16Dec2010 DiscriminationsOn the Chronicle of Higher Educations Innovations blog this morning, Marybeth Gasman lists the major findings of the recent United States Commission on Civil Rights report on The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black College and Universities as follows:
Although HBCU students tend to have lower SAT scores and high-school grades than their African-American counterparts at historically white institutions (HWIs), they produce 40 percent of black science and engineering degrees with only 20 percent of black enrollment.
Faculty members dedication to teaching, student-support networks, encouragement to pursue leadership posts in their fields of study, and the availability and access of faculty role models help to explain the success of an HBCU educationboth empirically and anecdotally.
HBCU students are 1.5 times more likely than their counterparts at HWIs to collaborate with a faculty member on a research project.
Given lower funding levels and the underprepared nature of some students, HBCUs are doing a much better job than HWIs in educating African American students.
Of the top 21 undergraduate producers of African-American science Ph.D.s, 17 were HBCUs. Of note, many of those students would have been considered underprepared by majority institutions.
Nearly half of the nations African-American teachers graduated from HBCUs, though this fact is rarely acknowledged.
Students without optimal academic credentials are much more likely to succeed at an HBCU because of the supportive environment.
African-American students are more engaged, both socially and academically, on HBCU campuses than at HWIs.
HBCU students are more likely to give to charity and to be more politically active.
HBCU students are more likely to participate in service learning and religious activities.
One of the most important recommendations in the Commissions report is for HWIs to carefully study the success of HBCUs, especially in the sciences, Gasman notes, and to emulate that success and the best practices that lead to it. HBCUs, she concludes, have much to teach us about educating black and low-income students.
Do you think theres a chance that the success of HBCUs, probably the least diverse institutions in the country (Spelman, 1% white; Moorhouse 1% white; Hampton, 3% white, etc.) might teach us that diversity at least as defined by the HWIs that worship it is not essential to a good education?
it is always interesting to find evidence that the benefits of 'diversity' are so contradictory when you look at real world cases.