Stunned, shocked and appalled are American educators as they study the recent report from the National Center of Education Statistics, which reveals that only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. “It’s really astounding,” said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association. “That’s not saying much for the remainder,” he added, meaning that 69 percent of our college graduates cannot read at or above a “proficient” level.
Absolutely appalled by the results of the survey was Mark S. Schneider, commissioner of education statistics, who remarked, “The declining impact of education on our adult population was the biggest surprise for us, and we just don’t have a good explanation. What’s disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels.”
The Boston Globe (Dec. 26, 2005) explained that the test measured how well adults handled basic reading tasks – such as figuring out costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials, and reading prescription labels. Of graduate students tested in 2003, 41 percent were classified as “proficient” in prose – able to read and understand information in short texts – down 10 percent since 1992. As for college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient – compared with 40 percent in 1992. The results were based on a sample of more than 19,000 individuals 16 or older, who were interviewed in their homes. They were asked to read prose, do math, and find facts in documents. (more…)
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March 17th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I have always said that people with degrees aren’t any smarter than anyone else.
March 17th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I blogged about this when it came out.
I wonder why it hasn’t received the same amount of press that it would if it showed Black students underperforming.
69% can’t be mostly Black students, can it?
March 17th, 2006 at 11:00 am
What percentage of that 69% is black students? I’m sure it’s not mostly US, but you have to look at the ratio and proportion of black students in the system, By sheer numbers alone, whites outnumber blacks on college campuses because they are the majority. But if the total black population on college campuses is let’s say 3-4% and half of that falls in the category of “underperforming”, that is something that should cause alarm–if that was the case.
There is not one particular report that comes to mind right now (I’m just waking up), but you do have to take that into consideration when you apply a study like this to blacks.
March 18th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
I should suppose it should be consoling that these appaling results are on a non-reacial basis. This is pathetic, and begges the investigations of high school and elementary schools to once again trt to discover causes.
Bush was right with the No Child Left Behind Act in spite of the opposition from the NIE and teachers unions.
But the problem isn’t new. In the 1870’s, Ambrose Bierce said “Warfare is the devil’s way of getting Americans to learn geography.”
March 18th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
I wonder if most of the people leaving comments here would rather they did a racial breakdown of the 69% of college graduates who are not capable readers. I think that white researchers are sometimes too sensitive and don’t want to cause a ruckus by pointing out these kinds of things especially, by race. It makes us wonder, of course, is it US? That’s no good. It’s better for everyone that we do not speculate on it; however, human nature being what it is, we are going to speculate, and our speculation will probably be to the negative side. Out of 19,000 there were 13,110 who were non-proficient readers. Of these, what percentage were African Americans? Ask that question today, and if you’re white you will be called racist, and if you’re black you’ll be called a lot of things, ’self-hating black’ comes to mind. But that would be based on a presumption of black insufficiency. But all we want to know is the truth. What if we outperformed whites? Well, we would never know that, would we? It’s a sad state of affairs.
I happen to teach college at a large San Francisco university. My classes are mostly white with a lot of Asians and Hispanics. I usually only get one or two black students in a semester (out of a class of 20-25). Say it’s 10%. For the most part – and this is just my experience – the students mostly underperform anyway, all of them. I am shocked at the state of affairs. But I do not see black students in my classes being any worse than the whites in their abilities to read and write. All are equally lacking. That’s pretty sad stuff right there.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:10 pm
The reason why there is no outrage is because this is exactly what the people who run this country want! Remember,when the current craze for standardized testing began back in the early nineties about the time of the Republican contract with America, American Colleges were on the verge of dropping the SAT and ACT. Furthermore, the last time I took an undergraduate course to renew my teaching certificate, the required textbook was written at about the 10th grade level. When I questioned the instructor on this, he admitted that it was true, but said that if he didn’t use a book written at that level, most of his students wouldn’t have been able to read it! This is no accident.
Do you really think that we would be in Iraq right now if the average person could think critically? The whole campaign for the war was based on the perception that Osama Bin Laden and Saddan Hussein were allies, when any research on the two and their respective histories and philosophies would have quickly revealed that the two were bitter enemies in every respect. Further that the Bush regime excuse me administration had more dealings with and more in common with Bin Laden then Saddam ever did!! Moreover, the Amercan public actually bought the idea that we would be welcomed! I dealt with that by giving my students this premise and question. “You know how I feel about the Bush administration. However, what do you think that I would do if some one invaded my country using depleted uranium shells(birth defects went up 600 percent in southern Iraq in the 1st Gulf War)and my little girl came here deformed?” Than,they either executed Bush or threw him and his cronies in prison? The answer was so obvious, that they lost all illusion about this being an easy victory. In fact, I had one who had been accepted to the Naval Academy change his mind!