Ima Kollej Grajewit

The Education Sector summarized recent findings regarding the literacy of U.S. college graduates, and some of the findings (my emphasis) are very disturbing:

New Adult Literacy Data Puts College Credentials in Question December saw the release of the important, once-a-decade National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). Administered in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Education, the NAAL found no change since 1992 in the overall "prose" or "document" literacy of American adults, but a significant increase in "quantitative" literacy, i.e. math. The good news is that the percentage of adults—particularly black adults—who score at the lowest literacy levels declined significantly. However, a closer look at the data suggests that a disturbing number of college-educated adults have literacy skills that put the validity of their education credentials in serious question. Literacy among black adults was up in all three categories, narrowing the black-white gap. By contrast, Hispanic prose and document literacy declined, which is likely linked to rising immigration. Overall literacy is up among women and down among men. Most significantly, the male-female gap in quantitative literacy was halved. Declining educational results among males is a notable trend, but easily understood with a few hours viewing of "Spike TV — the Cable Television Network for Men." Significantly, NAAL focuses on the complete range of literacy skills, measured in four categories: "Below Basic," "Basic," "Intermediate," and "Proficient." Only 31 percent of college graduates are proficient in prose literacy, down from 40 percent in 1992. Document literacy dropped from 37 percent to 25 percent. Quantitative literacy was unchanged at 31 percent. That means that fewer than one-in-three college graduates can successfully perform tasks such as understanding and comparing the viewpoints of two newspaper editorials, interpreting a table with data about blood pressure and physical activity, or computing and comparing the cost per ounce of different food items. Perhaps more disturbing, nearly one in five college graduates score at only Basic literacy levels, which means they have trouble with tasks like consulting reference materials and calculating the total cost of items ordered from a catalogue. These depressing results point to the great need to hold higher education institutions accountable for how well they actually educate their students. Institutional reputations currently rise and fall based on what their students achieved in high school, not in college. As a result, institutions focus their energies on boosting their status, endowment, athletic programs, and student facilities—whatever it takes to get "better" students to enroll. Teaching them well once they arrive gets short shrift. Until that changes, expect similar results from future NAAL testing. Further Reading "A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century" U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. "Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds" (subscription required) Sam Dillon, The New York Times, December 16, 2005.

That's just pathetic. Once upon a time a college degree demonstrated the successful acquisition of advanced intellectual skills. Now, it doesn't even compare to a high school degree of 30 years ago. No wonder our economy is going south and why Fear Factor represents the object of the average young adult's curiosity.