Study: Most College Students Lack Skills Jan 19 2:43 PM US/Eastern By BEN FELLER AP Education Writer WASHINGTON Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food. Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers. More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks. That means they could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school. The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips. "It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization. Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills, meaning they could perform moderately challenging tasks. Examples include identifying a location on a map, calculating the cost of ordering office supplies or consulting a reference guide to figure out which foods contain a particular vitamin. There was brighter news. Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education. Also, compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents. "But do they do well enough for a highly educated population? For a knowledge-based economy? The answer is no," said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent and nonpartisan group. "This sends a message that we should be monitoring this as a nation, and we don't do it," Finney said. "States have no idea about the knowledge and skills of their college graduates." The survey examined college and university students nearing the end of their degree programs. The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study. Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills. Baldi and Finney said the survey should be used as a tool. They hope state leaders, educators and university trustees will examine the rigor of courses required of all students. The survey showed a strong relationship between analytic coursework and literacy. Students in two-year and four-year schools scored higher when they took classes that challenged them to apply theories to practical problems or weigh competing arguments. The college survey used the same test as the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the government's examination of English literacy among adults. The results of that study were released in December, showing about one in 20 adults is not literate in English. On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools. The Pew Charitable Trusts funded the survey. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Lets make the test an entrance exam for ET......lol trend fader can be the standard exceptable score. I know how to spell acceptable.
2003? Meaning these collegians spent the "meat" of their academic careers during the two terms of W.J. Clinton. What does Bush have to do with this study? Did Bush receive millions of dollars in contributions and the support of the NEA and teacher's unions? Were 10% of the delegates at the RNC convention members of the NEA? Z's obviously stupider than any of the students tested in this study.
Only a seriously disturbed individual would somehow try to link college scores to the president of the United States (especially one who was only halfway through his first term). ZZZ...this is a sad new low.
The American so called empire is heading downhill fast. The education system is being ruined by lack of REAL support from Washington. The big corporations are selling away the farm in pursuit of dollars, the next Qtr is more important to them than the future of your children. Boils down to Economics 101, guns or butter. Which is more important for the powers in the Whitehorse, GUNS or BUTTER? Throughout history the great powers implode from the weight of supporting the military. We are no better or different than any other power. The end of America as we grew up and enjoyed so lovingly is soon over. Pull your heads from the sand and the FOX news channel and face the reality of the situation. Republicans need to guit following blindly the hypocrites and crooks in the whorehouse...op's Whitehouse. it is sad to see and hear them be so intellectually deficient in facing the real truth. The late great senator from New York Patrick Moynahan said: "You are entitled to your own opinion....But you are not entitled to your own facts" The progressive party of the Democrats is honest with themselves and their policies for the entice society simply because the party is not about greed and ignorance. I thank those that were enlightened by this post...see there is hope for all......
College education is not declining because of a president. You have no farther to look than the students. Students are not required to take a certain class. They take what they choose. How can any president force someone to take a clas that challenges them or a class that is based in science and mathematics? Americans are getting dumber because Americans are getting lazy and are not used to competing for top jobs. Of course there alos those who have little to no desire to compete and therfore do not get the education that will make them competitive. Skills that the posted study said a person is missing are not skills that should have been lerend in college (if you can't estimate how far you can go an the remaing gas in you car you are probably not ready for college in the first place) They are skills that should have been learned in high school. That is a whole other area that is totally fucked up due to liberal progressive policies, dumbass parents, and lawyers.
If any of the regressives can actually do the math, they would take the study, done in 2003, subtract say 23 years old or so, and quickly discover that the most important years for education and learning, between ages 2 to 10, where basic educational skills and the development of common sense happened during the years between 1982 to 1990. Hmm, who was president during those years, who was focused on making sure children in their formative years were getting the best possible education? Oh yeah, the original Dumya, Reagan, and Bush 41..... By the time we got to Clinton, those kids were already mostly fixed in their intelligence (as measured by IQ tests) and learning habits, as well as common sense. See, the dumbing down of America started with Dutch, the B-Movie actor....and now we have his very own Bonzo, Bush Jr. <img src=http://www.lowculture.com/archives/images/reagan_rip_bonzo.jpg> <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=956574>