That college seniors know so little about America’s history and political thought is something many of us have long suspected. What we may not have known is that some of the most expensive and highly regarded colleges and universities in the country are some of the worst at teaching about our nation’s history and our public institutions. Those are the findings of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) Report on national civic literacy, Failing our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions.
The ISI study, the second such in as many years, reports that the nation’s college freshmen and seniors again scored just over 50 percent, or an F on the exam. The findings hopefully serve to fuel reform efforts on all our college campuses – and especially on some of most expensive, where it is evident money doesn’t buy knowledge. Cornell, Yale, Duke and Princeton were near the bottom in the civic literacy rankings outranked by smaller, lesser-known institutions like Marian College of Wisconsin and Concordia University of Nebraska. The University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill ranked 24th out of 50 institutions. Sobering but necessary reading. To find out more: http://americancivicliteracy.org.
Leave a Comment