"If you can read this, thank a teacher," says the bumper sticker on the car
in front of me. But literacy is more than the ability to read a bumper
sticker. It also includes the accumulation of basic knowledge combined with
a way of thinking that allows an individual to lead a life that is
personally productive and contributes to America's health and welfare.
For the second year in a row, America's elite universities and colleges have
failed to rise above a "D plus" on tests of basic knowledge about civics and
American history, maintains a study commissioned by the Intercollegiate
Studies Institute's (ISI). In 2005, ISI contracted with the University of
Connecticut's Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP) to administer tests of
basic historical and civic knowledge to 14,000 students at 50 top schools,
including Yale, Harvard, Cornell, the University of Virginia, Brown and
Duke. The survey found that students "were no better off than when they
arrived in terms of acquiring the knowledge necessary for informed
engagement in a democratic republic and global economy." Since an education
at top colleges can cost as much as $40,000 a year, it would appear that
those paying the bill are being cheated.
ISI's final report entitled "The Coming Crisis in Citizenship: Higher
Education's Failure to Teach America's History and Institutions," presented
four pivotal findings:
1. The average college senior knows very little about America's history,
government, international relations and market economy. Their average score
on the civic literacy test was 53.2 percent. "No class of seniors scored
higher than 69 percent, or D plus."
2. Prestige doesn't pay off. "An Ivy League education contributes nothing to
a student's civic learning. Š There is no relationship between the cost of
attending college and the mastery of America's history, politics, and
economy."
3. Students don't learn what colleges don't teach. "Schools where students
took or were required to take more courses related to America's history and
institutions," says the ISI, "outperformed those schools where fewer courses
were completed. The absence of required courses in American history,
political science, philosophy and economics suggests a negative impact on
students' civic literacy."