Colleges Get Failing Grades on Civics

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(April 8) -- On this day 97 years ago, the 17th Amendment was ratified, changing the way we elect senators. Not that many college students would know anything about it, either when they get to college or when they graduate.

For the past five years, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has tried to measure how well colleges and universities do in giving their students a basic understanding of America's core history, key texts, and enduring political and economic institutions.

The results aren't pretty.

Half of the 14,000 incoming freshmen tested failed the 60-question multiple-choice test, getting just half the questions right. Worse, they barely know any more when they graduate, with seniors scoring 54 percent correct. No school, not even Harvard or Yale, got above a 69 percent average among seniors. Worse still, in some schools, students did worse coming out than going in.

At right is a sampling of the questions. (You can take a more complete version of the test on our Web site.) Some of the most missed questions by students dealt with such fundamental American concepts as judicial review, George Washington's warning against "foreign entanglements," the Monroe Doctrine, "The Federalist Papers" and basic details of the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

Colleges like to pride themselves on preparing their young citizens to become the future leaders of the Republic, but how can you be an effective leader if you don't know the story of how our nation's past leaders grappled with the perennial challenges of governing a free people?

Here's the list of the top 10 schools that improved their students' knowledge of civics (the figures show the percentage point increase in scores between freshmen and seniors):

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And here are the bottom 10 schools -- which saw their students lose the most ground (the figures show the percentage point decrease in scores between freshmen and seniors):

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So, what should we make of this?

First, there's clearly room for vast improvement on the part of all colleges and universities when it comes to effectively teaching America's history and institutions. No school did terribly well.

Second, prestige doesn't necessarily guarantee quality and excellence. In fact, most of the schools on the losing side were in the elite category. And while schools like Johns Hopkins do a better job attracting smarter students, when it comes to actually doing the job that colleges are paid to do -- promoting learning -- little schools like Rhodes College and Murray State leave them in the dust. Clearly, exorbitant tuitions don't guarantee a curricula that ensures that students learn the basics about American history and government.

Finally, parents and taxpayers who pay the bills of American higher education need to start holding colleges accountable for the actual outputs of their academic programming and, if necessary, start demanding more transparency in terms of what is taught on their campuses.
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http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-colleges-get-failing-grades-on-civics/19430737

Seems like these types of things pop up every so often, but I think this is the first (that I can remember) that is college students across a number of universities.


they have a brief quiz on the storys page and link to a longer one. i did the story one...

Your score:7 out of 7
 
I'll have graduated college without every having a class that really covered civics in any great detail. World History did a little, but he didn't focus much on US history, understandable really.
 
Yeah I went to a liberal arts college. You had to take some foundations classes, some writing classes. But for the most part you were on your own to take whatever you wanted after that.

I'm sure we would see similar statistics with respect to basic math skills. Basic reading skills. Basic writing skills. You get the picture. But I guess civics should be singled out because...
 
I mean some things you should know from high school, but more in depth stuff, you wouldn't know unless you took a civics class.
 
I got 28 out of 33 on the longer one. That is kinda really bad, but when you consider a to get degree that most people are never required to take a civics or economics class to graduate it is not surprising. Credits are expensive, who has the money to take them if you don't need to and don't have the cash to flounder and take unimportant classes that don't get you closer to a degree. Mad I missed one because because I mixed up John Locke's inalienable rights with what our Dec. of Ind. said.:(
 
Students aren't exactly the intellectual entrepreneurs you would ideally like them to be.

EDIT: I started to take the 33-question test, but then caught the scent of some serious, knee-deep bullshit on the internets.

Who's the organization behind this study? http://www.isi.org/ Oh, a heavily biased conservative think that. If you didn't see through the astroturf in that questionnaire, I am deeply concerned for you.

EDIT2: I mean, for fuck's sake, people:
Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending
 
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Most people don't care about learning. Most people in college don't care about learning. People don't learn much (except what is immediately necessary for them to get money).

I missed 2 on the long test. One I knew was wrong, but put it anyway (about international spending or whatever), and the other was the last one, which confused me honestly ("per person" as in total, or "per person" as in actual per person? The way I read it I was thinking they definitely could collect taxes from one person and spend them on another person, and in differing amounts....:p) . Both were in the last tax section rather than the history/law/interesting sections.
 
Yeah it's a consequence of US History, Political Science etc. not being required courses in a lot of majors.

I had to take a lot of those classes as I majored in Journalism so they mapped out our electives. But I wouldn't have otherwise. I'd already taken a couple world history/european history courses before switching majors, and I never had much interest in politics back then.

And I can definitely agree with SpazX that most students don't care about learning. Most of my students only care about their grade, if they even care about that. It's a very small % of students who are asking a lot of questions during and after class who clearly want to learn.
 
Yeah I found it surprising that the results helped prove the belief conservatives have that colleges are bastions of anti-civic liberalism.
 
Students care about getting a 2.0. Further than that it's whatever, most people are only in college because they're "supposed" to be there (and the partying/living off parents money for a lot of the ones who don't care).

The general requirements in my school were reasonably diverse. I ended up taking a course on political theory, 3 US history courses, and 2 religion courses because I wanted to that weren't required for my major and only a few actually were necessary for the general requirements (I had free slots from already exceeding what math I needed from the entry test - besides stats - and taking one or two courses that counted for multiple general requirements or the general requirements and my major). There are always the easy ones that people want to take just to fulfill the credit of course, and they don't learn anything.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yeah it's a consequence of US History, Political Science etc. not being required courses in a lot of majors.

I had to take a lot of those classes as I majored in Journalism so they mapped out our electives. But I wouldn't have otherwise. I'd already taken a couple world history/european history courses before switching majors, and I never had much interest in politics back then.

And I can definitely agree with SpazX that most students don't care about learning. Most of my students only care about their grade, if they even care about that. It's a very small % of students who are asking a lot of questions during and after class who clearly want to learn.[/QUOTE]
I actually agree a lot with that. A cousin of mine has a near perfect GPA but try asking her what she's learned so far in college. She studies like mad for tests and everything, but there's no curiosity. I'm always staying behind after classes just to ask things of my different teachers, knowing it won't be on any test.

I originally took a sociology class because i thought it would be an easy way to fulfill a social science requirement, but i ended up really enjoying it. The teacher was really service learning oriented, she was the one who took us out to help that church group feed the homeless.
 
You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #29 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
Click to expand...

I think my answer (E) was correct, that government pays for it and not individuals. I suppose (B) is just as good. There were several questions in the quiz where the answers depended not on fact, but at least partly on political philosophy, something I found curious.
 
[quote name='elprincipe']I think my answer (E) was correct, that government pays for it and not individuals. I suppose (B) is just as good. There were several questions in the quiz where the answers depended not on fact, but at least partly on political philosophy, something I found curious.[/QUOTE]

ohai:

[quote name='mykevermin']
EDIT: I started to take the 33-question test, but then caught the scent of some serious, knee-deep bullshit on the internets.

Who's the organization behind this study? http://www.isi.org/ Oh, a heavily biased conservative think that. If you didn't see through the astroturf in that questionnaire, I am deeply concerned for you.

EDIT2: I mean, for fuck's sake, people:
Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending[/QUOTE]
 
Well the one that made me think about the maker of the test was:

27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:

And then from there when they went into taxes and whatnot.

EDIT: Well, #8 had me thinking a little too, but it seemed like it was getting at some point about the supreme court.
 
26 out of 33, I beat the average at least. In my defense, I'm terrible at history.
The civics class we had at our school sucked. He just lectured bombastically for an hour. It was worth one credit and the second half of the course was focused on the state government. I slept through it a lot.
Most people I have ever meant couldn't give one shit about civics. If America cared about civics, at least half the country would vote. This isn't just a college thing, it's an American thing. We feel so entitled we don't have to give a shit about this stuff.
 
@Doc Bacca
grats, but again, it's probably important to look at who's behind this study. Conservative think tank.

Like elprincipe pointed out, a few questions looked like they had answers that were based on political party as opposed to the correct answer.
 
[quote name='IRHari']
Like elprincipe pointed out, a few questions looked like they had answers that were based on political party as opposed to the correct answer.[/QUOTE]

yeah but you could pretty much figure out which 2-3 questions? those were and what answer they were looking for.



@Doc Bacca you owned elected officials so I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Yeah but thats not the point. Some random college kid who is sticking to his principles, which may be liberal, would get those question(s) wrong because the 'correct' answer is based on political philosophy.

Like an example would be 'how would you expand health insurance coverage' and the choices could be a)medicare for all b)let ppl buy across state lines and the right answer would be b), but of course thats based on political philosophy.
 
[quote name='IRHari']Yeah but thats not the point. Some random college kid who is sticking to his principles, which may be liberal, would get those question(s) wrong because the 'correct' answer is based on political philosophy.

Like an example would be 'how would you expand health insurance coverage' and the choices could be a)medicare for all b)let ppl buy across state lines and the right answer would be b), but of course thats based on political philosophy.[/QUOTE]


So stick to your principles and miss 2-4. Don't write off the overwhelming majority of the quiz which is historicaly based becuase you don't like the politics behind 4 questions.
 
Astroturfing can also lie within the content of the quiz; take, for example, the implicit suggestion that FDR's threatened expansion and stuffing of the Supreme Court was a highly relevant and important part of history.

I won't argue it isn't important, but there's a part of selectively maligning a group of people (i.e. a party) via a questionnaire that creates problems.

Virginia's "Confederate History Month" that their governor just proposed - that omitted slavery from the speech he gave, is a perfect example of how frameworks can be altered via selective truth-telling.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']I actually agree a lot with that. A cousin of mine has a near perfect GPA but try asking her what she's learned so far in college. She studies like mad for tests and everything, but there's no curiosity. I'm always staying behind after classes just to ask things of my different teachers, knowing it won't be on any test.

I originally took a sociology class because i thought it would be an easy way to fulfill a social science requirement, but i ended up really enjoying it. The teacher was really service learning oriented, she was the one who took us out to help that church group feed the homeless.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. Sometimes I have C students who are more interested and probably learned more than a lot of the A and B students.

They just didn't study as hard and didn't do as well on the exams, and/or struggle with writing and got lower grades on righting assignments etc. But they were the ones asking questions and seeming interested in more than just getting the notes to memorize so they can ace the exams.

Not to say that they're aren't A students who are very interested in learning. That's the upper 2% or something of my classes--the kids who are very interested, learn a lot and study hard and do well.
 
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[quote name='SpazX']Most people don't care about learning. Most people in college don't care about learning. [/QUOTE]

In the words of Jimmy Buffett:
"...they send you off to college, try to gain a little knowledge,
But all you want to do is learn how to score"
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Absolutely. Sometimes I have C students who are more interested and probably learned more than a lot of the A and B students.

They just didn't study as hard and didn't do as well on the exams, and/or struggle with writing and got lower grades on righting assignments etc. But they were the ones asking questions and seeming interested in more than just getting the notes to memorize so they can ace the exams.[/QUOTE]
That's what i think is really wrong with education, you basically look perfect on paper but not really learn much. It rewards people for craming for tests and things of that nature.

That's why i liked my World History teacher, he forced us to make connections on essays rather than learning a bunch of dates and things of that nature for a test.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']That's what i think is really wrong with education, you basically look perfect on paper but not really learn much. It rewards people for craming for tests and things of that nature.

That's why i liked my World History teacher, he forced us to make connections on essays rather than learning a bunch of dates and things of that nature for a test.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's a problem of class size largely, at least at the college level. Once you get above 30 or so it's hard to do very much applied stuff.

I still have a good bit of writing assignments and torture myself with grading 100 of them (have two classes of 50 this semester), but it's just tough to do much beyond short papers and 3 exams in larger classes.

It's hard to do discussion oriented stuff in large classes (especially if the seats aren't movable) as it's harder to get more than 2 or 3 people to participate regularly, hard to do longer papers or a lot of different assignments as it's just too much grading to do while keeping up with lectures and my research work (which is 50% of my work expectation per my contract) not to mention service work (committee work etc.).
 
29 out of 33

Mind you, I haven't take a civics class since high school (and this was almost 20 years ago). College it wasn't required unless you were a Political Science type major. So yeah, all this info I picked up in high school, not college. So much for higher education.
 
[quote name='Spacepest']29 out of 33

Mind you, I haven't take a civics class since high school (and this was almost 20 years ago). College it wasn't required unless you were a Political Science type major. So yeah, all this info I picked up in high school, not college. So much for higher education.[/QUOTE]

To be honest, if you were a good student I'd expect you to pick up most of that, if not all, in high school. Other than the politicized questions, of course.
 
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