The average college freshman reads at 7th grade level

Campus Reform ^ | January 6, 2015 | Maggie Lit

[grundle]

Renaissance Learning found that the average book assigned for summer reading at college has a seventh-grade reading level.

Most college textbooks and reading material written before 1970 require mature reading skills according to Arkansas Prof. Emerita Sandra Stotsky.

The average U.S. college freshman reads at a seventh grade level, according to an educational assessment report.

“We are spending billions of dollars trying to send students to college and maintain them there when, on average, they read at about the grade 6 or 7 level, according to Renaissance Learning’s latest report on what American students in grades 9-12 read, whether assigned or chosen,” said education expert Dr. Sandra Stotsky.

Stotsky, a Professor Emerita at the University of Arkansas, served on the Common Core Validation Committee in 2009-10, during which she called the standards “inferior.” She claimed the Common Core left out the very standards needed to prepare students for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers.

“The average reading level for five of the top seven books assigned as summer reading by 341 colleges using Renaissance Learning’s readability formula was rated 7.56 [meaning halfway through seventh grade],” Stotsky told Breitbart Texas.

The study also found that most high school graduates don’t do much with mathematics past eighth-grade compared to students in other high-achieving countries.

In addition, the lack of “difficulty and complexity” found in high school reading material is indicative of what colleges can assign to students once they enter higher education and professors aren’t requiring incoming students read at a college level.

“Nor are [colleges] sending a signal to the nation’s high schools that high school level reading is needed for college readiness,” said Stotsky. “Indeed, they seem to be suggesting that a middle school level of reading is satisfactory, even though most college textbooks and adult literary works written before 1970 require mature reading skills.”

Stotsky claims that reading development starts in elementary school and acknowledges the importance of a student’s willingness to practice reading outside the classroom.

She adds that despite societal changes over the past 100 years, both male and female students have continued to read the same type of material as past generations. Girls tend to gravitate towards books about relationships and animals, while boys enjoy adventure stories, military exploits, superheroes, and historical nonfiction.

“For almost 100 years, there have been many surveys in this country of what children prefer to read. Despite changes in immigration patterns, family literacy, and cultural influences, what boys and girls like to read has been relatively stable,” said Stotsky.

According to Breitbart Texas, Stotsky is credited with creating the strongest set of k-12 academic standards in the country while working for the Massachusetts Department of Education, and is responsible for developing licensure tests for prospective teachers.

[Chickensoup]

Average. A measure of central tendency. Means there those who read BELOW a 7th grade level.

______________

IIRC all ads and newspapers and magazines are pitched at the fourth grade reading level.

[Roger Kaputnik]

And that right there sums up all that is wrong with “higher edumacation”. As to how a feral Wookie like her, as well as her drug-addled, bathhouse patron husband, ever obtained a law degree is beyond my comprehension.

[OneWingedShark]

That leads to the question: what is a good citizen? Is a good citizen one who excels in school subjects like english, math, geography, science or one who will do what his progressive "betters" expect him to do?

More progressives like Dewey began to infiltrate the school system and indoctrinate the students. Education in the right subjects was only part of it. The big progressives wanted obedient little progressives who would follow what the big progressives wanted. They have largely achieved their goal.

Exactly right; in America public schools would better be termed The Cult of Conformism.
It's a disgusting, and somewhat depressing, subject.

[OneWingedShark]

The Dept. of Education does (yet) not have control over state education standards.

No, they do not.
But as far as I can tell, it's always been their goal.

Think of it as Obamacare for Education. How does one go about creating of Federal control over things that were once solely private or local government decisions?

Yes, I know.
It's a terrible thing — but that doesn't mean our current system is good.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Great book.

I am currently working my way through Spence's Egypt - Myths and Legends. Beard's "Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties", Weber's "Shadow of Freedom" Albert's "The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star" and Cline's "1177 BC" are next on my shelf.

I tend to have wildly ranging tastes in books.

[freedumb2003]

>>The Warner Brothers cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s contained the same references.<<

One of my favorites was the famous “Wabbit season! Duck season!” cartoon (Rabbit Seasoning):

Daffy Duck: Let’sth run through that again.
Bugs Bunny: Okay.
[in a flat tone]
Bugs Bunny: Wouldja like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?
Daffy Duck: [flat tone] Shoot him now, shoot him now.
Bugs Bunny: [flat tone] You keep outta this. He doesn’t hafta shoot you now.
Daffy Duck: [with sudden passion] Ha! That’s it! Hold it right there!
[to audience]
Daffy Duck: Pronoun trouble.
[to Bugs]
Daffy Duck: It’s not: “He doesn’t have to shoot *you* now.” It’s: “He doesn’t have to shoot *me* now.” Well, I say he does have to shoot me now!
[to Elmer]
Daffy Duck: So shoot me now!
[Elmer shoots him]

[freedumb2003]

>>Hey! You can get a Princeton degree with that level of literacy. <<

IIRC, one comment on moochele’s “thesis” was it was written in no known human language.

Can someone find that reference? The whole thing was hilarious in its accuracy.

[bgill]

Who cares if they can read, all that really matters is if they can properly use a condom.

And text while doing the under aged deed. When attention spans last as long as a tweet, it's no wonder they can't read or comprehend past 7th grade. Oh, for the good old days of 2nd and 3rd grade when we had to limit reading 6-7th grade level Harry Potter books to spend a few minutes in the real world.

[freedumb2003]

I hear you. I tested at 12th grade when I was in sixth. As a class, we read “The Count of Monte Cristo.” That was nearly 50 years ago.

Love his sandwiches!

[freedumb2003]

“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.”

Joseph Stalin

That is exactly what I tell gun-grabbers. Words have killed many more people in history than guns. You can take my guns after I can take your words.

[sarge83]

I work in a community college library and meet lots of students each semester in the library and consequently get to see lots of rough drafts and final drafts of research papers left on computers or printed and just left laying around. I can most certainly amen your post! They are quite full of themselves confidence wise yet their official academic level of education maybe be community college but in reality should be sixth or seventh grade level at best.

Out of the three thousand patrons that come through our doors each month I would venture to say you might have fifty to a hundred students who actually would be considered “readers” and eagerly do so for classes and their own enjoyment. In the past ten years the number of remedial classes we are having to offer has skyrocketed! They are taking a full year or more to get to what I would consider at least a freshmen in high school level of knowledge.

[Paine in the Neck]

The goal of public school educators enunciated by John Dewey more than a century ago was "to make good citizens" out of students.

The Progressives have, following Dewey's prescriptions, created an education system that produces perfect Progressive citizens - just smart enough to follow voting instructions from the local ward healer and no smarter.

[Cuttnhorse]

Not sure what engineering sector you were hiring for, but I have worked with some very, very bright young grads on a recent mine construction project.

Interestingly, they were all sons of Chinese immigrants to Canada but were top-notch civil, mechanical and structural engineers.

[Gen.Blather]

“Not sure what engineering sector you were hiring for, but I have worked with some very, very bright young grads on a recent mine construction project.”

I was instructed that I would hire from our local historically black college. We needed some highly compensated minorities to satisfy a clause in our government contract. The EOE audit team was all black so the many Asians and Hispanics did not count. While most of the historically black graduates could at least speak presentable English, they were barely literate. The absolute best people I hired were from Central America. They spoke better English than most of the locally born and they all wrote very decently. When I asked why they told me that learning English was a high priority in their culture.

I was hiring at a time when everybody was going to be an overnight millionaire from just having a dotcom idea. Nobody wanted to do the work required to get an Engineering degree. (My impression is the non-historically black graduates and the blacks going through the regular non-historically black side of campus are really good engineers.)

[quadrant]

Unless, of course, they're freshman at UNC-CH, and we all know their reading skills.

[BobL]

We used PHONICS with our kids. Put them YEARS AHEAD of Americans, even 2 generations ago.

But I know, the PUBLIC SCHOOLS hate Phonics, so why should anyone listen to me? Let the PUBLIC SCHOOLS do the job - after all, THEY ARE FREE!!!

[21twelve]

I remember hours on end sitting inside on cold winter days going through the encyclopedias in our den as a kid. Would sit on the floor and read something, grab another book and read something, etc.

My mom would get pissed when I would leave a big pile of books scattered around the floor. (Hey - what do you expect from a 10-year old boy!?)

[Oztrich Boy]

Text books I’ve seen are scary. LOTS of pictures and illustration on EVERY page.

I had a textbook like that

[henkster]

That may as well be heiroglyphics. But my son the Chemical Engineering major knows what those formulae are. One reason to keep him around.

[Political Junkie Too]

Wow! That looks indistinguishable from this to today's students!

-PJ