Posted on 09/19/2007 5:48:59 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The University of Wisconsin-Madison did relatively well in a 50-college test of how much students learned about history and economics during four years of college, but students in Wisconsin and nationally knew little when they came in and not much more when they left. No college did better than a D-plus on the Civic Literacy Test released Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonpartisan conservative educational organization that stresses the values of a free society.
The national average was F.
The test of 14,000 randomly selected students revealed that some of the most expensive Ivy League universities, with the highest-paid presidents and largest government subsidies, were the worst-performing, the institute found.
Overall, the nation's freshmen and seniors scored slightly more than 50 percent on the 60-question exam. The institute said that a kindergartner would have scored about 20 percent correct just by guessing.
The study tested freshmen and seniors at the colleges and universities, in order to determine how much history they learned there. The researchers did not test the same students in freshmen and senior years, but those who were freshmen and seniors in the same year.
Eastern Connecticut State University ranked first, by adding 9.65 percentage points to the score from freshman to senior year. Marian College, a private school in Fond du Lac, was second, with a 9.44 percentage point gain, while the University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked 15th, gaining 6.3 percentage points.
UW-Madison and Marian College were the only Wisconsin schools tested.
Living in the present
Asked about the exercise, David McDonald, chairman of the History Department at UW-Madison, termed the test interesting but questioned the institute's conclusions.
Students generally learn basic history in high school, he said, adding that they often study historical details in order to pass college entry exams, but then go on to pursue other knowledge at the college level.
"Colleges reflect general attitudes and patterns in society. This is not a historically oriented society. We look at quarterly reports instead of long trends. There is a lot of emphasis on living in the present, and not a great deal of understanding of larger historical patterns," said McDonald, who grew up in Canada but got just three wrong on the American history exam.
"There is a mythical past in which everyone knew this material. If you are from a well-to-do household with well-educated parents, you will do well on this and other academic areas. Students should probably know the sequence of events in the Civil War. But is it more important for Americans to know that John Locke was a major influence on the Declaration of Independence or that they have a strong understanding of their rights and be willing to act on them?"
Students at several expensive universities, including Yale, Cornell, Princeton and Duke, actually lost ground during four years of college education.
But the median score of students at those prestigious universities was higher than most colleges where students gained more knowledge during their college career.
For instance, freshman at Yale got 68.94 percent of the answers right and those at Cornell got 61.9 percent correct, though seniors did worse in both cases.
UW-Madison freshmen scored 51.57 percent correct and seniors got 57.87 percent. At Marian College, freshmen scored just 33.66 percent and seniors 43.10 percent.
Gorbachev who?
The test consisted of 60 multiple-choice questions about America's history, government, international relations and economics. The test, the answers and the results at the various colleges can be found online at http://www.americancivicliteracy.org
Typical questions included: "The Constitution of the United States established what form of government?" and "Which wall was President Reagan referring to when he said, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall'?" The test also included some questions on the U.S. economy and political philosophy.
"The evidence from our ongoing research shows that colleges, especially the most expensive and elite schools, are failing to advance students' knowledge of America's history, government and free market economics and consequently not preparing their students to be informed and engaged citizens," said Josiah Bunting III, chairman of ISI's National Civic Literacy Board.
"The time has come for higher education's key decision-makers -- state legislators, trustees, donors, alumni, faculty, students' parents -- to hold the nation's colleges and their presidents accountable for teaching their students America's history and institutions."
McDonald said nationwide, students who took the test did well on questions regarding Abraham Lincoln, the New Deal and Brown vs. Board of Education, and did worst on the Revolutionary War, Plato and the requirement for a just war, a question that he said was strangely phrased.
Students who study history in college learn that events are the results of several levels of cause, and that people are products of their times, McDonald said.
"They learn that evidence must be scrutinized and viewed with skepticism," he said. "Our job is to produce people who can do critical thinking, who are aware that they hold certain views and understand why."
oh please. can the drama. I bet the majority of the troops fighting over in Iraq and Afghanistan couldn’t get all the answers correct. Does that mean they’re dumb dumbs or that we’re doomed? Of course not. Those guys have better things to do with their time - like defending this country.
You answered 53 out of 60 correctly — 88.33 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 75.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 75.1%
Listen to your customers. They are the ones paying the bills. Scrutinize the rosy projections from the marketing people. Most of it is hot air and wishful thinking. Try to contain your laughter when the Microsoft Project wizards present development schedules and milestones with unwavering authority. Most of them have no idea of the difference between a define process and an empirical process. Software development is the latter.
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52 correct.....not too bad.
Time to read up on Plato I guess.
I’m going to resist the temptation to Google, take a guess and say (4).
i scored 80 percent!! 48 out of 60 questions correct... i missed 4-5 on the last ten or so... the economic questions... boo hoo... i was kind of surprised how much i remembered from my school days... although i always did like history... on the other hand, i am a homeschool mom and teach history at a co-op... we are right in the middle of The War of 1812... so i’m sure i knew some answers because i am teaching it... but mainly, it’s what i remember from high school/college...
Ok, 51 out of 60 for 85%. A couple were duhs after I saw the answers. But pulled a few out of left field. Considering my background is physics/engineering, don’t feel too bad.
Doug
Only one of those I missed can I say I knew but misread-I read President Jackson instead of President Johnson...I wondered how the Radical Republicans were coming into it.
88.33
some that stuff was just a hunch and some of it I should have paid better attention
i would call this a quiz for college grads
Average score for this quiz during September: 75.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 75.1%
Oh well, I never studied Plato and Socrates. The questions seemed written to confuse. Seemed slanted.
2 years Jr College in Electronics, so this is High School memory from the 60's.( and several years at FR)
81.67%
What's really scary is that these people who are graduating in 2008 are going to be the ones who are teaching the kids on down the road. They can't teach them what they don't know themselves. Those folks are really going to be Sheeple.
Same here!
I got 52 out of 60 right — 86.67 %
“81.67%
Same here!”
I wonder if there is anything in that we signed up for FR within 20 days of each other? Hmmmm
We’ve been too busy lurking the forums here for the past nine years to read Plato and Socrates. :-P
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