MGTutoring.com. A Rational Perspective on Education.

In “Not Much: What Will They Learn in College?“  (August 26, 2009), Walter Williams writes:

Employers complain that graduates of colleges lack the writing and analytical skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. A 2006 survey conducted by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management found that only 24 percent of employers thought graduates of four-year colleges were “excellently prepared” for entry-level positions. College seniors perennially fail tests of their civic and historical knowledge.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni graded the 100 surveyed colleges and universities on their general education requirements.

Forty-two institutions received a “D” or an “F” for requiring two or fewer subjects. Twenty-five of them received an “F” for requiring one or no subjects. No institution required all seven. Five institutions received an “A” for requiring six general education subjects. They were Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Texas A&M, University of Arkansas (Fayetteville), United States Military Academy (West Point) and University of Texas at Austin. Twenty institutions received a “C” for requiring three subjects and 33 received a “B” for requiring four or five subjects. ACTA maintains a website keeping the tally at Whatwilltheylearn.com.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM

In “Many Dallas-Fort Worth graduates struggle in college” (The Dallas Morning News, 08:36 AM CDT, Sunday, August 9, 2009), Holly K. Hacker writes:

They passed their TAKS exit exams and collected their high school diplomas – yet a troubling number of Texas students struggle their first year in college.

At some North Texas high schools, half or more of graduates who go to college earn less than a C average their first year, based on a Dallas Morning News analysis of state data.

And college students who stumble in their freshman year are more likely to call it quits.

“It’s a serious problem, and it’s not something you can dismiss casually because a lot of students are stunned when they arrive on a college campus,” said Raymund Paredes, the state’s higher education commissioner.

Paredes and others see a major disconnect between expectations set in high school and those in college. State lawmakers and education officials say new rules, laws and programs should help bridge that gap – but there’s still more that public schools and colleges can do.

© 2009, The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Not a problem for students of the Leport Schools, the VanDamme Academy, Falling Apple Science, Powell History, and MGTutoring, where students are trained in reasoning and objectivity!

Note: The Dallas Morning News provided a link to a “full state report” (as a pdf) with the article.

Update (8-31-09, 3:20 PM): Forgot to add to the “not a problem” list Elizabeth O’Brien‘s English Grammar Revolution!!

In “SAT Down and Cried Today” (Core Knowledge Blog, August 26, 2009), Robert Pondiscio writes:

The Class of 2009, who were in 5th grade when No Child Left Behind became the law of the land, and were not yet born when A Nation at Risk ushered in the era of education reform, have posted SAT scores that summon to mind a flatlined EKG.  Math unchanged at 515.  Writing down a point to 493.  Critical reading, down a point to 494.  The results are of a piece with last week’s ACT scores, which showed only one of four high school graduates are prepared to do C level college work in English, math, reading and science.

“Completing a core curriculum remains strongly related to SAT scores,” the College Board notes in a news release.  ”Students in the class of 2009 who took core curricula scored an average of 46 points higher on the critical reading section, 44 points higher on the mathematics section, and 45 points higher on the writing section than those who did not.”

“The College Board, as always, hung a smiley face on it, but the latest SAT results are a real bummer,” writes Checker Finn at Fordham’s Flypaper blog.  Looking at years of stagnant NAEP results, last week’s dispiriting ACT scores and flat high school graduation rates, Finn says “please sing out if you’ve spotted any good news regarding the readiness of American adolescents to face successfully the challenges of higher education, the workforce, adulthood and citizenship. I can’t find it.”

In “Advanced Placement: A detour for college fast track?” (USA TODAY, 3/20/2006 11:02 PM), Mary Beth Marklein wrote:

Admissions officials at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, like those at most colleges nationwide, like to see Advanced Placement courses on high school transcripts. And like many colleges, they typically exempt students who have passed AP exams from taking certain introductory courses.

But in recent years, a troubling pattern has emerged. Increasingly, admitted students who boast AP credits “really weren’t in many ways ready for the rigor of our college curriculum,” says Edith Waldstein, vice president for enrollment management.
…

Like Wartburg, a number of colleges are re-evaluating whether to exempt students with AP credit from certain classes. Already, several highly selective schools, including Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, require many students to take introductory courses in certain subjects, even if they passed an AP exam in the same subject.
…
[T]he California study also found that taking AP (and honors) courses bore “little or no relationship to students’ later performance in college” and suggested that institutions reconsider the use of AP as an admissions criterion.

Meanwhile, in a just-released update of a 1999 Education Department study showing that the “academic intensity of the curriculum” is a predictor of bachelor’s degree completion, researcher Clifford Adelman found that, by itself, AP coursework did not “reach the threshold of significance.”

Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

In “Literacy of College Graduates Is on Decline: Survey’s Finding of a Drop in Reading Proficiency Is Inexplicable, Experts Say” (Washington Post, 
Sunday, December 25, 2005), Lois Romano
 writes:

Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult literacy assessment, which shows that the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation.

“It’s appalling — it’s really astounding,” said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. “Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That’s not saying much for the remainder.”

…”What’s disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels,” [aid Mark S. Schneider, commissioner of education statistics.].

The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading — such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as “proficient” in prose — reading and understanding information in short texts — down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient — compared with 40 percent in 1992. Schneider said the results do not separate recent graduates from those who have been out of school several years or more.
…
Dolores Perin, a reading expert at Columbia University Teachers College, said that her work has indicated that the issue may start at the high school level. “There is a tremendous literacy problem among high school graduates that is not talked about,” said Perin, who has been sitting in on high school classes as part of a teaching project. “It’s a little bit depressing. The colleges are left holding the bag, trying to teach students who have challenges.”

On average, adult literacy is virtually unchanged since 1992, with 30 million people struggling with basic reading tasks. While adults made some progress in quantitative literacy, such as the ability to calculate taxes, the study showed that from 1992 to 2003 adults made no improvement in their ability read newspapers or books, or comprehend basic forms.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company