Linkages Among Top-Ranked Graduate Programs in Special Education: A Brief Report

Abstract

The 10 top-ranked graduate programs in special education, based on national surveys of deans, top administrators, and senior faculty, were substantially linked to one another by hiring one another's graduates. We suggested that this linkage helps these programs to maintain and enhance their prestige.

Faculty Hiring at Top-Ranked Higher Education Administration Programs: An Examination Using Social Network Analysis

“…Seventy percent (70%) of faculty members at top-ranked higher education programs received their doctorate from another top-ranked school. Higher than previous study (Bair and Bair 1998) "Unhealthy"…”

“…Bair and Bair (1998) reported that 60% of faculty members at top-ten graduate programs in special education were graduates from one of the same top schools. Other literature suggests that elite colleges and universities tend to preserve and improve their reputations by hiring from each other (Burris 2004;Kennedy 1997).…”

Faculty Diversity and Program Standing in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Findings for 31 Doctoral Programs in 2008

“…Offering support for this position, Bair noted that prestigious programs in various fields are usually staffed with graduates from the top-ranked programs or with their own graduates, especially in disciplines where there is strong competition for a limited number of doctoral graduates (Bair 1991(Bair , 2003Bair and Bair 1998;Boor 1988, 1991;Bair, Thompson, and Hickey 1986). In the 10 top-ranked finance programs in 2000, eight of the schools had at least one graduate employed from their program, with Stanford (30.8%) and Harvard (40.7%) both having over 30% of their faculty originating from their program (Bair 2003).…”

“…Additionally, these 10 top-ranked programs had between 33.3% (Harvard) and 70.4% (Northwestern-Kellogg) of their faculty from one of the other 10 top-ranked programs. This pattern of hiring your own graduates or those from other top-ranked schools also held together for other disciplines to include law, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and special education; where 49 of the 51 top-ranked programs in their respective fields had at least one of their graduates on the faculty and a large percentage of their faculty from other top institutions (Bair 1991(Bair , 2003Bair and Bair 1998;Boor 1988, 1991;Bair, Thompson, and Hickey 1986). …”

Hiring Practices in Finance Education: Linkages Among Top‐Ranked Graduate Programs

“…The present study investigated the extent to which top-ranked graduate programs in finance might tend to maintain and enhance their reputations by hiring their own and one another's graduates. Top-ranked law schools were substantially linked to one another in this manner (Bair and Boor 1991) as were top-ranked doctoral programs in mathematics, the physical sciences, the social sciences, chemical engineering, psychology, social work, library science, and special education (Bair and Bair 1998). The extent to which top-ranked graduate programs in finance also might hire their own and one another's graduates was assessed in the present study.…”