Where Do Students of Color Earn Doctorates in Education?: The "Top 25" Colleges and Schools of Education

Abstract

Utilizing data describing the number of doctorates awarded to students of color by U.S. colleges and schools of education (CSEs) in 1984-85,1989-90,1990-91, and 1991-92 (N =approximately 185 institutions each year), this investigation identifies those universities that have been most successful in preparing educational leaders and researchers of color. The following results are reported: (a) relatively small subsets of 23 to 26 universities produced about one-half of all doctoral recipients of color during each year and across the three years from 1989 to 1992; and (b) approximately one-third of these students received their doctorates from one of the 31 most academically productive CSEs. These findings are shown to support the need for proactive policies relative to recruiting and retaining doctoral students of color in education. Although African Americans and other students of color have sought graduate degrees in education more often than in any other academic field, non-White students are consistently underrepresented in the proportions of doctoral degrees awarded in education (National Research Council, 1976-1988). During academic year 1989-90, for example, only 518 African Americans,161 Hispanics, 95 Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and 38 American Indians/Alaskan Natives earned doctorates in education (National Center for Education Statistics, 1992b). The 812 individuals in this group represented only about 11.7% of all of the doctorates awarded in education during that academic year. Discussions of efforts to attract more students of color to academic careers are typically cast in terms of supply and demand (Quality Education for Minorities Project,1990). Early work in this field focused on the recruitment and retention of African American graduate students (Pruitt, 1985; Thomas, Mingle, & McPartland, 1981), faculty (Epps, 1989; Moore & Wagstaff, 1974), and other delineated conditions that tend to limit the supply of African Americans at both levels. Given the limited supply of doctoral recipients of color in education and other fields (Thomas, 1987, 1992; Trent, 1991), it is not surprising that professors of color are grossly underrepresented on university faculties across all academic disciplines (Blackwell, 1987; Bowen & Schuster, 1986; Jackson, 1991; Moore, 1988; Moore & Wagstaff, 1974). Although the field of education can generally claim to have the highest levels of racial representation, a severe shortage of faculty of color exists in colleges and schools of education throughout the United States (National Center on Postsecondary Education, 1990). This shortage is particularly acute in the nation's elite research universities (Schneider, Brown, Denny, Mathis, & Schmidt, 1984). Two general areas of concern that are directly related to these racial representation issues prompted the present investigation. First, we wanted to know which universities have been the most successful in preparing students of color for leadership positions in education in general. That is, which schools or colleges of education are most likely to have prepared those doctoral recipients of color who have chosen to work in our nation's public schools or in other applied settings? Second, we wanted to know which schools and colleges of education have been most successful in preparing students of color for leadership positions in educational research and development. In addressing the first question, we adopted an analysis strategy similar to that used by Cooper and Borden (1994) to generate a list of the 100 universities (the Top 100) that have conferred the highest number of doctoral degrees to racial minorities across all academic disciplines. As an extension of that approach, we narrowed our focus to the field of education and began our analyses by determining which institutions have awarded the highest numbers of doctoral degrees in education to students of color during each of four academic years: 1984-85, 1989-90, 1990-91, and 1991-92. …