This past week U.S. News and World Report issued its annual college rankings. In addition to the general rankings, they released a ranking of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Although I am not a fan of the U.S. News rankings and the way they are used, they are not going to go away unless colleges and universities push back. Given the way the rankings are used in marketing materials by institutions that are ranked highly either nationally or regionally, I don’t see much push back in the future.
The HBCU rankings use a similar methodology to the influential magazine’s general college rankings. To assess HBCUs, U.S. News considered peer assessment (25%) (by other HBCU leaders), retention of students (25%), faculty resources (20%), student selectivity (15%), financial resources (10%), and alumni giving rates (5 %). Institutions considered in the rankings had to be included in the federal government’s list of HBCUs — so predominantly Black institutions are not included in the rankings as they gained Black majorities after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The top 10 HBCUs, according to U.S. News, are, in this order:
1. Spelman College (Atlanta, GA)
2. Howard University (Washington, DC)
3. Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA)
4. Hampton University (Hampton, VA)
5. Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL)
6. Xavier University of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA)
7. Fisk University (Nashville, TN)
8. Claflin University (Orangeburg, SC)
9. Dillard University (New Orleans, LA)
10. Touglaoo College (Tougaloo, MS)
All of the HBCUs in the top ten are private institutions. However, public HBCUs make up the majority of the next 10 institutions.
Of interest, J.C. Grant recently released a ranking of HBCUs. He used SAT scores of the first year class to create the ranking. Here is his top 10:
1. Howard University
2. Spelman College
3. Morehouse College
4. Tougaloo College
5. Xavier University of Louisiana
6. Bluefield State University
7. Fisk University
8. Florida A&M University
9. Philander Smith College
10. Claflin University
It is interesting to look at the overlap and which institutions differ in these rankings. Of course there are issues with each of the rankings. The U.S. News rankings are based on many of the very issues that HBCUs struggle with — resources, alumni giving, and student selectivity — and there is no contextualization of these issues for the magazine’s readers. In addition, the use of peer rankings seems to perpetuate the status quo — so no matter how effective an HBCU is, if it doesn’t share that effectiveness, its peers don’t know. And J.C. Grant’s rankings are based on SAT scores, which some scholars argue are racially and socio-economically biased.
I’d be interested in your constructive comments about the HBCU rankings. What do you think about the idea of having a separate ranking for HBCUs? Do you agree with the results of the ranking? Should the rankings be based on different factors? Perhaps we can have a fruitful discussion on this topic.
2 Responses to Ranking Historically Black Colleges and Universities
gplm2000 - August 25, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Separate rankings of HBCUs should not be done. These schools need to join the mainstream academically and athletically. There is no need for black schools given the growth of public community and four-year colleges. If true integration and learning are be part of mainstream society, the US/States need to close the public ones. The private ones do what they want. How can we support colleges based-on-race, yet for everything else it is illegal?
honore - August 27, 2010 at 8:49 am
gplm2000, be careful it’s comments like yours that get deleted in PC-Wonderland, you know comments that speak from the perspective of truth, common sense and fact. And we can’t have that because someone somewhere in some long gone century will take offense.