ACTA's Must-Reads

« Are our colleges just clowning around? | Main | In Memoriam - Rynn Berry, Yale Class of 1937 »

A shaky K-12 foundation is not enough to support the weight of a solid college education

According to a recent post by The Washington Post's Daniel de Vise, 40 percent of high school graduates are unprepared for either a traditional college environment or career training. The study from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona reveals alarming deficiencies among college bound students.

Sadly, the picture is just as bleak for college students. According to Academically Adrift, by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, in the first two years of college, 45 percent "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning." After all four years, 36 percent still didn't demonstrate any significant improvement, as measured by performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment.

Students simply are not getting the basic foundational knowledge they need in order to succeed, and employers know it. According to a report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, fully 63 percent of executives agree that too many recent college grads simply do not have the skills to be successful in today's economy.

Our latest edition of What Will They Learn? shows why. Ninety-five percent of colleges do not require students to take even a single course in economics. Eighty percent do not require a single survey course in U.S. history or government. And only 15 percent of schools require students to take intermediate-level foreign language.

We need to break the cycle of underpreparation that pervades too much of K-12 and higher education. The need for college graduates who are prepared for career and community must be reflected in sound curricular standards in higher education, which, in turn, must be reflected in serious requirements for entering college and rigorous preparation at the K-12 level for college or vocation.

Posted by dburnett on December 15, 2011 at December 15, 2011 11:24 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.goactablog.org/blog/mt-tb.cgi/1015