An Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States Mathematical and Physical Sciences (1982) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
I. Origins of Study and Selection of Programs
I. Origins of Study and Selection of Programs
Pages 1-12
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
During the past two decades increasing attention has been given to describing and measuring the quality of programs in graduate education. It is evident that the assessment of graduate programs is highly important for university administrators and faculty, for employers in industrial and government laboratories, for graduate 1
|
From page 2... ...
At the outset consideration was given to whether a national assessment of graduate programs should be undertaken at this time and, if so, what methods should be employed. The next two sections in this chapter examine the background and rationale for the decision by the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils2 to embark on such a study.
|
From page 3... ...
Accreditation, conducted through non-governmental institutional and specialized agencies, provides a major means for meeting those needs.3 Although formal accreditation procedures play an important role in higher education, many university administrators do not view such procedures as an adequate means of assessing program quality. Other efforts are being made by universities to evaluate their programs in graduate education.
|
From page 4... ...
J Andersen, A Rating of Graduate Programs, American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., 1970.
|
From page 5... ...
. All the attempts to change higher education will ultimately be strangled by the "legitimate" evaluative processes that have already programmed a single set of responses from the start.9 A number of other criticisms have been leveled at reputational rankings of graduate programs.~° First, such studies inherently reflect perceptions that may be several years out of date and do not take into account recent changes in a program.
|
From page 6... ...
Several attempts have been made to go beyond the reputational assessment. Clark, Harnett, and Baird, in a pilot study 2 of graduate programs in chemistry, history, and psychology, identified as many as 30 possible measures significant for assessing the quality of graduate education.
|
From page 7... ...
On the one hand, "a substantial majority of the Conference [participants believed] that the earlier assessments of graduate education have received wide and important use: by students and their advisors, by the institutions of higher education as aids to planning and the allocation of educational functions, as a check on unwarranted claims of excellence, and in social science research." 6 On the other hand, the conference participants recognized that a new study assessing the quality of graduate education "would be conducted and received in a very different atmosphere than were the earlier Cartter and Roose-Andersen reports.
|
From page 8... ...
In its deliberations the planning committee carefully considered the criticisms of the Roose-Andersen study and other national assessments. Particular attention was paid to the feasibility of compiling a variety of specific measures (e.g., faculty publication records, quality of students, program resources)
|
From page 9... ...
Early in the planning stage it was recognized that some important areas of graduate education would have to be left out of the study. Limited financial resources required that efforts be concentrated on a total of no more than about 30 disciplines in the biological sciences, engineering, humanities, mathematical and physical sciences, and social sciences.
|
From page 10... ...
an average rating of 2.0 or higher in the Roose-Andersen rating of the scholarly quality of departmental faculty. In each discipline the specified number of doctorates required for inclusion in the study was determined in such a way that the programs meeting this criterion accounted for at least 90 percent of the TABLE 1.1 Number of Research Doctorates Awarded in the Mathematical and Physical Science Disciplines, FY1976-78 Source of Date ETS Disciplines Included in the Assessment Chemistry Physics2 Mathematics Geosciences3 Computer Sciences4 Statistics/Biostatisticss Total Disciplines Not Included in the Assessment Astronomy Marine Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Environmental Sciences Other Physical Sciences Total NRC 4,624 3,139 1,985 1,395 728 457 12,328 N/A6 N/A N/A N/A N/A 4,739 3,033 1,848 1,139 456 634 11,849 408 406 246 160 132 1,352 data on FY1976-78 doctoral awards were derived from two independent sources: Educational Testing Service (ETS)
|
From page 11... ...
If the university offered more than one research-doctorate program in a discipline, the coordinator was instructed to provide information on each of them so that these programs could be evaluated separately. The committee received excellent cooperation from the study coordinators at the universities.
|
From page 12... ...
During the course of the study only two such programs in the mathematical and physical sciences -- one in mathematics and one in biostatistics -- have been called to the attention of the committee. In the chapter that follows, a detailed description is given of each of the measures used in the evaluation of research-doctorate programs in the mathematical and physical sciences.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.