Transcript THE EDGE IN KNOWLEDGE Changes in the Carnegie Classifications: What They Mean for Colleges & Universities Perry Deess Ph.D. Director of Institutional Research and Planning,

THE EDGE IN KNOWLEDGE
Changes in the Carnegie Classifications:
What They Mean for
Colleges & Universities
Perry Deess Ph.D.
Director of Institutional Research and Planning, NJIT
Annual Meeting of the Association of NJ Graduate Schools
March 24, 2006
A Little History
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 1970: The Carnegie
Commission on Higher
Education creates a
classification system to
serve its research program
 1973: Classification
published to assist research
on higher education
 1976, 1987, 1994, 2000:
revised editions
 2005-06: major revisions
Clark Kerr
Original Design Principles
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 Seek comparability with respect to:
 Functions of the institutions
 Characteristics of students and faculty
 Use empirical data about what institutions do
 Secondary analysis of existing data
Why Was The Classification Changed?
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 Higher education has changed
 1970 framework has weaknesses and
blind spots
 A single framework is not sufficient
 Value in acknowledging complexity
BIG REASON
 To reduce competition based on the
classification system
Summary of Changes
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Comprehensive
(all-inclusive) schemes
Elective (voluntary)
schemes
 Basic, with changes
 Instructional Program
 Undergraduate
 Graduate
 Student Profile
 Outreach &
Community
Engagement
 Undergraduate
Education Inquiry &
Support
 Overall
 Undergraduate
 Size & Setting
Basic Classification
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 Associate’s: subcategories
 Doctorate-granting: index of research activity
 Master’s: finer distinctions
 Baccalaureate: “liberal arts” to “arts & sciences”
 Special focus: sharper definition
Doctorate-granting:
index of research activity
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 Doctoral institutions are a key area of
competition
 Three categories now
 Research universities—very high research activity
 Research universities—high research activity
 Doctoral/Research universities
Defining Doctoral Institutions*
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(IPEDS based doctoral conferrals; professional doctorates not counted for the base of 20;
research staff from NSF survey of Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering )
 “The research index is based on the following correlates of
research activity: research and development expenditures
in science and engineering (NSF R&D survey); research
and development expenditures in non-science and
engineering fields; science and engineering research staff;
and doctoral conferrals in humanities fields, social science
fields science technology, engineering, and mathematics
fields, and professional fields. These data were statistically
combined using principal component analysis to create two
indices of research activity. The first index was based on
aggregate levels of these factors ,. The second index, of
per-capita research activity, used the expenditure and
staffing measures divided by the number of full time faculty
members whose primary responsibilities were identified as
research, instruction, or a combination of instruction,
research and public service. (From IPEDS)”
Defining Doctoral Institutions
(continued)
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 “The values in each index were then used to locate each
institution on a two-dimensional graph (scatterplot). Each
institution’s distance from a common reference point was
calculated, and the results were used to assign institutions
to three groups based on their distance from the reference
point. Thus the aggregate and per-capita indices were
considered equally such that institutions that were very
high on either index were assigned to the “very high”
group, while institutions that were high on one but (but very
high on neither) were assigned to the ‘high’ group.”
 [The Chronicle of Higher Education March 3, 2006]
What does this mean?
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“Ain’t nobody gonna figger how ta game it.”
 The point of this is to prevent competition and
limit the explosion of doctoral programs for
competition in a ranking system.
 The system is fundamentally relational
 The mathematics are virtually inscrutable
 It IS competitive, but few schools will spend the time to
work out how to compete
How to game the doctoral ranking system?
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 Have a long talk with the people completing
the NSF R&D Survey, the NSF Graduate
Student and Post-doctorate Survey, and the
IPEDS.
 If they carefully and position the university
based on the criteria described above they
can maximize your chances of reaching a
higher tier.
 Remember you only need one VERY HIGH
index score to achieve the VERY HIGH
category.
Instructional Program
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Undergraduate
Graduate
 Degree level
 Balance of arts &
sciences and
professional fields
 Correspondence with
graduate programs
 Degree levels
 Mix of offerings
 Comprehensive
 Focused
Student Profile
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Overall student profile
Undergraduate profile
 Mix of undergraduate and
graduate/professional
enrollments
 Proportion full- & part-time
 Achievement
characteristics of first-year
students
 Transfer-in percentage
Size and Setting
 Total enrollment
 Residential character
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Elective (voluntary) Schemes
Outreach & community
engagement
 Mix of outreach and
engagement activities
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Undergraduate education
inquiry & support
 Efforts to assess
undergraduate education
 Support for assessing &
improving teaching &
learning
How to do peer analysis? (cont.)
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How to do peer analysis? (cont.)
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Why was all of this done?
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 To facilitate peer analysis
 To aid research
 To develop generally non-competitive scales
 To encourage more sophisticated ranking—
particularly by US News
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Advantages
 Complexity
 Flexibility
 More nuanced classification
 Better matching of classification to purpose
 Possibilities for customization
 Responsibility
 Make & justify choices
How to do peer analysis?
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 Start at this site:
http://www.carnegieclassification-preview.org/
How to do peer analysis? (cont.)
How to do peer analysis? (cont.)
Where to Learn More
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 www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications
 Copies of slides:
http://www.njit.edu/v2/Directory/iresearch/index.html.htm
 For more information contact:
Perry Deess [email protected]