impact of college racial composition on African American students' academic and social gains: Additional evidence, The

Journal of College Student Development, May/Jun 2002 by Flowers, Lamont A

In this study of African American students from 207 postsecondary institutions, employing cross-sectional data collected over a 10-year period, self-report data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) were used to estimate the impact of attending a historically Black college or university (vs. a predominantly White institution) on social and academic outcomes in college. The findings of this study extend previous research by suggesting that even in the presence of important statistical controls, attendance at a historically Black college or university significantly enhances the academic and social growth of African American students. This finding held for selfreported measures of gains in understanding the arts and humanities, gains in personal and social development, gains in understanding science and technology, and gains in intellectual and writing skills.

Over the years, a considerable amount of research has focused on the effects of college racial composition on learning outcomes (Allen 1987, 1991, 1992; Bohr, Pascarella, Nora, & Terenzini, 1995; Fleming, 1984; Flowers & Pascarella, 1999; Pascarella, Edison, Nora, Hagedorn, & Terenzini, 1996). To be sure, this body of research is consistent and suggests that African American students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) accrue significantly greater learning gains than their peers attending Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) do. It should also be noted that this finding has shown to be consistent despite the distinct methods utilized to operationalize cognitive development and academic growth-standardized measures of learning (Fleming, 1984; Flowers & Pascarella, 1999; Pascarella, Edison, Nora, Hagedorn, & Terenzini, 1996) and self-report measures of learning (DeSousa & Kuh, 1996).

The present study directly extends the work of DeSousa and Kuh (1996) who found that attending a HBCU (vs. a PWI) resulted in greater academic and social gains for African American students. While the DeSousa and Kuh study is important and significantly contributes to our understanding of the impact of college racial composition on students' cognitive and social development in college, the present study extends their study by addressing three important considerations. First, their institutional sample included only one HBCU and one PWI. Second, their study included data from one year and thus did not benefit from multiple years of data collection. Third, their investigation did not introduce statistical controls for salient variables known to influence college outcomes. To address those important issues, the purpose of the present study was to further investigate the relative academic and non-academic impact of college racial composition on African American students while statistically controlling for the influence of intervening variables using scores on selfreport measures of academic and social gains collected over a ten-year period from 207 institutions.

METHODOLOGY

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study is based on numerous investigations of research on student development. One line of this research suggests that student background factors and institutional characteristics mediate the effects of college on student growth and development (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). As such, the conceptual framework in this study is based, in part, on the notion that precollege and institutional characteristics represent an important predictor of cognitive and affective development in college. Another line of research suggests that student's academic and nonacademic experiences in college influence student development in college (Astin, 1977; Astin, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Terenzini & Wright, 1987). Thus, students' academic experiences (e.g., college major, hours spent studying, effort spent engaging in academic pursuits) are included in the conceptual model of the current study as a proxy for student involvement. Variables measuring non-academic experiences are also included in the model (e.g., campus residence, hours worked per week, participation in clubs and organizations) because of their impact on student learning in college (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Terenzini, Pascarella, & Blimling, 1996; Terenzini, Springer, Pascarella, & Nora, 1995).

Data Source

The College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) is the primary data source for this study (Kuh, Vesper, Connolly, & Pace, 1997; Pace, 1984). The CSEQ has been used by hundreds of colleges and universities to assess how students use their university environment to accomplish their goals and achieve academic success in college (Kuh, Vesper, Connolly, & Pace, 1997; Palomba & Banta, 1999). The CSEQ is a versatile assessment device because it obtains student data along four dimensions: (a) student background and demographic characteristics, (b) amount of student effort expended on 14 activities in college (e.g., library experiences, experiences with faculty, participation in clubs and organizations), (c) student perceptions of the institutional environment, and (d) student progress made in college in terms of cognitive growth and personal development (Decoster, 1989; McCammon, 1985). The CSEQ has had a long tradition of use in higher education research and in achieving the standards required by the criteria of reliability and validity (Brown, 1985; Kuh, Vesper, Connolly, & Pace, 1997; Miller, 1985; Pace, 1984, 1996). Accordingly, the CSEQ is a useful self-report instrument for institutions seeking data concerning how students perceive their college experience and how students perceive that their college experience is helping them to achieve academic success.