The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and ...

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13 Introduction difficult beginnings, have been pivotal in educating students, especially African-Americans, for generations. The Commission consulted numerous experts on HBCUs to identify distinguished panelists to discuss this important issue. The five panelists were: � Louis W. Sullivan, chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, founding dean and first president of Morehouse School of Medicine, and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; � Earl S. Richardson, president of Morgan State University and former chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities; � Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy; � Raymond C. Pierce, dean and professor of law at North Carolina Central University, and former deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the U. S. Department of Education; and � Mikyong Minsun Kim, associate professor of Higher Education at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development and director of the Higher Education Administration Doctoral Program at the institution’s Virginia Campus. After the briefing, Commissioners offered two articles to help provide the reader with a richer understanding of the subject because policy makers should base conclusions about the efficacy of HBCUs in educating black students as compared to non-HBCUs 19 on stronger evidence than mere public support. In both studies the researchers rely on extensive empirical data to draw their conclusions. The two articles are reproduced at the end of this report and cast some additional light on the briefing topic. In one study, economists Fryer and Greenstone analyzed several National Center for Education Statistics’ databases collected in the 1970s and the 1990s. They found that during the 1970s, HBCU attendance resulted in a greater likelihood of graduation when compared to black attendees at traditionally white institutions, as well as an increased probability of from the Publications Office, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 624 Ninth Street, NW, Room 600, Washington, D.C. 20425. The telephone number and e-mail address of the Publications Office are (202) 376-8128 and publications@usccr.gov, respectively. 19 The acronyms TWI, HWI, HWCU, and non-HBCU are used at various points in this report to reflect the differing terminology used by our panelists. For purposes of this report these terms mean the same thing. When referring globally or collectively to the panelist and or commissioner comments this report uses the term non- HBCU. In addition, note that it would be interesting to assess the impact of attending an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) on white students, but this is beyond the scope of the Commission’s discussion.
14 The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities majoring in a physical science. 20 As important, HBCUs provided a substantial wage premium to their graduates. However, by the 1990s, HBCU attendance yielded a substantial wage penalty to black matriculants in comparison with black students attending a traditionally white institution. 21 Other differences are more positive. Students attending HBCUs appear to demonstrate increased charitable giving, political participation, religious participation, and propensity to major in the physical sciences compared with those who went to traditionally white institutions. 22 If these conclusions survive further testing, they indicate that attending an HBCU no longer provides the economic advantage to black matriculants that it once did. It may also imply, as Fryer and Greenstone suggest, that traditionally white institutions may be more efficacious in placing their black matriculants than HBCUs. However, HBCUs’ wage penalties are offset at least partly with non-pecuniary advantages that may accrue to black matriculants in attending HBCUs rather than traditionally white institutions. These include greater civic participation and greater willingness of students to major in the physical sciences. The large proportions of black lawyers, judges, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and professors graduated from HBCUs, mentioned earlier, support such a finding. In the other research effort Commissioners identified, psychologists Elliott, et al., sought to assess the effects of black students attending HBCUs rather than non-HBCUs. The study focused on predictors of whether or not black students decide to major in the sciences with some discussion of the special role HBCUs might play in this process. The authors note an initial substantial interest in, and favorable feelings toward, science among blacks pursing science careers, an effect more positive than that found among white students. The black students failed to manifest such interest later in college and subsequently. 23 To understand this change, the researchers studied the likelihood of students enrolled in four Ivy-league institutions majoring in science and, to a lesser extent, of their dropping out of college 20 Roland G. Fryer, Jr., and Michael Greenstone, “The Causes and Consequences of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13036, April 2007, p. 18. 21 Roland G. Fryer, Jr., and Michael Greenstone, “The Causes and Consequences of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13036, April 2007, pp. 18–25. 22 Roland G. Fryer, Jr., and Michael Greenstone, “The Causes and Consequences of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13036, April 2007, Appendix, Table 6, p. 46. 23 Rogers Elliott, A. Christopher Strenta, Russell Adair, Michael Matier, and Jannah Scott, “The Role of Ethnicity in Choosing and Leaving Science in Highly Selective Institutions, ” Research in Higher Education, vol. 37, No. 6. (1996), p. 682.
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