Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Advanced Degrees
by Mike Kimel
“Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Advanced Degrees”
I stumbled on a website run by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that looks at the Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Advanced Degrees\
Here’s a graph from that page:
Here’s a follow-up graph:
Interpret and prognosticate.
OK. I’ll start this off…
While advanced degrees are a way to earn more money, with a few exceptions, advanced degrees in education, African/Latino/Any Other Group Studies, or the History of Spanish Literature goes the other way. These graphs don’t say: “the pay gap between non-Asian Minorities on the one hand, and Whites and Asians on the other hand, is going to shrink any time soon. In fact, this seems like a prescription for increasing the gap among those with advanced degrees.
Mike:
38% of the younger population chasing Masters Degrees are minority and they are taking 15% to 25% (dependent upon subject) of all Masters Degrees. If you drop temporary resident the % grows or if you add temp0rary resident as a minority, the % grows also. I think I interpreted that correctly.
With a growing shortage of teachers, I would think they may have a good chance of doing better financially. http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/03/389282733/where-have-all-the-teachers-gone “Where Have All The Teachers Gone?” and http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/30/395322012/the-hidden-costs-of-teacher-turnover “Revolving Door Of Teachers Costs Schools Billions Every Year”
Teaching was always looked down upon as a low level profession. In fact “compared to the private sector” which many in business did compare them to, the comment was “I can do better working for a business.” Except it blew up during the layoffs while teachers were still employed. When healthcare started to get scarce and people did not want to pay taxes, states underfunded teacher retirement and healthcare purposely. Now teachers are taking more than they deserve. Perhaps a bridge too far in relation to the topic.
I don’t see teachers as becoming a particularly high paid profession on an annual basis when the work year lasts 9 or 10 months at most. More importantly, before teaching becomes a high paid profession, the public will need to be convinced that GW’s immortal question -“is our children learning?” – could be answered in the affirmative.
Right now its fashionable to say that maybe the silver bullet we have been missing that will make non-Asian minorities score as well on standardized tests and other measures as Asians and Whites is the presence of non-Asian minority teachers. If that does close the gap without reducing the performance of Asians and Whites, pay hikes for teachers could be in the cards. Now, it may work, but we cannot forget that this is just the latest in a very long line of potential silver bullets that have been rolled in out over the last few (5? 6?) decades.
Mike:
This was only an opinion. Just looking at the departures from the teaching profession gives hint of a coming shortfall. It was always had a looked down upon for the reason I stated “I can make more money in the private sector” until the private sector went belly up. Then it became, why shouldn’t they contribute more to healthcare and their pensions? Except that was the redeeming value of being a teacher. You have to have a Masters to do much too. I think the deck is tilted in their favor. We shall see though.
“While advanced degrees are a way to earn more money, with a few exceptions, advanced degrees in education, African/Latino/Any Other Group Studies, or the History of Spanish Literature goes the other way.”
Almost all public and private K-12 schools pay more for teachers with advanced degrees.
Warren,
Yes. But the graphs above show, then, that a) Non-Asian Minorities will, on average, soon make more than other teachers, and b) Non-Asian Minorities with advanced degrees will continue to make less Asians and Whites who also have advanced degrees because they have chosen to get advanced degrees in education rather than engineering. In fact, expect the wage gap in b) to widen.
I’m sorry, Mike, but what graphs are you talking about?
Warren,
The graphs in the post. The first shows that the percentage of total doctoral degrees in education going to NAMs is increasing. That implies that NAMs in the field of education, on average, will be increasing their salaries relative to non-NAMs who are also in education.
However, between the first and second graph, it is apparent that the percentage of doctoral degrees received by NAMs is skewing more and more toward relatively low pay fields (education, Black studies, etc.) and less toward relatively high pay fields (engineering).
OK — inference. Got it.
But is it really a choice? Most people do not have the option of going into engineering in the first place. Heck, I knew a doctor who dropped out of Engineering because he could not handle the math.
In 2012, the mean SAT Math scores for Blacks are 428 (SD=97), while for Whites it’s 536 with an SD of 103.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/TotalGroup-2012.pdf
The mean mathematics SAT score for Engineering majors was 579.
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10
That means that in 2012, when 34% of Whites got that score or higher, only 6% of Blacks did.
Warren,
Whether it is a choice or not, it doesn’t change what these trends imply about future earnings patterns.
Note… I did screw up slightly in my response to you. I either should have left out “Black studies” inside the parenthesis or should have included words like “and its recent variants.”
“Right now its fashionable to say that maybe the silver bullet we have been missing that will make non-Asian minorities score as well on standardized tests and other measures as Asians and Whites is the presence of non-Asian minority teachers.”
Is their some surfeit of Asian teachers that causes them to do well?