Diverse Colleges of Origin of African American Doctoral Recipients, 2001–2005: Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Beyond

The contribution of HBCUs as “colleges of origin,” i.e., where Black doctorates earned their bachelors’ degrees, remains of interest, given the historical role of HBCUs and the current desire to increase the percentage of doctorates awarded to African Americans in all fields. Using national survey data from multiple sources, we estimated which college characteristics predicted later doctoral degree attainment in all fields. We took into account the large number of Black graduates from HBCUs, which make them likely to be colleges of origin, and controlled for standardized test scores, Carnegie classification, and student/faculty ratio. HBCUs were associated with doctorate production more than twice the expected level based on their other average characteristics. In addition, colleges with low student/faculty ratios, higher SAT scores, and historical Carnegie classifications of research universities and selective liberal arts colleges were also associated with a higher percentage of Black graduates later earning doctoral degrees.     

Mastery versus ability appraisal: a developmental study of children's observations of peers' work

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that there is an age-related shift from mastery enhancement to relative ability assessment in the goal of social comparison. Children at ages 5, 7, and 10 made pictures with stickers under conditions of high or low concern with relative performance (competition/no competition) and high or low procedural ambiguity (free design/copying a drawing). The effects of the manipulations on frequency of glancing at the experimenter and the drawing were similar at all ages; competition enhanced glancing at peers, however, only at ages 7 and 10. The hypothesized shift in the function of social comparison was further supported by age differences in children's explanations for glancing at peers and by the pattern of intercorrelations between glances at the 3 targets and between glances and picture quality. The results indicate how mastery-based comparisons can promote mastery and performance and illustrate some costs older children may pay for their tendency to observe others primarily to assess relative ability.