New Study of the Literacy of College Students Finds Some are Graduating with Only Basic Skills

American Institute for Research (AIR) ^ | January 19, 2006 | Larry McQuillan

[MadDoctorD]

REPORT BY AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH FINDS AT LEAST 20 PERCENT OF COLLEGE GRADS UNABLE TO DO FUNDAMENTAL COMPUTATIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The AIR study found there is no difference between the quantitative literacy of today’s graduates compared with previous generations, and that current graduates generally are superior to previous graduates when it comes to other forms of literacy needed to comprehend documents and prose.

The complete study is available on the AIR Web site, www.air.org.

The new study, “The National Survey of America’s College Students,” (NSACS) is based on a sample of 1,827 graduating students from 80 randomly selected 2-year and 4-year public and private colleges and universities across the United States. By targeting students nearing the end of their degree programs, the study provides a broader and more comprehensive picture of fundamental college literacy skills than ever before.

“The surprisingly weak quantitative literacy ability of many college graduates is troubling,” says Dr. Stéphane Baldi, who directed the AIR study. “A knowledgeable workforce is vital to cope with the increasing demands of the global marketplace.”

Study findings include:

* More than 75 percent of students at 2-year colleges and more than 50 percent of students at 4-year colleges do not score at the proficient level of literacy. This means that they lack the skills to perform complex literacy tasks, such as comparing credit card offers with different interest rates or summarizing the arguments of newspaper editorials.

* Students in 2- and 4-year colleges have the greatest difficulty with quantitative literacy: approximately 30 percent of students in 2-year institutions and nearly 20 percent of students in 4-year institutions have only Basic quantitative literacy. Basic skills are those necessary to compare ticket prices or calculate the cost of a sandwich and a salad from a menu.

* Students about to graduate from college have higher prose and document literacy than previous graduates with similar levels of education; for quantitative literacy, differences between current and former college graduates are not significant.

* There are no significant differences in the literacy of students graduating from public and private institutions. Additionally, in assessing literacy levels, there are no differences between part-time and full-time students. No overall relationship exists between literacy and the length of time it takes to earn a degree, or between literacy and an academic major.

* There are no significant differences between men and women in college in their average prose, document, and quantitative literacy – indicating that women may be bridging a divide that has long existed between the sexes.

* The average prose and quantitative literacy of Whites in 4-year institutions is higher than for any other racial/ethnic group, mirroring trends in the general population. The fact that white students also have the highest prose and document literacy among students in 2-year colleges provides further evidence that the literacy gap between minority and non-minority students persists.

* The literacy skills of college students are directly related to the education of their parents: children whose parents graduated college or attended graduate school have higher literacy than students whose parents did not graduate high school or stopped after receiving a high school diploma or GED.

* Despite variations in income, most differences in the literacy of students across income groups are not significant. The most significant disparity exists between students in 4-year institutions with the lowest and highest income backgrounds. Students in the highest income group (either their personal income or the income of their parents) have higher prose and document literacy than students in the lowest income group.

* Literacy level is significantly higher among students who say their coursework places a strong emphasis on applying theories or concepts to practical problems, in comparison to students who say their coursework rarely touch on these skills.

The results of the study are intended to help college and university administrators identify specific academic areas where students have literacy gaps that should be addressed, as well as provide information on how prepared students are to join the labor force.

The report includes comparisons with data contained in the U.S. Department of Education’s “National Assessment of Adult Literacy” (NAAL), the first nationwide assessment of the literacy skills of U.S. adults aged 16 and older in more than a decade. The first NAAL report, which was released in December, was written by AIR authors.

“Despite the lackluster performance of many graduates on quantitative literacy, we should nevertheless be encouraged that current college graduates are not falling behind in terms of literacy when compared to graduates from earlier generations,” says Emerson Elliott, a former Commissioner of Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education.

“Higher education institutions should take careful note of the important benefits derived from emphasizing analytic and critical thinking, and the application of theories in preparing students,” says Peter Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

Elliott and Ewell are members of the National Advisory Panel that guided the direction of the study. Other panel members include: Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education; George Kuh, director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University; Margaret Miller, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Virginia; and Nichole Rowles, Planning and Evaluation Officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts.

[SeafoodGumbo]

It is indeed sad. I realized the other day that your average European teenager probably speaks and writes better English than your average New Orleans (where I live) public high schooler.

[SeafoodGumbo]

insluting

hehehehehe...now that's a new word I'm going to have to remember!

[irv]

I was in New Orleans and vicinity a few weeks ago. I could hardly understand a word anyone said.

Including my brother.

I hope they were able to follow at least a little of what I said. They all nodded and smiled as if they did!

[socalgop]

Well, sorta. I can’t speak for public universities - I went to a private school. There are lots of things that might be classified labor market inefficiencies - tenure really, and the apportionment process between departments.

I don’t think if you got rid of job security for Professors it would help much, though. The reason is because this sort of basic, error-free writing proficiency should be learned in secondary school, and isn’t. Professors aren’t supposed to teach the A-B-Cs and they don’t care much about them- a good school will have some sort of intensive writing seminar for freshmen, but often students will get poor feedback or idea-oriented feedback.

So, why are a bunch of borderline-functional teenagers going to college? A lot of it has to do with student loans and government subsidized education, I think. Lots of kids that can’t and never will write end up at school because they’re supposed to. If anything, we ought to be subsidizing (much cheaper) loans for trade and technical schools to make sure our industrial base doesn’t evaporate completely. College is a lousy career path for lots of kids. We still need to make things, but crappy guidance counselors and the conventional wisdom is to just shove everyone to college that has a pulse.

The result has not been better kids, it’s been much worse universities.

[SeafoodGumbo]

I was in New Orleans and vicinity a few weeks ago. I could hardly understand a word anyone said. Including my brother. I hope they were able to follow at least a little of what I said. They all nodded and smiled as if they did!

Don't worry...it's just 'cuz we're all drunk. If you were drunk, it'd make perfect sense.

[dighton]

New Study of the Literacy of College Students Finds Some are Graduating with Only Basic Skills

In English, Some College Grads Can’t Read or Count.

[Jeff Chandler]

Lots of kids that can’t and never will write end up at school because they’re supposed to.

Well, that sheep skin sure helped the scarecrow, and he didn't even have a brain.

[Just mythoughts]

I do agree with you. However, who taught these teachers of secondary education to teach what they teach. Self esteem and feeling based instruction is hardly a foundation to prepare a child for adult/college based instruction. This madness started at the college level some decades back.

Children come already prepackaged, fully self absorbed and feel no difference in wants and needs, no surprised then they end up at a local college without basic skills.

[billmor]

“Higher education institutions should take careful note of the important benefits derived from emphasizing analytic and critical thinking, and the application of theories in preparing students,” says Peter Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.”

Good article and good comments ...First the colleges should teach writing skills with precise use of words, correct grammar, and ability to develop the test essay or written report to a logical conclusion....Then over 2 to 4 years stress the analytical skills and critical thinking. Multiple choice questions may test memory but tests requiring essay type answers help to sharpen the mind and the writing skills....ironic that tuitions are much higher today than in yesteryear, but the finished product is not as good as in previous generations...many college students today are just unable to analyze verbal problems and pick out the key points...Then they wonder why starting salaries in the business world are so low...

[GOP Poet]

not surprising since college and universities are really spending most of their time these days brainwashing students into becoming radicals of some leftist sort.

[The Electrician]

Your rite.

[Mygirlsmom]

I do agree with him, though. I'm amazed at how so many people can't figure out the difference between "they're," "their," and "there."

Ugh! "Than" and "then"

"your" and "you're"

"ensure" and "insure"

"its" and "it's"

and the misspelling of "separate" all drive me absolutely crazy!!! On a pickier note, my husband often points out that most people do not know when to use "that" or "which", and that non-words like "irregardless" are so common now that they appear in some dictionaries.

[OldEagle]

And this is news to whom?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

You should reign in you’re elittist trendencys. You’re remarks is verry insluting, and patternizing and your probalby thinking your better then everyone else.

Many a truth is spoken in jest.

I recently went to the 50th anniversary reunion of my HS class. Obviously, a bunch of old guys and gals like me; very few of them recognizable. But what struck me was the realization that the school had - I suppose, any school would have - categorized us quite unfairly back in the day.

I myself had a pretty high class standing, and I had to laugh at myself for having any hangover from that unfair categorization - which I of course was far too polite to express openly, fortunately. Because at a 50th reunion, class standing means zilch. It would be interesting to stand up at a H.S. graduation and express that thought . . .

And that brings up the point that some author has made - Charles Murray I think - that modern schooling artificially induces people to selectively mate by IQ.

[ermmt]

the’ir ya go again!!

[singfreedom]

Absolutely. I was disappointed that the people conducting the survey were not more upset by the results. I certainly was.

[puroresu]

The dumber they are, the more liberal they’ll vote. The dumbing down of our schools isn’t just an accident.

[MARTIAL MONK]

This is two years old. All of the problems outlined have been addressed and the colleges are turning out nothing but future Faulkners.

Seriously, in reading some of the cover letter excerpts from post #3, I think I recognize syntax and grammar errors common to Asian students. If this is true and it carries over into the study, then the problem may not be as serious as it seems. They may not be able to write English compositions well but they can get the clock on the VCR to stop blinking 12:00.

[singfreedom]

......Yet this study implies there is no difference between the sub-standard 30 percent of 4 year graduates and those graduates of previous generations. As an educator myself, though, I would disagree with that premise. I’ve met an inordinate number of young teachers who can’t spell, add or subtract, let alone construct meaningful sentences—and there seems to be more of them every year.

[singfreedom]

Yes. It is rather like using “U” to represent “You”.