Saturday, September 29, 2007
News

Failing history

Two Georgia colleges score low on national survey

The American Civic Literacy Program ranked UGA (the school’s famous arches pictured on left) and Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville (right), 17th and 43rd, respectively, for civic and history education among 50 schools surveyed. CREDIT: Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development

By R.E. Kamm

For years one of the biggest questions in the world of education was, “Why can’t Johnny read?” Presumably, Johnny finally did learn how to read. But he’s apparently not reading any U.S. civic or history books, according to one national study.

For the second consecutive year, a study conducted by the American Civic Literacy Program (ACLP) finds that U.S. colleges and universities are failing to teach their students key facts regarding America’s heritage. The study surveyed more than 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities in 28 states, and found many lacking in adequate instruction on topics in civics and history. Among those found wanting are the University of Georgia and Georgia College and State University.

The study, conducted through the University of Connecticut’s department of public policy, includes a survey made up of 60 multiple choice questions divided into four categories: market economy, American history, American government and America’s relationship with the world. The survey, which can be filled out online, concerns topics that range from Jamestown and the War of 1812 to Keynesian economics and the Persian Gulf War.

Half of the 50 schools were selected randomly, while the other half, considered the “elite” schools, were chosen, according to the report, through sources such as “U.S. News and World Report” rankings, high selectivity of enrollment (to add to the variance of freshmen civic achievement), status as flagship state universities, religiously affiliated colleges and other criteria.

Some of those schools surveyed include Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Yale, Cornell, George Mason University, Calvin College, Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia. Both UGA and Georgia College and State University were chosen at random, although some might question why UGA would not qualify as a flagship state university, thereby granting it “elite” status.

SURPRISING RESULTS

Some of the results are surprising. Harvard University, which ranked first among all 50 schools, received a score of slightly less than 70 percent. And it’s all downhill from there. Residents of Georgia may be disappointed to find that the two Georgia schools surveyed fared far worse. UGA scored just below 58 percent, ranking 17th, while Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville scored under 44 percent, placing in the bottom 10 at 43rd.

In attempting to determine how much civic knowledge students obtain during school, the ACLP tested both freshmen and seniors at the same institutions. In this area, Eastern Connecticut State University outperformed the other 49 schools, with its seniors scoring almost 10 percent higher than freshmen. Georgia College and State University placed 30th in that ranking, with its seniors scoring a little more than 3 percent higher than its freshmen. UGA ranked 32nd, its seniors outscoring its freshmen by barely squeaking past the 3 percent mark.

In some cases, a school’s seniors were outperformed by its freshmen, suggesting those schools’ students experienced what the ACLP calls “negative learning.” Rounding out the bottom three in this category were Duke, Yale and Cornell, with Cornell freshmen outscoring the seniors by almost 5 percent. As surprising as it might be to see Ivy League schools such as Cornell being outranked by smaller, more obscure schools in this area, the ACLP says that Ivy League schools were also outperformed in terms of learning over the course of a college career—although Ivy League freshmen and seniors both scored substantially higher on the test than students from other schools.

Additionally, the ACLP found that questions regarding the New Deal, Brown v. Board of Education, the Cold War and Martin Luther King Jr. were all answered with an accuracy rate of more than 80 percent, while questions about Plato’s “Republic,” enumerated powers, the Monroe Doctrine and the federal budget all received scores of less than 30 percent.

SCORING DISPARITIES

More disconcerting than the average score of the schools surveyed is the disparity in scoring among student groups. Not only has the average foreign national senior not taken one class in American history, but “the overall average gain in civic knowledge for foreign students was a statistically meaningless one-tenth of one point,” according to a press release. That’s in comparison to the average American citizen senior, who gained a little more than 4 percent.

Gary Scott, a senior research fellow in civic literacy at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, of which the ACLP is an affiliate, believes this news to be a bad sign, pointing out that some of these foreign students will someday be leading their native countries and doing so without a real understanding of U.S. historical identity and heritage.

What’s behind these disparities? One key, according to the ISI, is the role a student’s family life plays in his or her education. The study found that several family-related factors contributed to higher scores, such as parents who are married and living together, at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree and a home in which English is the primary language. But the biggest factor was whether the student grew up in a home where history and/or current events were often discussed. Students from such homes gained an average of 2.3 percentage points more than those who didn’t come from such homes.

Race also seems to play a role. The average score from all 50 schools for a white freshman was almost 52 percent, while the average minority freshman scored just over 47 percent. And when taking into account the learning factor, white seniors scored more than 5 percent higher than their freshmen counterparts, while minority seniors scored less than 1 percent higher than their freshmen counterparts. The study further claims that overall, Asian minorities actually unlearned American history and civics, with Asian minority seniors being outscored by Asian minority freshmen by 1 percent.

In contrast, UGA’s minority seniors outscored its minority freshmen by more than 2 percent. However, minority seniors at Georgia College and State University were outscored by minority freshmen by a whopping 10 percent.

QUESTIONS OF BIAS

The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute is a nonprofit established in 1953 “to convey to successive generations of college youth a better understanding of the values and institutions that sustain a free and virtuous society.” Though the organization declares itself nonpartisan, some think otherwise. People For the American Way believes the group to be right wing, noting that the ISI receives funding from conservative donors and belongs to the Collegiate Network, which financially supports conservative college newspapers.

Scott defends the objectivity of the study’s questions, maintaining that his organization has no agenda but is instead merely a watchdog. “If there is a perspective in this study,” he says, “it is that there exists important ideas about America that are important for students to learn in order to enter the American conversation at a more responsible or informed level of knowledge.”

Not everyone agrees. Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs at UGA, thinks the study is not only insignificant, it also has hidden motives revealed by a questionable methodology.

“It is clear that the people who started it have an agenda they are trying to promote,” he says. “They chose 50 schools out of 1,400-plus in the country to include, and admit that 32 of the schools included this time are new from the 50 they included last time.”

Connor McCarthy, a student senator in UGA’s school of public and international affairs, defends the university. “UGA encourages a very civically engaged community through U.S. and Georgia constitution requirements, as well as history and political science requirements,” he wrote in an email to The Sunday Paper. “Every institution should work to better its students and their understandings of civic society, and UGA has done a great job thus far.”

But Scott questions why there is no real shock at such poor scores and also wonders how these schools can be held accountable. When asked about future testing, he claims that there will not be a repeat study next year, though possibly in the future. He suggests that the ACLP is interested in expanding its research into the general population. And he maintains that the results of the last two studies have been generally met with little animosity, with many schools admitting a need to better equip their students in understanding the United States’ historical identity. SP

Georgia College and State University declined comment for this story.
To take the ACLP’s 60-question test for yourself, visit www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx.