Educational Experience of African Americans

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Introduction
In 2006, an article was published by three doctoral students, (Tricia Seifert, Jerri Drummond, and Ernest Pascarella) at the University of Iowa, highlighting a research study undergone by the three concerning the role of institutional types, with emphasis on historically black colleges (HBC’s) in African-American students’ experiences. The findings, as published in the Journal of College Student Development showed that students who attend HBC’s report greater levels of good practices than their peers at other institutions of higher education. These findings suggested a greater emphasis on the teaching of students, as defined by the mission statements of these particular institutions.
Critique
The authors highlight the main purpose of their research, which was to compare the educational experiences of African- American students in and out of the classroom with faculty and peers along the dimensions of good practices in undergraduate education by institutional type. To do so, they gathered data from a sample of students who participated in the NSSL, examining 19 dependent variables in 7 sub categories, controlling for factors such as student demographic and background, institutional characteristics, and as well as academic ability of students and institutional selectivity.
A quite extensive literature review was made, and the researchers took care to account for many independent variables, as well as the capabilities and limitations of the study. The key question guiding the study was: “To what extent, if any, does institutional type affect African-American students’ experiences of good practices in undergraduate education”, which defined good practices in seven different areas, including student-faculty contact...

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...nalysis and the work done with the independent variables and statistical controls. Although the paragraph above shows that more current data could possible produce a different result, the methods of research in analyzing the data gathered is excellent, and the quality of the analysis alone warrants further research and discussion, which I conclude is the main implication of the author’s line of reasoning for student affairs. In closing, this research article, although with its limitations, provides an excellent research perspective in the debate of institutional types and their impact on the African American college experience.

References
Seifert, Tricia A., Jerri Drummond, and Ernest T. Pascarella. "African-American Students' Experiences of Good Practices: A Comparison of Institutional Type. "Journal of College Student Development 47.2 (2006): 185-205. Print.

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