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Students Know Less After 4 College Years
NY Sun ^ | 09-19-07 | NY Sun

Posted on 09/19/2007 6:50:14 AM PDT by petercooper

Students Know Less After 4 College Years

Harvard Gets D+ on Civics Quiz

By ANNIE KARNI

Staff Reporter of the Sun

September 19, 2007

Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.

According to a report released yesterday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade.

"At the most expensive colleges, they actually graduate knowing less," the executive director of the Jack Miller Center at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Michael Ratliff, said. "Colleges and universities are not directing students to the courses that would educate them. We want to know whether after getting $300 billion to do their work, universities are actually educating their students."

At universities such as Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Berkeley, seniors scored lower on the test than freshmen, living proof of the broadening relevancy of the old Harvard adage that the university is a storehouse of knowledge because "the freshmen bring so much and the seniors take away so little."

(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academia; dumbingdownamerica; education; highereducation; nysun; publicschools
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1 posted on 09/19/2007 6:50:21 AM PDT by petercooper
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To: petercooper

Not.

Surprising.


2 posted on 09/19/2007 6:52:24 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA (Truth : Liberals :: Kryptonite : Superman)
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To: petercooper
This same news was reported :

here

The link to the actual test can be found on post #7 if you want to test yourself.
3 posted on 09/19/2007 6:52:24 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: petercooper
LOL! college is sucking the knowledge out of their students.
4 posted on 09/19/2007 6:52:42 AM PDT by smonk
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To: petercooper

Rankings

NO COLLEGE EARNED BETTER THAN A “D+”

Rank College Mean Senior Score (2006) (% correct)

1. Harvard University 69.56%
2. Grove City College (PA) 67.26
3. Washington & Lee University (VA) 66.98
4. Yale University 65.85
5. Brown University 65.64
6. University of Virginia 65.28
7. Wheaton College (IL) 64.98
8. University of Pennsylvania 63.49
9. Duke University 63.41
10. Bowdoin College (ME) 62.86
11. Princeton University 61.90
12. University of Notre Dame 61.25
13. Rhodes College (TN) 61.18
14. Smith College (MA) 60.07
15. University of Rochester (NY)* 59.32
16. University of Wisconsin 57.87
17. University of Georgia* 57.76
18. University of North Carolina 57.68
19. Cornell University 56.95
20. Carnegie Mellon University* 56.90
21. Calvin College (MI) 56.45
22. University of California-Berkeley 56.27
23. University of Washington 55.88
24. Concordia University (NE)* 55.28
25. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities* 53.50
26. University of Florida 53.40
27. Iowa State University* 52.69
28. University of Montana* 52.16
29. Gonzaga University (WA) 51.86
30. University of Michigan 51.00
31. Illinois State University* 50.93
32. Mississippi State University* 50.86
33. Rutgers University* 49.99
34. George Mason University (VA) 49.96
35. Murray State University (KY)* 49.75
36. University of Mississippi 49.32
37. IdahoState University* 48.15
38. University of Massachusetts-Amherst* 46.66
39. Mount Vernon Nazarene University (OH)* 44.60
40. Pfeiffer University (NC)* 44.30
41. St. Cloud State University (MN)* 44.26
42. Texas State University-San Marcos* 43.99
43. Georgia College and State University* 43.68
44. University of Southern Maine* 43.58
45. Marian College (WI)* 43.10
46. Texas A&M International University* 41.14
47. Eastern Connecticut State University* 40.99
48. St. John’s University (NY)* 39.82
49. Oakwood College (AL)* 34.69
50. St. Thomas University (FL)* 32.50

* Randomly selected school


5 posted on 09/19/2007 6:53:17 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: SirLinksalot

oops- Thanks


6 posted on 09/19/2007 6:53:51 AM PDT by petercooper ("Daisy-cutters trump a wiretap anytime." - Nicole Gelinas - 02-10-04)
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To: petercooper

They send you off to college,
Try to gain a little knowledge,
But all you want to do is learn how to score.

-Jimmy Buffet


7 posted on 09/19/2007 6:54:46 AM PDT by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Still Championship U)
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To: petercooper

Alert!!!! The sun rose in the East this morning!!!!!


8 posted on 09/19/2007 6:54:50 AM PDT by Eagles Talon IV
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To: petercooper

Families all over the country are going into debt to fund these left wing machines that used to be great Universities. They are running on fumes and the remnants of thier reputation.


9 posted on 09/19/2007 6:54:56 AM PDT by Greg F (Duncan Hunter is a good man.)
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To: petercooper

Toga! Toga! Toga!


10 posted on 09/19/2007 6:56:35 AM PDT by wastedyears (George Orwell was a clairvoyant.)
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To: Greg F

No joke- I was in an ice cream shop in the NE recently- I heard the girl behind the counter mutter to her co-worker— “and I paid $23,000 a yr for that school”. Maybe she got a degree in “Women’s Studies” or something


11 posted on 09/19/2007 6:57:42 AM PDT by petercooper ("Daisy-cutters trump a wiretap anytime." - Nicole Gelinas - 02-10-04)
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To: petercooper

I learned how to do this in the Navy. Than I quit serious drinking in 87.


12 posted on 09/19/2007 6:58:42 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: petercooper

“Seven years of college down the drain.”


13 posted on 09/19/2007 6:59:14 AM PDT by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Still Championship U)
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To: smonk
LOL! So true! I have first hand knowledge of this. A former fine young man who I have known for six years, graduated top of his class this past spring. I watched him turn into a narrow minded obnoxious blow hard liberal with a superiority complex, who drinks way too much. Very sad to watch.
14 posted on 09/19/2007 6:59:40 AM PDT by alice_in_bubbaland (Ron Paul is nutcase, plain & simple.)
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To: dfwgator


"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
15 posted on 09/19/2007 7:00:39 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Ron Paul put the cuckoo in my Cocoa Puffs)
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To: smonk

I say it depends on the parents. Right now, we - my wife and I - are telling are grandsons that what they teach in the public schools and college is next to nothing considering what you can learn on your own. We have also warned them of the liberal bias.


16 posted on 09/19/2007 7:01:49 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: petercooper

The only thing colleges are good for now is football.


17 posted on 09/19/2007 7:01:52 AM PDT by JZelle
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To: petercooper

Thanks for posting this!


18 posted on 09/19/2007 7:02:17 AM PDT by syriacus (30,000 Americans died in Korea in 30 months, BECAUSE Truman had withdrawn TOO many troops, TOO soon)
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To: petercooper
Fewer brain cells working aftrer four years on campus...??

Who'd a-thunk it??

19 posted on 09/19/2007 7:02:39 AM PDT by Wings-n-Wind (The main things are the plain things!)
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To: JZelle
The only thing colleges are good for now is football.

And providing work for foreign TAs who can't even speak understandable English.

20 posted on 09/19/2007 7:04:03 AM PDT by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Still Championship U)
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