[Paleopsych] CHE: Many College Students Graduate With Low Proficiency in Math and Reading, Study Finds
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Many College Students Graduate With Low Proficiency in Math and Reading,
Study Finds
News bulletin from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 6.1.20
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012004n.htm
[Click on the report and look at the sample questions, which are in the
appendix. They are so simple that I would have been ashamed to have missed
any of them when in the eighth grade, if not the sixth grade. No, before
that. I do qualify for Mensa, but these are really, really simple
questions. Don't think they are trick questions.
[I am frightened to think how those in the 90 IQ countries (the world
average) cope with ordinary living. I am more frightened about the social
effects of mass unemployment as robots take over more and more jobs of
these people.
[Yesterday, I went to a wonderful exhibit, "Liquid Stone: New Architecture
in Concrete," at the National Building Museum. Hurry if you are near D.C.,
for it closes on January 29, for there is much to be learned about a
substance we take for granted. There were several excerpts from movies,
and a few showed honest workers doing various things with concrete. I was
thinking that these workers may not really need to be all that proficient
in mathematics and reading to earn an honest living. (This is *skilled*
labor, actually.)
[But what if their jobs are taken over by robots? Alas, toward the very
end of the exhibit, there were pictures of robots doing this sort of work.
People being more flexible than robots, concrete workers need not be
unemployed in every area, even if most jobs in this specific area
disappear. But as robots get better and better, the value of honest
toilers will go down. I do have compassion for honest toilers and am
willing to support them at the level of college students (recall my
Double-Tullock Welfare Plan), with the proviso that they forego having
children.
[It's not the fault of government education that causes college graduates
even (to say nothing of skiller laborers, let along those of 90 IQ, the
world average) to do so poorly on the test the American Institutes for
Research gave. It's deeper than that, I am afraid.]
[54]By SARA LIPKA
Fewer than half of today's college students graduate with broad
proficiency in mathematics and reading, according to a report issued
on Thursday by the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit
organization based in Washington.
Still, current college graduates perform better than do previous
graduates when it comes to reading comprehension and map or chart
analysis, the report says. In mathematical literacy, however, they
score only as high as their predecessors.
Such findings spell trouble because "rapid changes in technology make
it necessary for adults of all ages to use written information in new
and more complex ways," the report says. Ever higher levels of
literacy "enable individuals to keep pace with changing educational
expectations."
The [70]report, "The Literacy of America's College Students,"
evaluated 1,800 graduating students at 80 two- and four-year
institutions, 85 percent of them public.
Students responded to written questions designed to assess three sets
of skills: quantitative literacy, or the basic arithmetic required to
calculate a tip or balance a checkbook; prose literacy, or reading
comprehension; and document literacy, such as filling out a job
application or reading a food label. Based on the students' answers,
their skills were classified as proficient, intermediate, basic, or
below basic.
While fewer than half of graduating students at four-year institutions
were rated proficient in all three categories, fewer than one-quarter
of those at two-year institutions were scored proficient across the
board. In quantitative literacy, 20 percent of students at four-year
institutions and 30 percent of those at two-year institutions were at
or below the basic level.
Literacy levels of students at four-year public institutions were not
significantly different from those of students at four-year private
institutions, but there remained a gap between the skills of white and
minority students.
Over all, "students may not be as prepared as most of us think they
are when they're graduating college," said Stéphane Baldi, who
directed the survey, which was financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
"Institutions of higher education should take a good look at this," he
said, "and ask themselves what they are teaching."
More information about the survey, including sample questions given to
students, is available on the [71]Web site of the American Institutes
for Research.
_________________________________________________________________
Background articles from The Chronicle:
* [72]Consensus Grows on Basic Skills That Colleges Should Teach,
but Gauges of Those Abilities Are Poor, Report Says (11/7/2005)
* [73]Engineering Graduates Have Improved Over the Last Decade,
Accreditor's Study Finds (10/27/2005)
* [74]Study Suggests a Way to Gauge College Performance on a
State-by-State Basis, Report Says (10/13/2005)
* [75]Colleges Face New Demands for Accountability, Conference
Speakers Say (3/21/2005)
Opinion:
* [76]College Graduates Aren't Ready for the Real World (2/18/2005)
* [77]Higher Education Isn't Meeting the Public's Needs (10/15/2004)
References
54. mailto:sara.lipka at chronicle.com
70. http://www.air.org/news/documents/The%20Literacy%20of%20Americas%20College%20Students_final%20report.pdf
71. http://www.air.org/news/documents/Release200601pew.htm
72. http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/11/2005110704n.htm
73. http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/10/2005102703n.htm
74. http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/10/2005101307n.htm
75. http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/03/2005032101n.htm
76. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i24/24b01101.htm
77. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i08/08b00601.htm
E-mail me if you have problems getting the referenced articles.
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