The meaning of the numbers - Black Issues in Higher Education's sixth annual Top 100 rankings of minority college graduates

Black Issues in Higher Education, July 10, 1997 by Victor M.H. Borden

Objective

The analysis of degrees conferred to students of color in the United States continues this year with the simple objective of bringing national attention to those institutions that contribute, in raw numbers, to the educational attainment of members of ethnic and racial minorities.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Black Issues In Higher Education has published these lists, which follow the same basic format as in prior years. The lists reflect degree production during the 1994-95 academic year, including all associate, baccalaureate, first professional, master's, and doctoral degrees that were awarded by accredited colleges and universities in the nation's fifty states and the District of Columbia. The institutions are ranked according to the total number of degrees awarded to minority students across all disciplines and in specific disciplines. For reasons of space, only the associate and baccalaureate lists are in this issue. Graduate and professional rankings will be carried in the next issue.

Excluded from this analysis are colleges and universities in Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and other commonwealths and protectorates, as well as postsecondary institutions within the fifty states and Washington, D.C. that are not accredited at the college level by an agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education.

Data Source

The data for this study come from the United States Department of Education. It is collected through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) program completers survey conducted by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). The survey requests data on the number of degrees and other formal awards conferred in academic, vocational and continuing professional education programs. Institutions report their data according to the Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes developed by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). CIP codes provide a common set of categories allowing comparisons across all colleges and universities.

The astute reader may note that we have skipped a year in this series. Last year, we published the numbers that derived from the 1992-93 IPEDS completers survey. This year we have moved ahead to the 1994-95 dataset. In addition, we are able to provide preliminary figures for institutions for which 1995-96 data are currently available.

At the time these lists were generated, the 1994-5 data were still in a preliminary release. Our analysis showed however, that the vast majority of the accredited institutions included in this analysis had completed all required forms with one notable exception: Howard University. Therefore, we decided to use the more up-to-date figures for 1994-95 with the manual addition of Howard University derived from the hard copy of their completed survey.

Analysis of the 1995-96 preliminary data showed far more missing entries. We decided to include these figures where available as an additional piece of information, but we used the 1994-95 figures as the basis of selection and ranking.

A student's minority status is typically determined by a self-reported response from the student during his or her college career. Students are offered a set of categories from which to choose. The number and labels of these categories differ from one institution to another. However, when reporting enrollment or degrees to the federal government, institutions must map their categories to the standard federal categories: non resident alien; Black, non-Hispanic; American Indian or Alaskan Native: Asian or Pacific Islander; Hispanic; White, non-Hispanic: and race/ethnicity unknown. The minority categories - Black, non-Hispanic; American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian or Pacific Islander; and Hispanic - include U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

There are 100 institutions on the list which combine all the minority groups by degree level. The lists for specific minority groups and for specific disciplines contains as many as fifty institutions each. A given list may have slightly fewer or more institutions because of ties in the rankings. For example, if there are four institutions that fall into the ninety-eight ranked slot, then the list includes all of them bringing the total number of institutions listed to 103. If, however, ten institutions are tied for the ninety-eight rank, all are excluded for reasons of space and so the list falls short at ninety-seven.

A specific list may also be short because only a small number of degrees are conferred to that minority within that discipline and/or degree level. For example, the list pertaining to doctoral degrees awarded to Native American students includes only nine institutions. We limited the lists to included institutions that awarded at least three degrees in each category.

Within each listing category (combination of degree level, minority group and discipline), the colleges and universities were ranked from high to low according to the total number of degrees conferred during the 1994-95 academic year. Each entry lists: the institution name; state of location; number of degrees conferred to women, men and both genders combined (the ranking criteria); a percentage column; and the total number of degrees conferred in 1995-96, if available.