National PostsecondaryStudent Aid Study) to conclude that black students often choose HBCUs becausecosts are perceived to be, and are indeed, lower. This study also found thatstudents at HBCUs were more likely to aspire to postbaccalaureate degrees.The second analysis used data from the American Association ofUniversities/Association of Graduate Schools to compare retention rates ofblack graduate students who had attended HBCUs or traditionally whiteschools. Students from HBCUs were more likely to persist in graduate studies.The final analysis compared graduate fields of study for students from thetwo types of schools using the 1993 database of the Graduate RecordExaminations. Graduates of HBCUs were more likely to plan on entering aprogram in the sciences, engineering, or business than were black studentsfrom traditionally white schools. These findings suggest that HBCUs prepareblack students for the sciences and engineering, professions in which theyare traditionally underrepresented. Their low cost encourages many studentsto attend college who may not have attended any college otherwise. Both ofthese benefits support the continuation of HBCUs. An appendix discusses studymethodology. (Contains 1 table, 7 figures, and 27 references.) (SLD)

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Policy Information Report

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Their spiratio'Accomplishments

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This report was written by:

Harold WenglinskyPolicy Information CenterEducational Testing Service

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August 1997

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Executive Summary

Introduction

History of the HBCUs

The Purpose of HBCUs:Evidence

Analysis of the National

The Arguments and the Empirical

Postsecondary Student AidStudy of 1990 13

Choice of an HBCU 13

Aspirations and Experiences of HBCU Students 14

Analyses of the 1993 GRE Database and the AAU/AGS ProjectDatabase 16

Retention Rates of Graduate Students 16

Demographics of GRE Registrants 17

Choice of Graduate Major 18

HBCUs and the Professions: Implications for Policy 22

References 24

Appendix: Study Methodology 25

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PREFACE

The survival of Histori-cally Black Colleges andUniversities dependsincreasingly on showingthat they provide educa-tiori benefits not other-wise available. In thisreport, Harold Wenglinskyputs the claims made forthe educational value ofthese colleges to the test.To what types of careersdo their students aspire,compared to those whoattend other colleges?What happens to thesestudents when theyreach graduate school?Without these schools,would some Blackstudents choose not togo to college at all?

Policy InformationReports are intended toinform important educa-tional debates, not enterthem. We hope thisreport contributes to theimportant discussion anddebate now taking placeregarding the continuedexistence of these col-leges that have longplayed such an importantrole in higher education.

Paul E. Barton

ETS Policy Information Center

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is indebted tomany people for theircontributions to thisreport. Laura Jenkinsassisted in the prepara-tion of the GREG data foranalysis. Rocco Russoassisted in the prepara-tion of the AAU/AGSdata for analysis andcommented on an earlydraft of this report. PaulBarton and MichaelNettles also commentedon various drafts.Amanda McBride andRichard Coley providededitorial support, andCarla Cooper did thedesk-top publishing. GilHoward designed thecover. Jim Chewningmanaged production.Any errors of fact orinterpretation included inthis report, however, arethe responsibility of theauthor.

Various findings fromthis research have beenpresented at the AnnualMeeting of the Sociologyof Education Association,the Eighth AnnualCollege Board Histori-cally Black Colleges andUniversities Conference,and the Mid-AtlanticRegion Historically BlackColleges and UniversitiesFaculty Showcase.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Changes in the structureof postsecondary educa-tion now jeopardize thecontinued existence ofHistorically Black Col-leges and Universities.Most were created at atime when Black studentscould not attend Whiteinstitutions. In the wakeof Brown v. Board ofEducation of Topeka(1954) and the HigherEducation Act of 1965,however, Black studentshave had unprecedentedaccess to TraditionallyWhite Institutions. Thecourts, concerned thatHistorically Black Col-leges and Universitiesencourage separate andunequal systems ofhigher education, havebegun to question thecontinued existence ofthese institutions. In U.S.v. Fordice (1992), theSupreme Court held thatHistorically Black Col-leges and Universitiesare indeed a vestige ofsegregation, and thatstate legislatures musteither eliminate them orfind a compelling educa-tional justification fortheir continued existence.State legislatures havebegun to act to meet thisrequirement throughchanges in admissionspolicies and proposalsfor mergers and closures.

Advocates of Histori-cally Black Colleges andUniversities have sug-gested various potential

justifications for theseschools. One tradition,going back to W.E.B.Du Bois, emphasizestheir ability to prepareBlack students tobecome communityleaders. Indeed, Histori-cally Black Colleges andUniversities have histori-cally been responsiblefor training teachers andsocial workers, andtheir graduates aresome of the most wellknown public figures.Martin Luther King Jr.,Thurgood Marshall,and Andrew Young, Jr.,all graduated fromHistorically BlackColleges and Universi-ties. Another tradition,going back to Booker T.Washington, emphasizesthe vocational benefitsof Historically BlackColleges and Universi-ties. Many of theseschools emphasize thesciences and engineer-ing, encouraging Blackstudents to start careersin those professions.

Prior research,however, provides littlesupport for either ofthese possible justifica-tions. Few studies havecompared the educa-tional experiences andoutcomes of studentsattending HistoricallyBlack Colleges andUniversities to thoseattending TraditionallyWhite Institutions, andthose that have find

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few differences betweenthe two types of institu-tion. These studies are,however, subject tosignificant methodologi-cal caveats. In particular,none of these studies isnational in scope. Also,no large-scale researchhas been conducted, todate, on the aspirationsand experiences ofdoctoral students whohad graduated fromHistorically Black Col-leges and Universities.

This study consistsof three analyses thattest some possibleeducational justificationsof Historically BlackColleges and Universi-ties. First, it reviewsfindings from a previ-ously published studycomparing undergradu-ates who were attendingHistorically Black Col-leges and Universities toundergraduates whowere attending Tradi-tionally White Institu-tions. Both Black andWhite students weresampled. The studyapplied multivariatestatistical techniques to anationally representativedatabase of undergradu-ates. One finding fromthe study was thatstudents choose Histori-cally Black Colleges andUniversities over Tradi-tionally White Institu-tions primarily forreasons of cost; theyperceive tuitions to be

lower, the cost of livingto be lower, and finan-cial aid to be moregenerous. This percep-tion is accurate. Studentsattending HistoricallyBlack Colleges andUniversities paid, onaverage, $1,946 intuition as opposed to$3,310 for studentsattending TraditionallyWhite Institutions. Asecond finding from thestudy was that whilestudents attendingHistorically BlackColleges and Universi-ties were no more likelythan students attendingTraditionally WhiteInstitutions to aspire tobe community leaders,they were more likelyto aspire to a post-baccalaureate degree.

The second analysiscompared the retentionrates of Black graduatestudents who hadattended HistoricallyBlack Colleges andUniversities to thosewho had attendedTraditionally WhiteInstitutions. The datawere drawn from theDatabase of the Ameri-can Association ofUniversities/Associationof Graduate SchoolsProject for Research onDoctoral Education,which tracks doctoralcandidates at approxi-mately 40 institutions inten programs. The datacould not be used to

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conduct multivariateanalyses, but it waspossible to producedescriptive informationon graduate studentretention. The analysisfound that Black studentswho had attended His-torically Black Collegesand Universities weremore likely to persistthan Black studentsattending TraditionallyWhite Institutions.

The final analysiscompared graduate fieldsof study between stu-dents who had attendedHistorically Black Col-leges and Universitiesand students who hadattended TraditionallyWhite Institutions. BothBlack and White studentswere sampled. The studyapplied multivariatestatistical techniques tothe 1993 database of testregistrants for the Gradu-ate Record Examination,the test required bymany graduate programsconferring Ph.Ds. Itfound that graduates ofHistorically Black Col-leges and Universities,when applying to takethe Graduate RecordExamination, were morelikely to plan on enteringa program in the sci-ences, engineering, orbusiness than werestudents who had gradu-ated from TraditionallyWhite Institutions.

This research sug-gests a benefit provided

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by Historically BlackColleges and Universi-ties not provided byTraditionally WhiteInstitutions theyprepare Black studentsfor careers in thesciences and engineer-ing, professions inwhich they are mostunderrepresented, andthat are conducive topositive labor marketoutcomes. Becausestudents often cite costas a reason for choos-ing Historically BlackColleges and Universi-ties, and because somany come fromfamilies of low socio-economic status, it isprobable that manystudents would nothave attended anycollege at all had therenot been a HistoricallyBlack College to attend.The benefits of Histori-cally Black Collegesand Universities, then,accrue not only tostudents who choosethem over TraditionallyWhite Institutions, butalso to students whochoose them overmoving directly intothe job market.

INTRODUCTION

Historically Black Col-leges and Universities(HBCUs) are at a cross-road. All came intoexistence before 1965,during a period whenBlack students werelargely excluded fromother institutions ofhigher education, andtheir mission was toprovide these studentswith opportunities forscholarship and profes-sional training. Whileefforts to desegregatehigher education, advo-cated by many graduatesof HBCUs, have openedup Traditionally WhiteInstitutions (TWIs) to fargreater numbers ofBlacks than ever before,these efforts ironicallyhave jeopardized theexistence of the HBCUsthemselves. A 1992 U.S.Supreme Court decisionrequiring states to "edu-cationally justify oreliminate" all vestiges ofsegregation in highereducation categorizedthe HBCUs as one ofthese vestiges. Statelegislatures have re-sponded with proposalsto close, merge, orradically reconstitutevarious HBCUs. Thecontinued existence of

HBCUs, then, is in somedoubt.

The survival ofHBCUs will dependprimarily on whether ornot they bestow aneducational benefit thatTWIs do not. If such abenefit exists, then theremay be constitutionalgrounds for the schools'continued existencedespite the fact that theyare seen as a vestige ofsegregated higher educa-tion. Defenders of theschools have suggestednumerous possiblejustifications: the schoolsprovide a more sociallycohesive environment forminority students; theyprovide an educationthat is more culturallysensitive to the needs ofminority students; theyare particularly success-ful at preparing studentsfor leadership roles intheir communities; andthey successfully preparestudents for the jobmarket, particularly inthe sciences and engi-neering. The empiricalbasis for these assertionsis weak, however. Moststudies comparingstudents who attendHBCUs to those attend-ing TWIs find little

difference in their experi-ences and outcomes(e.g., Allen, 1992; Davis,1991). These studiestherefore do not providemuch guidance regardingwhat benefits HBCUsconfer on their studentsthat TWIs do not.

This report tests theclaims of HBCU advo-cates in light of variousdata sources that containinformation on studentsattending HBCUs andcomparable studentsattending TWIs.' Thefindings from the Na-tional PostsecondaryStudent Aid Study(NPSAS), previouslypublished, suggest thatthe key justification forHBCUs is that theyprepare students success-fully for graduate schooland various professions.These findings, however,leave unanswered aquestion hotly debatedamong advocates ofHBCUs which profes-sions? Since Booker T.Washington and W.E.B.Du Bois debated the roleof the HBCUs nearly acentury ago, someeducators have empha-sized the role of theschools in preparingstudents for community

I For this study, HI3CUs are compared to all other colleges and universities, lumped together as TWIs. This comparisonoverlooks many interesting potential comparisons. For instance, it would also be interesting to know about differencesbetween public HBCUs and public four-year colleges with large Black populations. It would also be interesting to know aboutdifferences between public HBCUs and the public colleges and universities with which states are proposing to merge them.Given the large number of possible comparisons that coutd be made, it was decided to begin by using all colleges other thanHI3CUs as the comparison group. Since this is only a first step, it is hoped that further research will he conducted ondifferences between HBCUs and specific types of TWIs.

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leadership, seeing theHBCUs' mission andstrength as preparingstudents for careers inteaching, social work, orthe social sciences, byproviding a rigorous andcomprehensive liberalarts education. Othereducators have con-tended that the schoolsare best at preparingstudents for careers inengineering, the sci-ences, business, and theindustrial arts, through aprimarily vocationaleducation. This reportpresents informationobtained from the 1993database of GraduateRecord Examinations®(GRE) test registrants anda developing longitudinaldatabase of the AmericanAssociation of Universi-ties/Association of Gradu-ate Schools (AAU/AGS)Project for Research onDoctoral Education.Based on an analysis ofthese data, this reportfinds that the primaryeducational justificationof the HBCUs lies in thelatter category: They aremore successful thanTWIs in preparingstudents for careers inengineering, science, orbusiness.

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History of theHBCUs

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Behind many of today'sprominent Blackleaders lies a collegeeducation at an HBCU.Famous graduates ofHBCUs include politicalfigures Douglas Wilder,Louis Sullivan, andAndrew Young, Jr.;writers Toni Morrisonand Alice Walker;opera singer JessyeNorman; and televisionpersonalities OprahWinfrey and PhyliciaRashad. These HBCUgraduates are only themost recent generationto achieve prominence.Earlier graduatingHBCU classes haveincluded Martin LutherKing Jr., Medgar Evers,Rosa Parks, ThurgoodMarshall, Ralph Ellison,W.E.B. Du Bois, andBooker T. Washington(American Associationof University Profes-sors, 1995).

Yet the role of theHBCUs over time haschanged. In the past,when most of thesefamous graduatesattended the schools,HBCUs offered almostthe only opportunityfor Blacks to receive apost-secondary educa-tion, while today theyare one alternativeamong many. Despitethis difference, the

character of the HBCUstoday has been formedthrough their historyand traditions; thathistory therefore bearsrepeating.'

The first HBCUswere created in theNorth prior to the CivilWar. Between theAmerican Revolutionand the Civil War, therewere significant restric-tions on the educationof Blacks, free andslave, in the South.Many Southern stateshad statutes forbiddingslaves to learn to reador write. While suchrestrictions limited theeducation of Blacks,they did not preventit entirely; variousschools providedBlacks the equivalentof an elementary andsecondary education.But the prospects forBlacks obtainingpostsecondary educa-tion were limitedprimarily to the North.There, some institu-tions, such as OberlinCollege in Ohio, admit-ted Blacks. Recognizingthe limited educationalopportunities for Blacks,churches foundedcolleges exclusively fortheir educationLincoln University wasfounded in Pennsylva-

This history is synthesized from: Jencks & Riesman, 1968; Jones, 1993; Hoffman,Snyder & Sonnenberg, 1992; Roebuck & Murty, 1993.

nia by the PresbyterianChurch in 1854, andWilberforce Universityin Ohio was founded bythe Methodist EpiscopalChurch in 1856.

Following theCivil War, many of thechurches that hadadvocated abolition andhad founded schools inthe North establishedprivate colleges forBlacks in the South.Before 1870, the Ameri-can Missionary Associa-tion, a Congregationalistgroup, had foundedseven colleges and 12normal schools (schoolsthat prepared teachers),the American BaptistHome Mission Societyhad founded threecolleges, and the Meth-odist Episcopal Churchhad founded two. By1890, more than 200colleges dedicated toserving Black studentshad been founded. Theschools were financedby a combination offunds from missionarygroups, Black churchgroups, and theFreedman's Bureau, afederal agency createdafter the Civil War toprovide financial assis-tance to Blacks andpoor Whites.

Most Black collegesfounded before 1890

were private. Manypublic colleges forBlacks, however, werefounded in response tothe Second Morrill Act of1890. This act providedfederal financial supportto states to found land-grant colleges. It stipu-lated, however, thatstates would either haveto provide Blacks withequal access to the land-grant colleges, or estab-lish separate institutionsfor Black students. MostSouthern states chosethe latter course, and,between 1890 and 1899,17 all-Black publiccolleges were founded.These institutions, incombination with thesurviving private ones,became the backbone ofBlack postsecondaryeducation for the next 60years; by 1895 theyproduced 1,100 collegegraduates yearly.

Public and privateinstitutions differedsignificantly, however,in their nature andfunction. Private institu-tions tended to providea comprehensive liberalarts education. Most oftheir graduates wereprepared to be teachersand preachers. Publicinstitutions, on the otherhand, were more voca-tionally oriented. Whilesome were normalschools that preparedteachers, most preparedskilled industrial and

agricultural workers. Thissplit in the type ofinstitution was reflectedin a pedagogical splitamong educators. Some,like Booker T. Washing-ton, viewed vocationallyoriented education asbetter suited to theeconomic progress ofBlacks. He argued thatsuch education wouldprovide them with theskills requisite to enterthe upper levels of thelabor force and becompetitive with Whites.Others, like W.E.B. DuBois, viewed a liberalarts education as prefer-able. He argued thatsuch an education wouldprepare students tobecome leaders of theircommunities, helpingless educated Blacksbecome more successful.

The relationshipbetween the majorityregime of the South andthe Black collegestended to be one ofbenign neglect. Whereasin the antebellum periodany education of Blackswas strongly opposed, inthe postbellum periodthere were significantreasons for permittingthe development ofBlack colleges. Theprivate colleges pro-duced teachers andpreachers, to whom themajority regime wasmore than willing todelegate responsibilityfor serving the Black

community. In addition,the maintenance ofpublic Black collegeswas necessary for obtain-ing federal funds forpublic White colleges.Nevertheless, the statesallocated only a bareminimum of funds to thepublic Black colleges,resulting in significantinequalities in resourcesbetween these and Whitecolleges. The decision ofthe Supreme Court inPlessy v. Ferguson (1896),that state educationalfacilities could be segre-gated so long as therewas a degree of fiscalequity, did not dramati-cally change this situa-tion. Vast funding inequi-ties between Black andWhite colleges remained.

A series of SupremeCourt cases from 1935through 1954 graduallychanged the system.These cases involved theissue of out-of-statetuition grants. In somestates, no separate profes-sional school for Blacksexisted. Further, whenBlacks applied to astate's White school andwere considered quali-fied for admission, theywere generally offeredtuition grants providingfinancial support toattend a professionalschool in another state.The Supreme Court heldthat this arrangementwas unconstitutional,creating an unnecessary

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hardship for Blackapplicants. It was notuntil Brown v. Board ofEducation of Topeka(1954), however, thatdesegregation began inearnest.

Brown v. Board ofEducation of Topeka,focusing on elementaryand secondary educa-tion, held that segrega-tion by its nature causedfiscal inequities betweenBlack and White schools,and ordered states todesegregate them. Thecase was followed byadditional decisionsapplying specifically tohigher education. Later,the Civil Rights Act of1964 prohibited thespending of federalfunds on segregatedschools and colleges.The Higher EducationAct of 1965 providedfinancial aid to individualstudents who otherwisecould not afford post-secondary education(disproportionatelyBlack) as well as directgrants to HBCUs toreduce resource inequi-ties with TWIs. Adams v.Richardson (1973) heldthat 10 states were stillmaintaining segregatedsystems of higher educa-tion and required thefurther integration of bothTWIs and HBCUs. TheSupreme Court decidedthat desegregation shouldbe a reciprocal responsi-bility between TWIs and

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HBCUs, with each tryingto make their studentbodies and faculties morediverse.

The changes in thelegislative and judicialrequirements for statepublic higher educationsystems between 1954and 1973 resulted in asignificant alteration ofthe demographics ofHBCUs. The opening ofTWIs to Black applicantsled Blacks to enroll inthem, in turn leading to adecline in enrollments inHBCUs. There nowremain 103 HBCUs,located in 19 states andthe District of Columbia.Of these, 53 are underprivate control 50 arepublic institutions, 89 arefour-year institutions, andthe rest are two-yearinstitutions. Enrollmentsrange from less than 1,000to about 8,000 students.In total, nearly 300,000students attend HBCUs(Snyder & Hoffman,1995).

In response to thedesegregation cases,HBCUs began to recruitWhite faculty and stu-dents, although with lesssuccess than the TWIshad in recruiting Blacks.By 1992, three HBCUswere predominantlyWhite, and 10 were morethan 20 percent White.On average, 13.1 percentof HBCU students wereWhite, a 3.6 percentincrease since 1976.

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Interestingly, HBCUshave also becomeincreasingly feminized,with the percentage ofmale students decreas-ing consistently from 47percent in 1976 to 40.9percent in 1990.

Yet, despite theincreasing ethnic andgender diversity ofthese schools and thedraining of Blacks toTWIs, HBCUs continueto educate large num-bers of Blacks. In fact,enrollments at HBCUshave recently begun toincrease. Currently,21 percent of all Blackpostsecondary studentsattend HBCUs, and28 percent of alldegrees awarded toBlacks are from HBCUs.And while enrollmentsremained relativelyconstant from 1976 to1986, subsequently theybegan to increase, witha 15 percent increase inenrollments between1986 and 1990. Thisincrease has beendistributed evenlyacross public andprivate institutions andacross two-yearand four-year institu-tions (Hoffman et al.,1992; Snyder &Hoffman, 1995).

Yet, just as thedemand for HBCUshas again begun toincrease, governmentefforts to support theschools have declined.

One indication of this isthe reduction in financialsupport for HBCUs.While total spendingincreased at HBCUs, itdid so at a markedlyslower rate than at TWIs.In 1988-89 dollars,expenditures at HBCUsincreased by 21.4 per-cent from 1976 to 1988,whereas the averageincrease for all universi-ties was 26.6 percent.This failure to keep pacewith other educationalinstitutions createdsignificant financialpressures on HBCUs.From 1986 to 1989,enrollments increasedtwice as quickly asrevenues. Thus, resourceproblems have begun tore-emerge at HBCUs,only 30 years after thefederal government hadsingled them out forfinancial support in 1965(Hoffman et al., 1992).

More significantthan the depletion ofresources is a changein the Supreme Court'sattitude toward theschools, as manifested inU.S. v. Fordice (1992). Inthat case, the SupremeCourt held that the merelack of formal racialbarriers between TWIsand HBCUs in a statewas not sufficient evi-dence that the state'scollege system wasdesegregated. TheSupreme Court held thatthere were three tests to

determine if a systemwas still segregated: Wasthere duplication ofresources and programsbetween institutions?Were institutions ethni-cally homogenous? And,was there no specificeducational justificationfor the existence of suchinstitutions? The courtheld that the defendant,the state of Mississippi,had failed the first twotests, since the TWIswere predominantlyWhite, the HBCUs werepredominantly Black,and the HBCUs dupli-cated the coursesoffered by the TWIs.Consequently, the courtrequired Mississippieither to justify or toeliminate the HBCUs.

This decision willhave significant conse-quences for the HBCUs.States have begun to actto come into compli-ance with the decision,through proposals forchanges in admissionscriteria, mergers, andclosures. For example,Mississippi raisedentrance requirementsat its three publicHBCUs, which resultedin enrollment declinesranging from 9.9 percentat Alcorn State Universityto 20.1 percent at Missis-sippi Valley State Univer-sity (Healy, 1996a). InTennessee, a publicHBCU has already beenmerged with a TWI,

thus dramatically chang-ing the institutionalidentity and mission ofTennessee State Univer-sity, the HBCU. Thegovernor of Louisianahas proposed merging allthree of his state's publicHBCUs with TWIs; ifenacted, the proposalwould end Black gover-nance of HBCUs inLouisiana (Guernsey,1996; Healy, 1996b).While these are all publicinstitutions, U.S. v.Fordice also poses athreat to private HBCUs.Private HBCUs dependon large amounts offederal funding, withoutwhich their enrollmentswill shrink. In Bob JonesUniversity v. United States(1983), the SupremeCourt held that suchfunding can be takenaway from institutionsdeemed to be in violationof various antidiscrimina-tion rules.

The threat of mergersand closures puts pres-sure on HBCUs to pro-vide educational justifica-tions for their continuedexistence. Doing soinvolves returning to thedebate between Washing-ton and Du Bois at theturn of the last century:Is the purpose of theschools to preparestudents for communityleadership or for eco-nomic competition? It isto this question, as wellas to the larger question

of what constitutes theeducational justificationof the schools, that wenow turn.

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The Purposeof HBCUs: TheArguments and

the EmpiricalEvidence

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The notion of the"educational justifica-tion" of HBCUs involvesidentifying educationalbenefits these schoolsoffer that do not exist atTWIs. During an age ofsegregation, the benefitof the HBCUs wasincontrovertible theyprovided postsecondaryeducation to studentswho otherwise couldnot obtain it. Yet, sincethe desegregation of theTWIs, that benefit nolonger exists in thatBlacks can, if they havethe money, attend Ms.Other benefits unique toHBCUs must be identi-fied; otherwise thecourts consider itpreferable for Blackstudents to attend TWIs.

Educators in contactwith HBCUs haveidentified some ways inwhich they believethese schools do abetter job than TWIs ineducating Blacks. Someeducators claim thatHBCUs are uniquelyable to produce leaders(Barthelemy, 1984).They argue that educa-tion at HBCUs focuseson teaching studentshow to fight oppressionand to represent theBlack community.

Others argue thatHBCUs are innovative inintegrating communityservice into their cur-ricula, thus preparingstudents for involvementin their communities(Smith, 1984). Still othersargue that HBCUsprepare students fornontraditional careers inthe social service occu-pations, or even inagriculture, and someclaim that HBCUs arecarving out an occupa-tional niche for Blacks inengineering or theprofessions (Jackson,1984). There is broadconsensus amongadvocates and educatorsthat the relative ethnichomogeneity of theschools, their predomi-nantly Black faculties,and their small size(relative to the publicinstitutions these stu-dents would most likelyattend if there were noHBCUs) should beexpected to positivelyaffect student outcomesat HBCUs. Yet there issome difference inemphasis as to whetherthese outcomes lieprimarily in preparingstudents to be commu-nity leaders and to jointhe helping professions

(teaching or socialwork), or in preparingthem for careers in thesciences, business, orengineering (Garibaldi,1984).

This disagreementreflects differing opin-ions dating back to theDu Bois-Washingtondebate. Both Du Boisand Washingtonregarded the high levelsof social cohesion atHBCUs as beneficial,believing that Blackstudents would bebetter able to learnwhile in a supportiveenvironment. Theydiffered, however, onsome of the otherbenefits described byadvocates. Du Boisemphasized the abilityof the schools to pro-duce community lead-ers, as do the advocateswho today argue thatHBCUs excel in prepar-ing students for careersin social work andteaching. Washingtonemphasized the abilityof schools to makestudents more economi-cally competitive in thejob market, as do thoseadvocates who empha-size the ability of theHBCUs to produceengineers and scientists.3

While an HI3C11 student who becomes a teacher or social worker is certainly competing inthe job market, the primary goal of those careers, in the views of Du l3ois and Washington, isto support the community rather than to achieve economic success.

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Despite the fact thatresearchers have beenstudying HBCUs formore than 25 years, theempirical evidence hasnot successfully identi-fied an educationaljustification for HBCUs.In the 1960s, researcherswere interested in dis-covering whether or notthe occupational aspira-tions of Black studentswere keeping pace withthe new opportunitiesavailable to them. Thelargest study done at thetime found that HBCUstudents still tended toaspire to and enter low-status occupations; thestudy also found thatwomen at HBCUs hadlower occupationalaspirations than theirmale counterparts (Gurin& Katz, 1966). The studydid not, however, com-pare students attendingHBCUs to studentsattending TWIs. Withoutconducting such acomparison, it is impos-sible to know whatbenefits HBCUs providethat TWIs do not.

Many of the subse-quent studies havesought to compare thebenefits of HBCUs andTWIs, and have notfound differences. Astudy of educationalattainment was not ableto distinguish the impactof institutional character-istics on minority educa-tional attainment from

the impact of socio-economic status (SES)and other social andpsychological character-istics of students (Jack-son & Epps, 1987).Because educatorspointed to the impor-tance of social cohesionat HBCUs, a study of therelationship betweensocial cohesion andeducational outcomes atboth HBCUs and TWIswas conducted, butfound the relationshipbetween the two to bequite weak (Davis, 1991).Using the National Studyof Black College Stu-dents, a large-scalelongitudinal (althoughnot nationally representa-tive) database, Allen(1992) compared theeducational experiencesof students attendingHBCUs and TWIs in theareas of grade pointaverage (GPA), occupa-tional aspirations, socialenvironment, and self-esteem. Although Allenconcluded that thecomparisons pointed tothe benefits of HBCUs interms of most of theseexperiences, in fact thedifferences he foundwere generally notstatistically significantand therefore providelittle indication of differ-ences between HBCUsand TWIs.

Some methodologicalcaveats of these studiesshould be noted. First,

none was nationallyrepresentative. It istherefore not known howtypical the results are ofthe population of U.S.Black college students.Second, most of thestudies analyzed onlyBlack students. IncludingWhite students in thesample is important todistinguish betweendifferences due to attend-ing HBCUs and differ-ences associated withbeing Black (Allen, 1992;Allen & Haniff, 1991;Smith, 1991). Third,many of these studies,in comparing studentsattending HBCUs andthose attending TWIs, didnot take into accountother characteristics ofstudents that may haveaffected the outcomesbeing analyzed. Thisomission can result ininaccurate estimates ofthe relationship betweenattending an HBCU andthose outcomes (Davis,1991; Jackson & Swan,1991).

There are a fewstudies, however, thatsuggest some potentialdifferences betweenHBCUs and TWIs. Tho-mas (1987, 1991) foundthat Black studentsattending HBCUs weremore likely to major inbusiness, engineering, orthe sciences. This findingis significant from theperspective of labormarket outcomes, as she

noted, because theincome potential of thesefields is higher than thatof the liberal arts majors.Trent (1991) found thatBlack students attendingHBCUs were more likelythan Black collegestudents in general toselect majors in engineer-ing, science, or business,and that this differencewas in evidence in botha 1975 cohort and a 1981cohort.

Another differencebetween students attend-ing HBCUs and thoseattending TWIs wasuncovered by Nettles(1991). Nettles examinedcharacteristics of post-secondary students andtheir institutions thatwere associated withstudent achievement, asmeasured by GPA, andstudent progression, asmeasured by the numberof credits students tookeach semester. While hefound the racial compo-sition of the school to beunrelated to GPA, he didfind that Black studentsattending institutionswhere they were theminority had lowerprogression rates thanBlack students attendinginstitutions where theywere the majority.

A final difference wasfound by Astin, Tsui, andAvalos (1996). Theirstudy suggests that Blackstudents attendingHBCUs are more likely

11

than Black studentsattending TWIs to com-plete their degrees. Whenprior student achieve-ment (as measured byhigh school grades andSAT® scores), institutionalsize, and institutionalselectivity were takeninto account, Blackstudents attendingHBCUs were found to be17 percent more likelythan their counterparts atTWIs to complete theirdegrees.

Yet, while thesestudies suggest a fewpossible differencesbetween HBCUs andTWIs, these differencesare not sufficientlycompelling to amount toan educational justifica-tion of HBCUs. Regardingthe choice of undergradu-ate major findings, it isnot known what thesepresage for the graduateeducation and careerplans of HBCU students.It is important to knowwhich fields of studystudents attending HBCUsactually choose for theirpostbaccalaureate degree,since the careers forwhich these fields pre-pare students oftenrequire postbaccalaureateeducation. It is alsoimportant to know thecareer plans of studentsattending HBCUs, sincein some cases studentsmay not choose theirundergraduate major forpurely economic reasons.

12

Regarding the progres-sion rate findings, it isnot known whatcourseloads imply foreducational or occupa-tional outcomes ofstudents attendingHBCUs.

In,sum, whileadvocates of HBCUshave put forwardnumerous potentialjustifications of theseschools, the bulk ofempirical research hasfound little support forthem. If, as thesestudies suggest, thereare no differences inthe educational experi-ences and outcomes ofBlack students attend-ing TWIs and HBCUs,there is no reason whyBlack students attend-ing HBCUs cannotaccomplish the samegoals at TWIs. Thestudies that found littledifference betweenHBCUs and TWIs,however, also pos-sessed methodologicalshortcomings that,when addressed, mightvery well reverse theirfindings. The remainderof this report discussesthe findings from threeanalyses that attempt toaddress these problems.

Analysis of theNational

PostsecondaryStudent Aid

Study of 19904

One database thatprovides useful informa-tion that is national inscope on studentsattending HBCUs is theNational PostsecondaryStudent Aid Study of1989-90 (NPSAS). Thestudy was conducted byWestat under contractfrom the National Centerfor Education Statisticsof the Department ofEducation. Informationwas collected on about72,000 students attendingpostsecondary institu-tions. This sample ofstudents was selectedto make it possible togeneralize to the nationas a whole. The informa-tion collected includedfinancial aid information(grants, loans, and otherforms of assistance);educational experiencesin school (social life,academic life); andattitudes and aspirations.Since some of thesestudents attended HBCUs,it is possible to compareHBCU students to stu-dents attending TWIs byexamining the HBCUstudents and a compa-rable sample of studentsattending TWIs.

In total, 1,429 stu-dents are analyzed inthis study. The tworesearch questions tobe addressed are:

For full study, see Wcnglinsky, 1996.

Why do studentschoose HBCUs overTWIs?

How do students atHBCUs differ fromstudents at TWIs intheir aspirations andexperiences?

Answering thesequestions involves usingvarious statistical tech-niques that address someof the methodologicalproblems discussed withregard to the prior re-search. The sample isnationally representative,making it possible todraw conclusions for theU.S. as a whole. Thesample includes bothBlack and White students,making it possible tocompare the experiencesof each at the two typesof institutions. Variousother characteristics ofstudents can also betaken into account, suchas their SES, gender, age,and marital status, sincethese too are measured inthe database.

It is particularlyimportant to take thesestudent characteristicsinto account, becausethere are large differ-ences in these character-istics between studentsattending HBCUs andthose attending TWIs.

HBCU students appear tobe of a much lowerSES; the adjusted grossincomes of their parentsare significantly lowerthan those of TWIparents. These HBCUstudents also tend to beyounger and are lesslikely to be married. Thisperhaps reflects the factthat the vast majority ofthese schools are four-year institutions, andmany are private liberalarts colleges. Suchinstitutions tend to recruitstudents fresh out of highschool and emphasizethe importance of cam-pus life. Many of theBlack TWI studentsattend commuter schools,which emphasize adulteducation.

CHOICE OF AN HBCU

The NPSAS studyfinds that studentschoose to attend HBCUsfor two main reasons: (1)Their parents attendedHBCUs; and (2) HBCUsare more affordable thanTWIs. Students wereasked 15 possible rea-sons for why they choseto attend the schoolin which they wereenrolled.

The reasons offeredwere:

13

The school has agood reputation.

The school offers agenerous financial aidpackage.

The school has aninteresting set ofcourse offerings.

Parents like theschool.

Parents had attendedthe school.

Students think theywill obtain a better jobby graduating fromthe school.

The tuition is lower.

The cost of living inthe area is lower.

Students have friendsattending the school.

The school is close tohome.

Students can workwhile in school.

Students can live athome.

Students can live faraway from home.

The school is good atplacing students injobs.

Students can finish theprogram quickly.

14

For each reason, stu-dents were asked tochoose from "veryimportant," "somewhatimportant," and "notimportant." The currentstudy compares theresponses to eachreason for attendancebetween studentsattending HBCUs andthose attending TWIs,taking their responses toother reasons intoaccount. It finds that theprimary reason forchoosing an HBCU isthat a parent had at-tended the institution,followed by the finan-cial aid offered, fol-lowed by lower tuitionand cost of living. Inaddition, the opportu-nity for students to livefar away from theirparents is a factor,suggesting that theschools, located mostlyin the South, drawstudents from otherregions of the country.The fact that studentsperceive the costs to belower at the HBCUs isnot surprising; accord-ing to the NPSAS data,the average studentattending an HBCU pays$1,945 in tuition annu-ally, as opposed to$3,309 for the averagestudent attending a TWI.

ASPIRATIONS AND

EXPERIENCES OF HBCUSTUDENTS

To test claims re-garding the benefits ofHBCUs, seven educa-tional experiences andaspirations in three areasare examined. Advocatesof HBCUs have identi-fied all of these asjustifications for theschools. Levels of peerinteraction and student-faculty interaction areincluded in the analysisbecause advocates ofHBCUs have suggestedthat these schools havehigher levels of suchinteraction than TWIs, atleast for Black students.Occupational andeducational aspirationsof students are includedbecause advocates havesuggested that HBCUsraise these aspirations.Finally, the tendency ofstudents to participate incommunity service andto aspire to leadershippositions in their com-munity are includedbecause advocates havesuggested that HBCUsdo a better job thanTWIs in preparingstudents for communityleadership.

The findings confirmthe view of advocatesonly in the area of stu-dent educational andoccupational aspirations.Students attendingHBCUs, and Black

Jib

students in particular,are more likely to aspireto a graduate educationafter college and toobtain a job in one ofthe professions. On theother hand, studentsattending HBCUs do notexperience higher levelsof peer and facultyinteraction than studentsat TWIs, and they are nomore likely to aspire toleadership positions orto engage in communityservice.

The analysis of theNPSAS data suggeststhat the primary educa-tional justification ofHBCUs is somehow tiedto preparing studentsfor the professions. Tosome degree, thisadheres to Booker T.Washington's notion thatthe primary focus of theschools is, or ought tobe, vocational; they canprepare students tocompete in the jobmarket. Yet the types ofoccupations that BookerT. Washington empha-sized differed signifi-cantly from the typesDu Bois emphasized.Du Bois wanted HBCUsto prepare students forthe helping professionsbecause teachers andsocial workers couldbecome supports forBlack communities.Washington, on theother hand, wantedHBCUs to preparestudents for professions

and occupations thatwould ensure theireconomic security;educators, however, seethe sciences, engineer-ing, and business ashaving greater earningspotential. Thus, while thelack of differencesbetween TWIs andHBCUs in aspirations toleadership positions orcommunity service mayprovide support for theWashington view, it maystill be the case that theprofessions found to beimportant are the helpingprofessions, whichwould support the DuBois view. In order toanswer that question, aswell as to assess theactual decision of stu-dents to attend graduateschool (as opposed tomerely aspiring to do so),data on graduate studentsneed to be analyzed.That is the purpose ofthe following sections.

IL 7

15

Analyses ofthe 1993 GREDatabase andthe AAU/AGS

ProjectDatabase

Two databases provideinformation on thegraduate school deci-sions of students attend-ing HBCUs. The 1993Graduate Record Exami-nation (GRE) databaseincludes all of theinformation supplied bystudents who took theGRE in 1993. The GREis a test taken by moststudents applying tograduate school. Sincestudents taking the GREidentify their under-graduate institution, it ispossible to compare theresponses of studentsattending HBCUs tothose of students attend-ing TWIs.

The database, whichincludes all studentswho took the GRE in agiven year, is national inscope. The database alsoincludes both Black andWhite students, makingcomparisons betweenethnic groups possible.The database maintainedby the AAU/AGS Projectfor Research on DoctoralEducation follows longi-tudinally all graduatestudents in doctoralprograms for 10 fields ofstudy at approximately40 major researchuniversities from 1989through 1994. Since theundergraduate institutionis identified, the gradu-ate school experiencesof HBCU graduates andTWI graduates can becompared. This database

Figure 1: Retention Rates at HBCUs and TWIs

is not nationally repre-sentative, however, andwhile it includes bothBlacks and Whites, thenumber of Whites whohave attended HBCUs istoo small to allow mean-ingful comparisons.

From these data-bases, it is possible toanswer three basicresearch questions:

How do the retentionrates of graduatestudents who havegraduated fromHBCUs compare tothose of students whohave graduated fromTWIs?

How do the demo-graphic characteristicsof graduate studentswho have graduatedfrom HBCUs differfrom those of studentswho have graduatedfrom TWIs?

How does the choiceof graduate major orfield differ betweenstudents who havegraduated fromHBCUs and studentswho have graduatedfrom TWIs?

RETENTION RATES OF

GRADUATE STUDENTS

The retention ratesof students can beexamined using theAAU/AGS database. Ofthe 14,000 studentsfollowed in the database,284 are Black, and ofthese 34 (or 12 percent)attended HBCUs asundergraduates. Sevenof these 34 (or 21 per-cent) received their Ph.D.by 1994, as opposed to44 of the 250 (or 18percent) who attendedTWIs. The HBCU groupalso finished its graduatework somewhat more

quickly than the TWIgroup. HBCU studentsfinished in an average of5.57 years, while the TWIstudents finished in anaverage of 6.14 years.

Defining retention asstudents who obtain aPh.D. may be too narrowa definition, however.Particularly with adatabase that includesstudents who have onlybeen in graduate schoolfor a couple of years,students can be said tohave been retained ifthey remain activelyenrolled in the graduateprogram, or haveobtained a terminalmaster's degree. By thisbroader measure ofretention, HBCU studentsappear to evince higherretention rates than TWIstudents. As Figure 1indicates, of the 250 TWIBlack students, 66 per-cent either received adegree or remainedactive in the program by1994, as opposed to 82percent of the 34 HBCUBlack students. Whilethese results should betreated with cautionbecause of the fairlysmall number of studentsobserved, they do sug-gest that HBCU studentsare more persistent ingraduate programs thansimilar students fromTWIs.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF GREREGISTRANTS

The GRE databaseprovides information onall students who took theGRE in 1993. In total,351,017 Blacks andWhites took the GRE thatyear (students from otherethnic groups are notincluded in the analysis,as they represent aninsubstantial proportionof students attendingHBCUs). Of these stu-dents, 30,203 were Black,indicating that one Blacktook the GRE for every10 Whites. Of the Blacks,33 percent had attendedHBCUs. When it isrecalled that 28 percentof all Blacks graduatefrom HBCUs (calculatedfrom Snyder andHoffman, 1995), thissuggests that BlackHBCU graduates aredisproportionately likelyto choose to take theGRE, confirming thefinding from NPSAS thatthey are more likely thanBlacks from TWIs toaspire to graduate educa-tion.

As Figure 2 indicates,the ethnic makeup ofstudents taking the GREdiffers markedly depend-ing on whether theyhave attended HBCUs orTWIs. Ninety-two per-cent of the database'sBlacks and Whites whohave attended HBCUsare Black, as opposed to

Figure 2: Ethnic Composition of GRE Students

Figure 3: Gender Composition of GRE Students

6 percent of those whohave attended TWIs.Given that Blacks makeup about 80 percent ofstudents attendingHBCUs and 8 percent ofstudents attending TWIs,this suggests that Whitesfrom TWIs are morelikely to pursue graduateeducation than Whites

.1 9

from HBCUs, whileBlacks from HBCUs aremore likely than Blacksfrom TWIs to pursue it.

There are otherinteresting demographicdifferences betweenHBCU and TWI students.First, HBCU students aredisproportionatelyfemale. As Figure 3

17

indicates, 69 percent ofthe students fromHBCUs are female asopposed to 60 percentfrom TWIs. HBCUstudents are also oflower SES. In terms offather's education(Figure 4), half ofHBCU students' fathershad only a high schooldiploma or less, asopposed to less than30 percent of TWIstudents' fathers. Incontrast, 29 percent ofHBCU students' fathersobtained at least abachelor's degree, asopposed to 52 percentof TWI students' fathers.In terms of mother'seducation (Figure 5),slightly more than 40percent of HBCUstudents' mothers hadonly a high schooldiploma or less, asopposed to slightlymore.than 30 percentof TWI students' moth-ers. In contrast, 32percent of HBCU stu-dents' mothers obtainedat least a bachelor'sdegree, as opposed to40 percent of TWIstudents' mothers.

CHOICE OF GRADUATE

MAJOR

The most strikingdifferences betweenHBCU and TWI stu-dents, however, lie intheir choices of gradu-ate major. These differ-

18

ences are made mostmeaningful by compar-ing HBCUs and TWIsfor four distinct demo-graphic groups: Whitemales, White females,Black males, and Blackfemales. The reasonfor examining thesegroups separately is thatresearch has suggestedthat there are largedifferences in choice ofmajor between thesegroups. Females, forinstance, are generallyless likely than males toenter the sciences andengineering. In assess-ing differences betweenHBCUs and TWIs, then,it is worthwhile seeinghow large these differ-ences are in comparisonto differences betweenthe demographicgroups.

Figure 6 showsdifferences in the choiceof graduate major forBlack females attendingTWIs, Black malesattending TWIs, Blackfemales attendingHBCUs, and Black malesattending HBCUs. Thevarious majors aredivided into the para-professions (primarilythe helping professionsof health, education,and social work); socialsciences and humanities;business (accounting,banking, finance, busi-ness administration);academic science(biology, chemistry,

Figure 4: Father's Education

Graduate Degree

HBCU

TWI

Bachelor's Degree

HBCU

TWI

Some College

HBCU

TWI

15

14

High School or LessHBCU

TWI

24

21

21

26

27

50

0 10 20 30 40 50Percentage of Students

60

Figure 5: Mother's Education

Graduate Degree

HBCU

TWI

Bachelor's Degree

HBCU

TWI

Some College

HBCU

TWI

16

16

16

24

High School or LessHBCU

TWI

26

29

32

41

0 10 20 30

Percentage of Students40 50

physics); and engineer-ing. Some of the differ-ences seem to be prima-rily between males andfemales. Females aremuch more likely thanmales to choose healthand education regardlessof the institutionattended. Other differ-ences, however, seem tobe more between

90

students attendingHBCUs and thoseattending TWIs, regard-less of gender. BlackHBCU students, regard-less of gender, are morelikely than Black TWIstudents to choose tomajor in academicscience or business. Forinstance, 22 percent ofBlack male HBCU

Figure 6: Choice of Graduate Major BlackStudents

Paraprofessional

Female TWI

Female HBCU

Male HBCU

Male TWI

Social Sciences

Male TWI

Female TWI

Female HBCU

Male HBCU

Academic Science

29

27

r

Male HBCU

Female HBCU

Male TWI

Female TWI

Engineering

Male HBCU 114

Male TWI 14

Female HBCU 1-15

Female TWI 3Business

Male HBCU I 16

Female HBCU F-15

Female TWI

Male TWI I

16

15

22

31

30

37

44

43

49

0 10 20 30 40 50Percentage of Black Students

60

students and 16 percent ofBlack female HBCUstudents choose to majorin academic science, asopposed to 15 percent ofBlack male TWI studentsand 9 percent of Blackfemale TWI students. Onthe other hand, BlackHBCU students, regardlessof gender, are less likely tomajor in the social sci-ences. Forty-three percentof Black TWI male stu-dents and 37 percent ofBlack TWI female studentschoose to major in thesocial sciences, as op-

posed to 31 percent ofBlack HBCU femalestudents and 30 percentof Black HBCU malestudents. For theparaprofessions andengineering, genderdifferences seem to bemore important, withfemales more likely tochoose a major in theparaprofessions andmales more likely tochoose to major inengineering.

For Whites (Figure7), it appears that thedifferences for all majors

Figure 7 : Choice of Graduate Major WhiteStudents

ParaprofessionsFemale HBCU

Female TWI

Male HBCU

Male TWI

Social Sciences/HumanitiesMale TWI

Female TWI

Male HBCU

Female HBCU

Academic ScienceMale TWI

Male HBCU

Female TWI IM110Female HBCU

EngineeringMale TWI

Male HBCU

Female TWI 12

Female HBCU

BusinessMale HBCU 1E6

Female HBCU

Male TWI 12

Female TWI

12

15

21

20

23

28

27

34

39

39

47

60

0 10 20 30 40 50Percentage of White Students

60 70

form a pattern that is alsoconsistent across majorsbased on both genderand the type of institutionattended, although genderappears to be moreimportant than for Blacks.White HBCU students aremore likely to choose aparaprofession and lesslikely to choose academicscience than White TWIstudents. Similarly, Whitefemales are more likelythan White males tochoose a paraprofessionand less likely thanWhite males to choose

an academic science.The gender differenceappears to be markedlymore important than theHBCU difference forWhites, in that Whitescan be ranked by thepercentage choosing theparaprofessions and notchoosing academicscience, for instance, inthis order: HBCU Whitefemales, TWI Whitefemales, HBCU Whitemales, and TWI Whitemales. The two ethnicgroups, then, areaffected quite differently

19

by their experiences atHBCUs. First, Blacksattending HBCUs will besteered toward science,engineering, and busi-ness, while Whitesattending HBCUs will besteered toward theparaprofessions andaway from science.(Alternatively, it may bethat White studentsinterested in sciencewill be less likely tochoose an HBCU thanWhite students inter-ested in education,health, or social work.)Second, gender appearsto be a stronger influ-ence on choice of majorfor Whites than forBlacks.

To more accuratelymeasure the impact ofattending an HBCU onchoice of graduate major,the odds of choosing agiven major for an HBCUstudent as opposed to aTWI student are mea-sured, taking into accountthe effects of variousother student characteris-tics, such as gender andethnicity, on these odds.(For study methodology,see Appendix.) "Odds"refer to the ratio betweenthe chance that onegroup (in this casestudents attendingHBCUs) will make acertain choice and thechance that anothergroup (in this casestudents attending TWIs)

will make that samechoice. For example,three to one odds indi-cate that HBCU studentsare three times morelikely than TWI studentsto choose the givenmajor.

The odds, presentedin Table 1, indicate thatHBCU students are morelikely than TWI studentsto choose academicscience, engineering, orbusiness as majors. Inthe academic sciencecolumn, it can be seenthat the odds of anHBCU student choosingthat major are 2.4 toone, meaning that sucha student is more thantwice as likely as a TWIstudent to do so. This is

quite a large number,when it is compared tothe size of the effectsof some other character-istics. The quantitativeabilities of students,which one wouldassume are stronglyassociated with theirdecision to choosescience, are measuredby the student GREscore on the quantitativepart of that examination.The odds of a studentwith a high scorechoosing science aretwo to one, somewhatless than those forHBCU attendance.There is a similar effectof HBCU attendance onthe choice of engineer-ing as a major, with

Table 1: Odds

All results statistically

of Choosing Graduate Major

StudentCharacteristics

AcademicScience

Health/Agriculture Engineering Social

ScienceHumanities Education Business

SocialWork

Attends HBCU 2.3570 .4690 2.3817 .6912 - 3.0896 -English BestLanguage 1.4257 .7822 .6776 -Ethnicity Is Black .6941 1.8281 1.8281 - .5948 - .6021

Father'sEducation .9601 - 1.0688 .9183 -Gender isFemale .7344 2.2365 .3198 .3198 .5979 1.8842 .5556 3.4514

GRE-Analytic .9979 .9979 1.0020 .9989 1.0050

GRE-Quantitative 2.0076 1.0159 1.0159 .9930 .9984 .9981 .9969

GRE-Verbal .9979 .9968 .9948 .9948 1.0073 .9985 .9953 -Mother'sEducation - - .9364 .9364 - .9479

UndergraduateGPA

.9333 1.0684 .8814 .8814 1.2925 .8928 .7661 .8391

Is U.S. Citizen - 1.500 1.8563 2.7471 22.2100

significant at .05 level.

20

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

odds at 2.4 to one. Thechoice of business is themost strongly associatedwith attending an HBCU,with odds of three toone.

It is worth noting thatit is important to takeinto account other stu-dent characteristicsbecause, as shown by thefigures, these also influ-ence the choice of major.Gender is a particularlyimportant factor in thatfemales have high oddsfor choosing health,education, or socialwork, and low odds forchoosing academicscience, engineering, orbusiness. (The odds forengineering are .3, forinstance, indicating thatfemales are only a thirdas likely as males tochoose it as a graduatemajor.) In terms ofethnicity, Blacks aremore likely than Whitesto choose engineering orthe social sciences, andless likely to choosehealth, education, orsocial work. Finally,student academic abilitiesexert an influence onchoice of major. Studentswith strong quantitativeskills are more likely tochoose academic scienceor engineering, whereasthose with strong verbalskills are more likely tochoose the social sci-ences or humanities.Strong analytic skills

seem to be associatedwith choosing socialscience, humanities, orbusiness.

These analysesprovide some answersto the research ques-tions discussed above.First, it appears thatretention rates for BlackHBCU students attend-ing graduate school aresomewhat higher thanthose for Black TWIstudents. Black HBCUstudents are more likelythan Black TWI stu-dents to obtain a Ph.D.and less likely to leavethe program withoutobtaining a degree. Thedemographic character-istics of GRE studentsshow that those whohave attended HBCUsare disproportionatelyBlack, while those whohave attended TWIs aredisproportionatelyWhite, suggesting thateach type of schoolbetter serves the ethnicgroup that it has tradi-tionally served. The factthat the HBCU studentsare of lower SES thanthe TWI students alsosuggests that theHBCUs provide anavenue for studentsfrom humble origins topursue a graduateeducation.

The analysis ofchoice of major sug-gests that in practicethe Booker T. Washing-ton view of the HBCUs

is more prevalent thanthe W.E.B. Du Boisview. Students attendingHBCUs are no more orless likely than studentsattending TWIs to enterthose professions, suchas teaching or socialwork, that would sup-port community leader-ship, and are in fact lesslikely to enter the healthprofessions (excludingmedical school, which isnot analyzed here). Onthe other hand, HBCUstudents are more likelyto choose those profes-sions conducive toeconomic success inthe marketplace (busi-ness) or professionsrequiring advanced, butprimarily technical,skills (science andengineering).

23 21

HBCUs and theProfessions:Implications

for Policy

22

These analyses suggestthat some of the educa-tional justifications ofHBCUs proposed bytheir advocates are notsupported by the data.The notion that HBCUshave higher levels ofsocial interaction andinteraction with facultyis not supported by theNPSAS analysis; educa-tors will therefore haveto look elsewhere toexplain academicsuccesses at HBCUs.The notion that studentsattending HBCUs aremore likely to becomecommunity leaders isalso not supported. TheNPSAS analysis indicatesthat HBCU students areno more likely thanTWI students to aspireto leadership positionsor to participate incommunity service. TheGRE analysis indicatesthat students attendingHBCUs are no morelikely than studentsattending TWIs topursue graduate educa-tion in the helpingprofessions, such aseducation and socialwork.

The justificationthat does emerge isthat HBCUs prepareBlack students tocompete successfully inthe job market withWhites. First, theNPSAS analysis findsthat one of the attrac-tions of HBCUs is that

they are more affordablethan TWIs; theaffordability of HBCUstherefore may encouragestudents who mightotherwise either attend acommunity college or nocollege at all to attenda four-year institution.Second, the GRE analy-sis finds that studentsfrom HBCUs taking theGREs are from lessaffluent backgroundsthan students fromTWIs; this suggests thatHBCUs enable studentswho might not other-wise do so to continuetheir education at thegraduate level. Third,HBCU students are morelikely than TWI studentsto pursue graduateeducation and to aspireto a professional career,as the NPSAS analysissuggests. Fourth, theAAU/AGS analysissuggests that, once theyenroll, HBCU studentsare more likely than TWIstudents to remain ingraduate school, alsosuggesting that they maybe somewhat betterprepared to remainthere. Finally, the GREanalysis finds thatstudents from HBCUsare disproportionatelylikely to choose thesciences, engineering, orbusiness as graduatemajors, suggesting thatHBCUs encouragestudents to enter fieldsthat are attractive by

2

virtue .of their lucrative-ness much more thantheir tendency to pro-mote community politi-cal action. HBCUs, then,seem to be steeringBlack students into theprofessions whereminorities are mostunderrepresented. Thisis an advantage not onlyfor Black students whowould have attendedTWIs in the absence ofHBCUs, but for themany Blacks who,because of the highercost of TWIs, would nothave attended anycollege in the absenceof HBCUs.

Important researchquestions remain to beanswered, however. It isstill not known whystudents attendingHBCUs perform in theways discussed in thisstudy. Answering thisquestion is outside thescope of existing large-scale databases becauseit requires informationon the pedagogies,missions, and socialenvironments of HBCUs.It would thereforerequire a significant datacollection effort. Asecond question iswhether or not theeffects of HBCUs differamong types of schools.HBCUs include a widerange of institutionspublic and private, four-year and two-year,agricultural land-grant

institutions and eliteuniversities. The find-ings presented hererepresent only theaverage for all HBCUs,and therefore may maskthe effects that areunique to particulartypes of institutions.Again, data that distin-guish between types ofHBCUs are not readilyavailable and wouldhave to be collected.Finally, TWIs include awide range of institu-tions, and differenttypes of TWIs should becompared to differenttypes of HBCUs. Forinstance, in studyingpublic four-year HBCUs,it would be worthwhileto compare them topublic four-year TWIs.Data to make thesecomparisons are alsonot readily availableand would have to becollected.

Further research onHBCUs, however, iscontingent on theircontinued existence. Ifthey are eliminated, thekey to their positiveeffects on Black stu-dents will not be dis-covered. This researchdoes suggest thatHBCUs possess aneducational justificationin that there is some-thing they accomplishfor Blacks better thanTWIs they betterprepare Blacks for thoseprofessions in which

they are most under-represented. This benefitapplies both to Blackswho would haveattended a TWI and toBlacks who might nothave attended anypostsecondary institu-tion. Whether or not thisjustification is sufficientto ensure their continuedexistence is a questionfor the courts andlegislatures to answer.

23

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24

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Appendix:Study

Methodology

NPSAS Study: For fulldetails of this study, seeWenglinsky (1996).

AAU/AGS Study:AAU/AGS was used forcomparisons of reten-tion rates betweenstudents attendingHBCUs and TWIs, andfor estimates of thelength of time to degreeattainment for studentsat the two types ofinstitutions. For all ofthese figures, the longi-tudinal version of thedatabase, with data from1989 through 1994, wasused. Of the 14,477students for which datawere collected, the 284identified as Black wereselected for analysis.These students werethen divided into HBCUand TWI students bycomparing their institu-tional identificationnumbers in the databasewith a list of identifica-tion numbers for theHBCUs. The matchproduced 34 BlackHBCU students. Tomeasure retention rates,the measure from thedatabase of studenteducational outcomes in1994 was used. Theseoutcomes were: gradu-ates with Ph.D., terminalmaster's, still enrolled,inactive, withdrew, andunresolved. To deter-mine the percentage ofHBCU and TWI studentswho completed theirPh.D.'s, the number at

each type of institutionwho graduated with aPh.D. was divided bythe number of cases forthat type of institution.To determine the per-centage of HBCU andTWI students whograduated with a Ph.D.,graduated with a termi-nal master's, or were stillenrolled (Figure 1), firstthe cases of studentswho had enrolled in1992 and 1993 wereexcluded as too recentlyenrolled to indicate theability of a student topersist or not. Thenumbers of the remain-ing 185 cases in each ofthe three above catego-ries were counted anddivided by the numbersin HBCUs and TWIs. Tocalculate length of timeto graduation, the yearof enrollment wassubtracted from the yearof graduation andaveraged for all studentswho received a Ph.D.

GRE Study: Fromthe full database ofstudents who took theGRE in 1993, Blacks andWhites were selected foranalysis, totaling 351,017cases. To produceFigures 2 through 7,HBCU students wereidentified by matchingtheir GRE baccalaureateinstitutional identifica-tion numbers to thenames of schools in theGRE application packet.These names were then

matched to a list of the103 HBCUs to deter-mine whether or not theschool the studentattended was an HBCU.All cases of studentsattending an HBCUwere retained for thesubsequent analysis(10,669 cases). Of theremaining 340,348cases, a random sampleof 10,669 cases wasselected and matchedwith the HBCU casesto produce a sampleevenly stratifiedbetween the two typesof institutions. For thecomparisons in Figures2 through 7, the per-centages in each stratumwere compared; thusthe results were nation-ally representative evenwithout weighting. ForFigures 2 and 3, theGRE variables, as sup-plied in the database,were used for thecalculations. For Figures4 and 5, more specificcategories of mother'sand father's educationwere collapsed into oneof the appropriate fourcategories. For Figures 6and 7, the codes for thegraduate majors werecollapsed into the 50larger categories in theapplication packet.These were then furthercollapsed into academicscience (biology, chem-istry, computer science,earth science, mathemat-ics, physics), engineering

25

(all types), business(accounting, banking andfinance, business admin-istration), social sciences/humanities (anthropol-ogy, economics, politicalscience, psychology,sociology, art history, artperformance, English,foreign languages,history, and philosophy),and various para- orsemiprofessions, (i.e.,nonacademically orientedgraduate programs thatdo not fit into the busi-ness or engineeringcategories, such as healthsciences, education,social work, and agricul-tural sciences). For Table1, eight logistic regressionmodels were developed.For the results to benationally representative,the sampled cases (thoseof TWI students) had tobe multiplied by theinverse of their probabil-ity of selection, while theHBCU cases were multi-plied by 1 (which is theinverse of their probabil-ity of selection). Tomaintain the appropriatedegrees of freedom, allweights were divided bythe mean of the weights.Regression was per-formed to control forvarious student character-istics simultaneously.Logarithmic models weredeveloped because theindependent variableswere dichotomous andhighly skewed. Depen-dent variables were each

26

defined as whether ornot the student selectedone of a particularcategory of majors. Themajors were the same asin Figures 6 and 7,except that the socialsciences and humanitieswere given separatecategories, and two ofthe paraprofessions,education and socialwork, were also givenseparate categories. Inaddition to whether ornot the student attendedan HBCU, the determi-nation of which wasdescribed above, theindependent variableswere taken from theGRE application packetresponses (English is thestudent's best language,student ethnicity, stu-dent gender, motherand father education,undergraduate GPA, andcitizenship status) orfrom the results of theGREs as retained inrecords by ETS® (for theAnalytic, Verbal, andQuantitative scores).From the resultinglogistic models, theodds ratio was calcu-lated as the constant ebeing raised to thepower of the log oddsratio parameter for eachvariable in each model.Full printouts of theanalysis results areavailable on request.

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