Using data collected from the National Science Foundation, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently determined that the number of Native Americans receiving doctorate degrees is lower than it was two decades ago. According to the published data, only 149 Native Americans received doctorates in 2013.
The data was disputed in some quarters.
The trouble with it, says Dr. Malia Villegas, director of the Policy Research Center at the National Congress of American Indians, is that much of the data is self-reported and the sample is much smaller than the one her agency uses. She says that, based on her office’s data analysis, the number is actually significantly higher.
