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A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States (with CD) (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 105-108

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From page 105...
... the design and construction of program ratings using the collected data including quantitatively based estimates of program quality. These data will be released through a Web-based, periodically updatable database and accompanied by an analytic summary report.
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From page 106...
... Data-Based Construction of Measures of Perceived Quality Ranking Programs Initially the committee was deeply divided on whether an effort to rank programs should be undertaken at all. However, there was universal agreement within the committee that efforts that relied entirely on reputation or on single measures of scholarly productivity could be misleading to potential applicants and others.
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From page 107...
... TWO AREAS FOR FURTHER STUDY Dimensional Measures As described in Chapters 3 and 4, the committee's reliance on faculty views of program quality and its determinants resulted in some variables that the committee strongly believed were important to doctoral program quality showing up with very low weights in the overall rankings. Perhaps scholarly activity is clearly of paramount importance to most faculty members and thus to the quality of doctoral programs that produce future faculty members.
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From page 108...
... The production of rankings from quantitative measures of program characteristics turned out to be more complicated and to be associated with greater uncertainty than originally thought. Any set of evaluations rests on the core values given to program characteristics.
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Key Terms

  • doctoral programs
  • program quality
  • doctoral program
  • program characteristics
  • dimensional measures

  • program ratings
  • postdoctoral scholars
  • committee agreed
  • incorporate student
  • workshop focusing

  • sampled programs
  • committee looks
  • committee tried
  • student support
  • providing data

  • regression results
  • paramount importance
  • potential applicants
  • single measures
  • relied entirely

  • committee discover
  • strongly believed
  • idealized preferences
  • universal agreement
  • involve judgments

  • research dimension
  • future faculty
  • programs increasingly
  • produce future
  • capture separate


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