Intercollegiate Studies Institute, American Civic Literacy Program
September 18, 2007
The main finding of this report won't surprise Gadfly readers: American college students know frighteningly little about U.S. history, government, foreign policy, and the market economy. On a test of 60 questions, a sample of 14,000 college freshmen and seniors answered correctly barely 30. (You can test yourself online here; the average Gadfly score is 56/60, so it's obviously not impossible.) But this interesting report also provides a wealth of detail behind the headline. It ranks fifty postsecondary schools based on the scores of their students, and one won't be surprised to find Harvard and other ivies at the top. But when the scores of freshmen and seniors at each school are compared, to gauge the actual learning taking place during their college careers, Harvard slips to 17th, Brown barely cracks the top 40, and Duke, Yale, and Cornell come in dead last. At the top? Two schools with little more than local reputations: Eastern Connecticut State College and Marian College (Wis.). The authors speculate that our prestigious universities have neglected the foundations of many disciplines to focus on esoteric topics and emphasize "thinking critically." Probably they're right. (One is also reminded about the ancient quip about why Harvard is such a great repository of knowledge: because its students arrive with so much and leave with so little.) The analysts also report that students who did best on the assessment came from intact families where English was the primary language and current events were discussed--these factors were more important, even, than the educational attainment of students' parents. So how does this report hope to hold colleges accountable for their failure to educate? Via sunshine rather than regulation: the authors urge taxpayers, alumni, and all others to notice that the worst- performing schools are those with the highest-paid presidents, the largest endowments, and the most government grants. Read it for yourself here.
