You are told that to make it life, you must go to college. You work hard to get there. You or your parents drain savings or take out huge loans to pay for it all.
And you end up learning … not much.
A study of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.
Not much is asked of students, either. Half did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week.
The findings are in a new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia. An accompanying report argues against federal mandates holding schools accountable, a prospect long feared in American higher education.
“The great thing — if you can call it that — is that it’s going to spark a dialogue and focus on the actual learning issue,” said David Paris, president of the New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, which is pressing the cause in higher education. “What kind of intellectual growth are we seeing in college?”
The study, an unusually large-scale effort to track student learning over time, comes as the federal government, reformers and others argue that the U.S. must produce more college graduates to remain competitive globally. But if students aren’t learning much, that calls into question whether boosting graduation rates will provide that edge.
“It’s not the case that giving out more credentials is going to make the U.S. more economically competitive,” Arum said in an interview. “It requires academic rigor … You can’t just get it through osmosis at these institutions.”
The findings also will likely spark a debate over what helps and hurts students learn. To sum up, it‘s good to lead a monk’s existence: Students who study alone and have heavier reading and writing loads do well.
The book is based on information from 24 schools, meant to be a representative sample, that provided Collegiate Learning Assessment data on students who took the standardized test in their first semester in fall 2005 and at the end of their sophomore years in spring 2007. The schools took part on the condition that their institutions not be identified.
The Collegiate Learning Assessment has its share of critics who say it doesn‘t capture learning in specialized majors or isn’t a reliable measure of college performance because so many factors are beyond their control.
The research found an average-scoring student in fall 2005 scored seven percentage points higher in spring of 2007 on the assessment. In other words, those who entered college in the 50th percentile would rise to the equivalent of the 57th after their sophomore years.
Among the findings outlined in the book and report, which tracked students through four years of college:
—Overall, the picture doesn’t brighten much over four years. After four years, 36 percent of students did not demonstrate significant improvement, compared to 45 percent after two.
—Students who studied alone, read and wrote more, attended more selective schools and majored in traditional arts and sciences majors posted greater learning gains.
—Social engagement generally does not help student performance. Students who spent more time studying with peers showed diminishing growth and students who spent more time in the Greek system had decreased rates of learning, while activities such as working off campus, participating in campus clubs and volunteering did not impact learning.
—Students from families with different levels of parental education enter college with different learning levels but learn at about the same rates while attending college. The racial gap between black and white students going in, however, widens: Black students improve their assessment scores at lower levels than whites.
Arum and Roksa spread the blame, pointing to students who don’t study much and seek easy courses and a culture at colleges and universities that values research over good teaching.
Subsequent research found students one year out of college are not faring well: One-third moved back home, and 10 percent were unemployed. The findings are troubling news for an engaged citizenry, Arum said. Almost half of those surveyed said they rarely if ever discuss politics or public affairs with others either in person or online.
The report warns that federally mandated fixes similar to “No Child Left Behind” in K-12 education would be “counterproductive,” in part because researchers are still learning how to measure learning. But it does make clear that accountability should be emphasized more at the institutional level, starting with college presidents.
Some colleges and universities do not need convincing. The University of Charleston, in West Virginia, has beefed up writing assignments in disciplines such as nursing and biology to improve learning.
President Edwin Welch is among more than 70 college and university presidents pledging to take steps to improve student learning, use evidence to improve instruction and publicize results.
“I think we do need more transparency,” Welch said. “I think a student at a private institution who might go into debt for $40,000 or $50,000 has the right to know what he can learn at the institution.”
ERIC GORSKI
AP Education Writer
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sheri2names
Posted on January 22, 2011 at 12:02pmFirst, read Real Education by Charles Murray. It offers fabulous suggestions for getting past this unreasonable and counterproductive advice that a 4-year degree is the only means to a career.
Second, the overvaluation of college is nothing new. When I got to a supposedly strong public university in 1981, I was looking forward to great challenges. Instead, I found many of the classes to be a rehash of the classes at the Catholic all-girls high school, one that had its own shortcomings. I also found a lot of students who lacked the academic skills to handle the work – and these weren’t the athletes admitted on a lower standard. I took advanced classes from the start, so it’s not like I was majoring in puffball courses that were filled with puffball students; most were the stronger students.
I got away with taking an absurdly easy math class, rehash of freshman high school algebra that simply should not have been taught in a 4-year university. (If you need that kind of class, you should get it at a community college and transfer once you’re ready. Remedial courses simply do not belong in 4-year schools, period.) The course requirement list merely suggested statistics to fulfill the math requirement for liberal arts majors; it should have been required. I rationalized taking that easy class because I was taking 200-level classes and Japanese. Again, those advanced classes were more high numbered than difficult.
The particular university I attended called itself a Public Ivy League school, and it attracted the well-off, in some cases kids who probably lacked the skills, mental ability or seriousness to get into a real Ivy League school. The rumor mill said that one such girl seeking an M.R.S. degree in our dorm had her roommate choose her classes because it didn’t matter what classes she took. I’d say that the sororities and fraternities puffed around their entire time, but that is neither true nor fair. Some emphasized school work; some didn’t. The high number of students who asked stupid questions – and there are stupid questions – got under my skin, and I found myself jaded. I started slacking because it didn’t matter. The only thing that kept me from becoming a weeknight party animal was putting out the newspaper. However, that came with late nights, and I got so little sleep that I slept through an embarrassing number of my Tuesday and Friday classes. I wonder how many professors thought I was out at the bars instead of working. That was a Friday and Saturday staple.
I don’t recall writing a paper longer than 15 pages, though perhaps I’ve forgotten. I changed to an English/Journalism major, so most of my assignments had shorter lengths that reflected the real world of my field, though frankly, my most valuable learning experience came from working on the college newspaper – similar experience that I could have picked up from working at a suburban newspaper, where I would have been paid far more than the pittance to cover missed meals at the dining hall.
It‘s my fault that I didn’t push myself harder. And I did have straight A’s in my field, though it was not important, as only internships required a high grade point. No interviewer for a real job ever asked, and the most talented people at many of the newspapers didn’t have a degree, while some of the most superfluous ones had a master’s degree in journalism. (Not all, of course, though one talented one said that she got her degree for vanity, which was good because there was no way that the tiny salary premium would offset the cost of her loans.)
I wish I’d been in the honors program, which would have put me with stronger students. My husband went through that program there and had an entirely different college experience. He also took tech and business classes, which were high-demand programs that weeded out the puffball students.
More assertive use of high-school guidance counselors and college advisers surely would have helped. My family didn’t know that I had to push to get useful help, nor would they have suggested doing that, as my parents disrespected pushy people. That’s my fault, and I’ve surely paid for it in a lackluster academic experience.
Report Post »causation
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 9:34pmI suspect a heavy – likely unconscious – bias in this study, but am not interested enough to buy the book and find out. For example: what is the definition of “learning” and what were the test questions. I doubt it had anything to do with understanding stochastic calculus applied to economic modeling. More likely is was a recognition of significant progressive milestones, thus the dismay about “not learning anything.”
My experience is that technical degrees – computer science, engineering, molecular biology, etc. are well worth the money. Computer science majors can get great jobs with just a few years of classes – no degree necessary – so it is possible skip the required social fluff to save a buck. However, a degree in history, psychology, business, education, or any other non-technical field will require a student to succeed based on their passion and drive alone. The degree is simply to get onto the playing field… and it is a very crowded field with eroding opportunities. Thus the increase in law school applicants.
Report Post »Echad
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:57pmPublic Education & Social Engineering
If we lose the fact that the heart of morality is the acknowledgement that morality indeed, civilization itself must be predicated on the belief in God. Unless we recognize a Higher Power to whom we are responsible to and who observes and knows our actions, we will not transcend the selfishness of our character and the subjectivity of our intellect. If man himself is the final arbiter of right and wrong, then “right”, for him or her, will be what they desire, regardless of its consequences to everyone else.
This is the heart of the problem! Our so called education system has been socially and culturally reengineering society through our youth. They teach that there is no absolute right or wrong and that morals are just constructs of society. (In other words whatever academia tells you they are!) They have pushed themselves and their agendas on the American people, with no care as to the consequences. They arrogantly believe their intellect superior to those who have faith in our Creator and the moral code written in the Bible.
All you have to do is look at the culture of the 50’s when Biblical morals and ethics we held dear where still taught in our schools. Now compare our society and culture today with the academic version of ethics and morals that our youth have been indoctrinated into… I rest my case!
We are now reaping what has been sown through the social reengineering perpetrated by the public education system.
May God help us!
B”H
Report Post »woemcat
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:56pmduh!
Report Post »Tiny280
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:27pmLet us consider the major developments in public educaiton over the past 30 years: the Department of Education, grade inflation, less reading, less technical writing, less persuasive writing, “social promotion” of failed students, smaller class sizes, no more grammar or spelliing corrections, and calculators for the simple math problems.
Is it any coincidence that each change in the classroom “standards” in public education over the past 30 years just happen to result in less work for teachers and less accountability for administrators? Yet administrators and teachers, including my sister, report working more hours than ever. How can this possibly be so? For that answer, consider the Department of Education. Educators have less responsibility in actually teaching their students than in any previous era, but the bureaucrats at the Department of Education have demanded a morass of paper-shuffling that has more than compensated.
For our $65 Billion annual commitment to the Dept of Ed, plus the $97 Billion shot from the 2009 Stimulus Bill, would it not be reasonable for taxpayers to expect measureable improvement across all metrics? Of course it would, but there has been no meaningful improvement at all in over 30 years. Thirty-six years to be precise….three entire generations of students…ZERO improvement and several areas of noteworthy decline (e.g., civics, history, critical thinking)…for $65 BILLION per year.
The liberals were on their high horse demanding surrender in the Iraq war after only two years, 1,500 fatalities, and roughly $120 Billion in appropriations, but they stammer on incessantly about “fully funding” the repeatedly failed gaseous brain cramps which pass for strategies in the fever swamps of the DOE bureaucracy.
I say ENOUGH! Delete the Dept of Ed in its entirety and block grant half the annual budget back to the states on a per-capita basis. That “war” MUST NOT be lost, but a different strategy is long overdue.
Report Post »Fina Biscotti
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:02pmNot surprising that society is also being dumbed-down at the college-level…….especially w people like obama/soetoro’s close associate Bill Ayers, the unrepentant domestic terrorist, member of the Weather Underground, posing as a “professor”, famous for his violent acts of bombings in the 1960/70s…..killing and maiming people…..bombing state and federal buildings, bombing the Capitol and Pentagon…in his hatred for America…as a Soviet-Communist Sympathizer.
Prior to hijacking the WH through ACORN’s VOTE RIGGING schemes….as the political terrorist arm of the democrat party, usurper obama/soetoro was the CHAIRMAN for several years of The CHICAGO ANNENBERG CHALLENGE…..an organization founded by BILL AYERS…..colloborating to disburse over $100 Million to their ideological allies…….in the scheming activities in the exploitation of the inner city poor, blacks and minorities…under the guise of “education” and reforming the education system.
Even obama had to admit that The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was a TOTAL FAILURE……..but obama/soetoro failed to admit…..and even LIED….. during the 2008 presidentual campaign ….about his close association with bill ayers…….
Report Post »Doctor of Truth
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 7:27pmKeep borrowing yourselves into unsustainable debt dumbasses.
Report Post »Liberty7
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 4:41pmMy freshman year I participated in a few group study sessions and quickly came to the conclusion that group study was more socializing than studying and thus, was a waste of time and I could accomplish more studying by myself. Too bad the researchers didn’t contact me beforehand, I could have saved them some time. ;)
Report Post »Pat Alexander
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 4:27pmThe problem can be summed up in one sentence: They can’t teach common sense.
And the little common sense a few have, is hastily drummed out of them by the ultra lib professors & the free wheeling party lifestyle.
Report Post »Geronimo
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 2:56pmUnfortunately, many colleges and universities have just become big businesses – ready to take anyone as long as that person can raise the ridiculously high funds to cover their tuition and expenses. I believe that one will find that college costs over the years have far out stripped the cost of living where the returns of such education are many times highly questionable. Remember that many Harvard graduates are responsible for the economic mess were are in today. Intellectualism does not equal wisdom.
Report Post »ThoreauHD
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 1:58pmUnless College is created as a vocational school, you aren’t going to see results. Students are there for a piece of paper. That’s it. Human resources wants to see a piece of paper. That’s it. Whether or not you learned anything applicable to your job is secondary and will not hinder you from getting an interview.
This is going to have to be a top down thing. The people hiring should ask for certain milestones of knowledge in their field. The students should demand those milestones. The college’s that want to succeed will provide those milestones.
If they want to teach you a little bit of everything aka make you well rounded, they should just make it part of High School. It is of no use in the work force. See your local MD and ask him what college he went to in order to learn medicine. He will respond, “College? I went to Medical School and 2 years of residency. What are you talking about?”
Report Post »cykonas
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:47pmI recently went back to college to finish a BA that I started in 1974. I enrolled in a large well known southern university. I was shocked at the lack of academic rigor. More was expected of me in my High School classes in the 70′s than was expected in the college classes that I have taken recently.
The odder part of my experience was that the normal aged students were constantly whining about how terribly hard the coursework was! I would tend to believe this report based on what I’ve seen first hand.
Report Post »Windsong
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 3:03pmThose poor normal aged students were beat up and worn out from one of their many reality shows. It’s tough spending your free time getting drunk and high…in front of cameras.
Report Post »The good news is, there are several new colleges and universities popping up that actually provide an education now. Things are looking up for those of us who actually want to learn.
Rapunzel
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:36pmI am the only person in my company without a college degree. Oddly enough, I am also the only person in my company who can spell or use grammar correctly.
Report Post »DisillusionedDaily
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 8:44pmThat happened to me as well. I was constantly correcting proposals and reports for our “Graduate Engineers” because they could not put a sentence together or had trouble spelling circuitry.
Report Post »dixiedog
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:16pmIt’s time someone did a cost vs benefit analysis on the typical college education.
Report Post »spudmom
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 3:35pmActually, Dixiedog, we did that for my company (a private paramedic school in Idaho.) My students could spend their $12,000 in tuition and complete their training in months instead of years, which gives them more time to earn decent money. If they don’t go on a spending spree when they get that first job, the difference between what they were proably earning (maybe $8-9/hr) and what they can make as a paramedic ($15 or more, plus mandatory overtime for most) lets them pay off the tuition while their peers at the community college are still in school. With a 94% placement rate, I can almost guarantee them a return on their investment.
Report Post »NOR
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:40amI do not have a college degree and agree with these findings through my own personal life…….BUT…a lot of doors are shut on you without it. Learned that first hand a couple of years ago after a layoff.
Report Post »LukeAppling
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:33amThe college have been “dumbed down” and filled with the propaganda of progressives and now we will reap the rewards of this stolen education.The “elite” will care for us won’t they John Lewis and Harry Reid?
Report Post »Neil Mariner
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:20amI truely believe this. I see the resultes in the TV hosts of MSNBC.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 11:03amThe reason there are so few comments at this point is that so few people are able to form a complete sentence. Especially those who are constantly being told,”you must have a college degree to get ahead.” Never mind the fact that you are unable to read when you leave high school. You are the perfect candidate to have your brain filled with Progressive garbage in the halls of “higher education”. primarily at the expense of taxpayers.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 10:56amWell duuuuuh!
Report Post »Windsong
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 10:53amPerhaps this makes it easier to understand why many Americans are so opposed to ‘providing’ everyone with a college education. If actual learning was involved, I wouldn’t have a problem.
However, I watch the ‘college’ students on reality shows, partying hardy. Then, I see them on other reality shows experimenting with drugs, alcohol and sex. Their lives are there for everyone to see, and no, it doesn‘t make me feel even slightly confident the these students ’are our future’.
Aside from the ‘college’ students who have obviously learned nothing about the history of this nation, many show little regard for others and have few manners. For quite some time, the American people have listened to the ‘elite’, air-kissing professors and students in the Ivy League schools speak as though they were the second coming. In all honesty, few could win a debate or written contest against a home-schooled high school student. I‘m sure Harvard and Princeton and Yale have managed to hire a few professors who don’t believe they are supreme, but I certainly wouldn’t spend the money to send my children or grandchildren there.
The education system has failed…because we allowed it to. Americans woke up and have become avid readers and researchers. Now, when the ‘elites’ begin spewing forth their ‘re-written’ history data, their lies are immediately corrected. Life is much better when the truth prevails.
Report Post »Lucifers Hammer
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:57amHow can this be any surprise. Universities are filled with scat-brained progressives who believe made-up global warming is science, that truth is whatever you want it to be, that propaganda is mainstream media and that fairness is denying those who are qualified to give to those who are not qualified (unless it’s their favorite sport team.)
When professors live in a world without logic, learning or enlightenment and they truly believe that slavery is freedom…then, of course, studying under these zombies would be a waste of four years.
Report Post »Herndo
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:43am10 years ago, one of my college professors told us we would only retain about 2% of everything we learn in college. But a college degree shows our potential employers that we know how to manage our time and work well with others.
So yeah, in owning my own business I do not use anything from that gay ass theater class I had to take, and I’ve never had to factor out a quadratic equation in order to make payroll.
Report Post »Herndo
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:45amPS – Street smarts and knowing how to talk to people and get your point across efficiently will get you much further in this world than knowing the proper format for a 20 page research paper.
Go to work tomorrow and try to tell your boss about something in an email or letter in more than half a page and see if he/she takes the time to read it.
Report Post »alina.bolero
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 9:20amTwo days later and ZERO comments! Too funny. Nobody with a college degree wants to go on the record concurring that they use little to nothing of what they learned in college in their daily work life. That would amount to validating that you wasted more than 4 years of your life for a piece of paper. Well, at the bare minimum, that paper USED to signify a high level of discipline, determination, and willingness to sacrifice to complete the tasks before you within the time given. These days, however, I hear stories from kids in college about how assignments and deadlines are often a negotiation process with professors. A lack of understanding of material is often blamed on the professor, instead of the student taking personal responsibility to independently study the relevant material.
I don’t nearly have the respect for college graduates that I used to. And if they tell me that they are from an Ivy League school, that just flags my suspicion regarding their propensity to lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead.
Liberals spend so much effort denigrating people that didn’t go to college. The reality is, the only thing it seems to instill these days is an elitist attitude.
a related story from a few years ago:
Report Post »http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2042
exdem
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 1:58pmMy kids went to college and learned how to be Progressives. I hope to homeschool the grandkids.
Report Post »NeoFan
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 2:55pmA college degree is quickly becoming irrelevant. Most Universities are years or decades behind in my field of IT. You can‘t get a job if you don’t have the skills to do that job.
Report Post »fletcher1
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 8:30pmI think our kids are being robbed of an education from the first grade. I have had my nursing license for many years, but I wanted to get a higher degree, so I went back to school. I had to take the admission test just like everyone else. I studied hard, but was told by so many that the math part was ‘a killer’. One girl who had made it to a pretty good level of math told me she had had to take it 2 times already and still hadn’t passed, as I had been out of school for 28 years, I was terrified. On the day of the test, I sat down with the rest of the testers, and started. The math portion was the first we had to do. This test had a time limit of 3 hours, but in just a few minutes alot of the students had already gotten up. They had quit because the calculators on the computers had been turned off, and they literally could not do simple adding, subtraction, multiplication or division without it. I made a 89.7. I was shocked, and ashamed that our children have been robbed of something as vital as simple math skills. Teachers argue that there is no need for‘mental math’ anymore. That reasoning is even more sad. Look at the homework of your children and teach them what is important, no one else is going to.
Report Post »DisillusionedDaily
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 8:37pmCollege professors no longer teach students HOW to think, but they are teaching our young people WHAT to think. The rejects of 1970′s radical anti-social hippies and communists are now comfortable in college teaching positions and they are turning out masses of little anti-social clones to do their violent protesting and disrupting for them. What is worse is how their teachings have been introduced into K-12 schools and now our kids come home from school and berate us older folk for killing the whales, polar bears and six-scale sardines. My neighbors sixth grade kid came home from school one day last year and told him why he had to tell everyone he knows that Obama’s health care plan is going to be good for everyone. He now sends his kids to private school and says he will be sure they go to a Christain college.
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