Posted on 09/19/2007 9:27:58 AM PDT by WinOne4TheGipper
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Harvard, even though it scored the highest, was among elite U.S. colleges where students proved dismal in their knowledge of civics and history, a report said.
The non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute analyzed scores of a test given to 14,419 freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges last fall, USA Today reported Tuesday.
Overall, the freshmen tested averaged 50.4 percent on a civic literacy test, while the seniors tested averaged 54.2 percent.
Seniors tested at Harvard had the highest overall average at 69.6 percent, nearly 6 points higher than its freshmen but still a D-plus, said the ISI report.
A Harvard senior was the only student among the 14,419 tested to get 100 percent correct.
Yale had the highest scoring freshman at 68.94 percent with freshmen at Princeton, Duke and Cornell also out scoring seniors who took the test, the report said.
William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told USA Today students have fewer civics requirements because the value of higher education more often is defined by knowledge of economics.
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
I went to the University of Florida, and scored 85%, guess there is more to UF than just winning sports championships.
(Ok so I really didn’t learn at lot of Civics at UF, but you sure as Hell won’t learn them at Hah-vahd either)
Not related to the article but there is nothing worse than answers on a test like this:
A xxxx1
B xxxx2
C xxxx3
D xxxx4
E (Both A and B)
F (Both A and C)
G (Both B and D)
Man, I hated those.
Saw this link on a previous thread about the same topic - scored a 93.3% (56/60).
It’s a hard test. Most colleges do not require a civics or history course and that’s understandable. It’s high schools where kids need to get this stuff. I also don’t find it surprising that kids know (or remember) less coming out of college than high school where they had more of it. I did much better on my SATs in math than I did on my GREs. I took way more math in high school, so it makes sense. I’m not sure the issue is being presented in the best way here. I think we need to emphasize way more civics and history in high school. And interest kids so that they want to keep learning in this area.
Check this out:
3) The Constitution of the United States established what form of government?
A. Direct democracy
B. Populism
C. Indirect democracy
D. Oligarchy
E. Aristocracy
The quiz does not even have the correct answer in the choices. The Constitution of the United States explicitly established a REPUBLICAN form of government. I assume the “correct” answer to the “C. Indirect democracy” from the quizmaster’s perspective.
I saw this on Conservative Underground and decided to bring it over. I scored a 90.
Harvard, even though it scored the highest, was among elite U.S. colleges where students proved dismal in their knowledge of civics and history,....Ah! there’s the rub, they were not tested on gay issues, How bad America is or how to be P.C.
This, in turn, depends on your definition of "republican". Our republicanism is significantly different from the republicanism of, say, the Roman Republic, or even the republics in Europe during the Middle Ages (Novgorod, Dutch, Venice, etc.).
I got 53 out of 60. Not bad for an Electrical Engineer.
You could learn a lot of this stuff from just watching those old “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoons.
I don’t know anyone who has a job in civics knowledge.
My dumb nuke butt with the Thomas Edison College self-study degree still managed to pull a 93. Not bad for a guy who didn’t delve too deep into history.
That should be a failing grade, what did these guys learn K-12??
The one he missed??? How many matches in a book of matches!!
Today...he counts molecules!!!
The kids went to an Ivy league school and got dumber, no surprise
My kid took the GMAT last month and I decided to quiz myself on a couple of the sections in the prep book. I thought I was doing pretty well until I came to a section called Data Sufficiency. They’d give you 2 statements or equations and then you’d have to choose either:
A Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient, but statement 2 alone is not sufficient.
B Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient, but statement 1 alone is not sufficient
C Both statements together are sufficient, but neither alone is sufficient
D Each statement ALONE is sufficient
E Statements 1 and 2 together are NOT sufficient.
Talk about confusing to this middle aged brain...I was cross eyed and confused after I read through a couple of those.
83.33%. My liberal colleague scored a 65%. Said all that proved was that my answers agreed with the guys making the quiz... He thought at “Seperation of Church and State” was in the Constitution!
You answered 52 out of 60 correctly — 86.67 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 73.7%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 73.7%
Not bad for an engineer.
73.33% right at the average. damn you economics!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.