About the Humanities Indicators
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Overview
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When the Initiative for Humanities and Culture was organized in 1998, the Academy
recognized that the humanities are the only disciplines that lack reliable, comprehensive,
and consistently updated statistical data necessary to chart trends and draw conclusions.
To address this need, the Academy began working closely with major humanities institutions,
including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned
Societies and the National Humanities Alliance, to develop an infrastructure for
the compilation, analysis and publication of comprehensive trend data about the
humanities. The Humanities Indicators is a result of this work and is modeled after
the Science and Engineering Indicators published biennially by the National Science
Board. The Humanities Indicators have been developed to demonstrate the importance
and feasibility of compiling statistical data on the condition of the humanities
and thereby lead to a national, sustainable system of humanities data collection.
In addition, the Indicators include original data collected by the Academy
in collaboration with several learned societies via the Humanities Departmental
Survey. The Survey was administered to approximately 1,400 four-year college and
university humanities departments. The results were released in February 2010 and
are available at the Humanities Resource Center Online.
We hope that the Humanities Indicators will equip researchers and policymakers,
universities, foundations, museums, libraries, humanities councils and other public
institutions with better statistical tools for answering basic questions about primary
and secondary humanities education, undergraduate and graduate education in the
humanities, the humanities workforce, levels and sources of program funding, public
understanding and impact of the humanities, and other areas of concern in the humanities
community.
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About Humanities Indicators
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The data presented here are “indicators,” which are quantitative descriptive statistics
that chart trends over time in aspects of the humanities that are of interest to
a wide audience. They are selected to provide summary information related to the
scope and vitality of the humanities. Indicators describe; they do not explain anything.
They are factual and policy neutral. At best, they provide a “reality check” against
which arguments about changes can be tested. If done well, they can provide a common
starting ground for arguments about the nature or rate of change in some phenomena
of interest. They answer “what” questions, not “why” questions. They can be somewhat
like the Delphic oracle. Their interpretation is not always straightforward. They
may mean different things to different observers. The Humanities Indicators present
quantitative measures without attempting any qualitative assessment.
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Developing the Prototype: From Questions to Indicators
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The procedure for developing the indicator framework was informed by a U.S. Government
Accountability Office review of past efforts to develop indicators systems.1 According
to that report, one of the reasons for the failure of many past efforts to create
indicators was that the selection and presentation of indicators was determined
by the producers of the data, rather than the users. Thus the approach adopted by
the Humanities Indicators project was to start with what the users wanted rather
than what experts in the field thought they might want. To ascertain potential users’
needs, a number of stakeholders in the humanities community were interviewed to
determine what questions they would like an indicator system to answer.
From this exercise, project staff compiled a list of questions suggested by stakeholders
for which there might be high-quality national data that could supply answers. Examples
of these questions are “What are students studying in college and how is that changing
over time?” and “What is the size and character of the humanities workforce?” Questions
were then sorted into five parts according to broad topics. Within each part, sections
(sub-topics) were created that closely aligned with the questions. Indicators were
then developed that matched as nearly as possible the questions that had been generated
in the earlier interviews. This process yielded approximately 80 indicators. Further
refinement of the indicators in consultation with the advisory committee and subject
matter experts brought the total number of indicators to 74.
There were a number of questions suggested by our informants for which there were
no data. It is hoped that the Humanities Indicators will stimulate the collection
of data on important topics for which there are currently no national data of adequate
quality. The Humanities Indicators project has succeeded in compiling a substantial
body of information that provides an infrastructure for further development.
1
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Informing Our Nation: Improving How to Understand
and Assess the USA’s Position and Progress” (Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee
on Science, Technology, and Space, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
U.S. Senate; GAO-05-1). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2004.
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Humanities Departmental Survey
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In collaboration with a number of national humanities organizations, the Academy
is also generating new data. The Humanities Departmental Survey has been
developed to explore how the regular data collection activities of humanities disciplinary
associations can be harnessed to generate needed information. The survey was administered
as a pilot project during the 2007-2008 academic year to approximately 1,400 departments
in humanities disciplines, including history, modern languages and literatures,
art history, linguistics, and religion. A uniform questionnaire was designed in
partnership with the following learned societies:
The American Council of Learned Societies
The American Academy of Religion
The American Historical Association
The American Political Science Association
The College Art Association
The Linguistic Society of America
The Modern Language Association of America
The immediate goal of the pilot project is to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting
and analyzing comparable data from diverse academic departments. The long-term goal
is to develop a system of regular surveys producing comparable data on faculty research
and teaching, distribution of teaching loads, jobs secured by graduates, students'
academic and course load experience, and other areas of interest.
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Summary of the Five Parts of the Humanities Indicators
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The Humanities Indicators provide data on a diverse range of topics pertaining to
the role of the humanities in the contemporary United States. These topics are organized
into five major parts, to which additional indicators may be added as more data
becomes available.
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Part I. Primary and Secondary Education in the Humanities:
These indicators cover national measures of achievement at the primary and secondary
school levels; high school course-taking; and the characteristics of primary and
secondary faculty.
Part II. Undergraduate and Graduate Education in the Humanities:
The indicators here focus on the types of courses undergraduate and graduate students
take and the degrees they receive, and consider both preparedness for graduate school
and the conditions of graduate education.
Part III. The Humanities Workforce: These indicators describe
employment in humanistic settings and occupations, with emphasis on post-secondary
faculty, and also the career paths of those with undergraduate and graduate degrees
in the humanities.
Part IV. Humanities Funding and Research: Included here are
data on federal, state, and private funding for the humanities, as well as on support
for academic research.
Part V. The Humanities in American Life: The topics currently
treated here include humanistic skills and practices, such as reading and multilingualism;
support for and utilization of various humanistic institutions, such as libraries
and museums; and public attitudes toward the humanities.
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The following essays provide commentary on the data collected, their meaning and
value, and what additional data would increase the significance of the indicators:
The Academy gratefully acknowledges the following for their contributions:
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HUMANITIES INDICATORS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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Co-Chairs:
Norman M. Bradburn (National Opinion Research Center; University of Chicago)
Francis C. Oakley (Williams College)
Leslie Berlowitz (American Academy)
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in collaboration with
Jonathan Cole (Columbia University)
Denis Donoghue (New York University)
Gerald Early (Washington University in St. Louis)
Linda K. Kerber (University of Iowa)
Steven Marcus (Columbia University)
Patricia Meyer Spacks (University of Virginia)
Pauline Yu (American Council of Learned Societies)
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LEADERSHIP GROUP (Collaborating Associations)
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Susan Ball (College Art Association)
Michael Brintnall (American Political Science Association)
Linda Downs (College Art Association)
Rosemary Feal (Modern Language Association)
Jack Fitzmier (American Academy of Religion)
Mollie Benz Flounlacker (Association of American Universities)
John Hammer (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Jessica Jones Irons (National Humanities Alliance)
Arnita Jones (American Historical Association)
David Laurence (Modern Language Association)
Esther Mackintosh (Federation of State Humanities Councils)
Stacy Miller (College Art Association)
Malcolm Richardson (National Endowment for the Humanities)
Frank Shaw (National Endowment for the Humanities)
Marshall Smith (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)
Judith Tanur (State University of New York at Stony Brook)
Robert Townsend (American Historical Association)
John Vaughn (Association of American Universities)
Steven Wheatley (American Council of Learned Societies)
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HUMANITIES DEPARTMENTAL SURVEY
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Steering Committee:
Arnita Jones (American Historical Association)
Michael Brintnall (American Political Science Association)
David Laurence (Modern Language Association)
Robert Townsend (American Historical Association)
John Hammer (American Academy)
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in collaboration with
American Council of Learned Societies
American Academy of Religion
American Historical Association
American Political Science Association
College Art Association
History of Science Societ
Linguistic Society of America
Modern Language Association of America
The Academy is grateful to the following for their support of the Initiative for
Humanities and Culture, and the Humanities Indicators and Humanities Departmental
Survey projects:
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Teagle Foundation
Sara Lee Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Walter B. Hewlett and the William R. Hewlett Trust
Elihu Rose and the Madison Charitable Fund
National Endowment for the Humanities
John P. Birkelund
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