Social Work as a Career: Comparative Motivations of Black and White Social Workers

This research investigated differential career choice factors (CCFs) that motivated Black and White graduates to enroll in MSW programs. The purposive sample (N=1,020) was mostly White (66.4%), and consisted of individuals living primarily in Tennessee (71%) and Florida (13.2%), with MSWs from CSWE-accredited schools in 45 states. Most (36%) were social work majors as undergraduates, followed by psychology (27.3%) and sociology (7.2%) majors. Data were collected using the Career Development Subscale of the Preparation for Graduate Social Work Education Scale. Influential CCFs were different for Blacks and Whites, with the former emphasizing a desire for increased income and the latter emphasizing a desire for recognition and acquiring new skills. Results affirmed the idea of data-based MSW program recruitment strategies based on race and cultural preferences. BSW faculty were found to be ideally suited to influence MSW program recruitment and should be more deliberate toward that end.

Minority Graduates from Michigan Law School: Differently Successful

Lempert, Chambers, and Adams (2000; hereafter LCA) make an important contribution to both the debate on affirmative action in legal education and the sociology of the legal profession. We find their empirical results credible and agree with their interpretations of the data related to arguments about the role of affirmative action in Michigan's admissions policies. Yet, in crafting an analysis to demonstrate the similarities in the career outcomes of minority and white graduates, they have minimized evidence that points to substantial continuing patterns of inequality by race and gender within the legal profession. Moreover, LCA only begin to illuminate the mechanisms that produce the career patterns they document. Of particular importance is the question of how race, class, and gender interact to shape lawyers' careers-a topic LCA largely reserve for future analyses.

Michigan's Minority Graduates in Practice: The River Runs Through Law School

This paper reports the results of a 1997–98 survey designed to explore the careers of the University of Michigan Law School's minority graduates from the classes of 1970 through 1996, and of a random sample of Michigan Law School's white alumni who graduated during the same years. It is to date the most detailed quantitative exploration of how minority students fare after they graduate from law school and enter law practice or related careers. The results reveal that almost all of Michigan Law School's minority graduates pass a bar exam and go on to have careers that appear successful by conventional measures. In particular, the survey indicates that minority graduates (defined so as to include graduates with African American, Latino, and Native American backgrounds) are no less successful than white graduates, whether success is measured by the log of current income, self-reported satisfaction, or an index of service contributions. Also, although an admissions index that combines LSAT scores and undergraduate grade-point average is a significant predictor of law school grades, it does not predict career success on any of our three outcome measures. Michigan is a highly selective law school; our results may not generalize to people who have graduated from other law schools.