Students lack civic knowledge

College students don’t know much about civics ‘ and colleges are partly to blame. This ??is just the tip of the iceberg of civic illiteracy revealed in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s latest report, ‘Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions.’

The Institute’s report analyzed the results of a test given to 14,419 freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges last fall.??The 60-question ‘Civics Quiz’ covered American history, government, international relations and economics.??Overall, the results were pathetic.?? Freshmen averaged 50.4 percent on the test; seniors barely better at 54.2 percent.??In other words, both groups got the equivalent of an ‘F.’

The 50 colleges picked for the test included 25 ‘selective’ and 25 randomly chosen schools.??Average scores for the selective colleges ‘ chosen for type, geographic location and U.S News and World Report ranking ‘??were considerably higher than those of the randomly selected colleges, for freshmen [56.6 percent vs. 43.7 percent] and for seniors [59.4 percent vs. 48.4 percent].??However, the so-called ‘elite’ schools added less civic knowledge between the freshmen and senior years, with their seniors averaging just 2.8 points higher than their freshmen, compared to 4.7 points for the randomly selected colleges.

The Institute had good news and bad news for prestigious and pricey Harvard.

Seniors there had the highest average at 69.6 percent, nearly 6 points higher than its freshmen. The bad news is they still averaged a dismal D+.

Ironically, according to the report, the higher a college’s U.S. News and World Report ranking, the lower its ‘civic literacy gain.’??For, example, at Yale, Princeton, Duke and Cornell, high-rankers all, their freshmen outscored their seniors!

Unfortunately, this is not just another case of ‘don’t know much about history.’ Instead, it is a ringing indictment of higher education’s failure to advance civic literacy for the very students who are likely to be among our future leaders.

Both research and common sense demonstrate a high correlation between civic literacy and civic activities, such as voting.??Yet, even our most expensive, most prestigious colleges are failing miserably in preparing their students to be active, informed citizens.

Apologists for higher education offer silly excuses for their failure to perform their traditional mission of civic education.??For example, Tony Pals of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities asserts, ‘In many cases, these students are coming from high schools where the subject matter has already been covered ‘ It would be a waste of their tuition dollars to sit through the courses again.’ ‘?

Mr. Pals is either incredibly disingenuous or incredibly dumb. His ridiculous rationalization ignores the obvious differences in levels of learning between high school and college.

This sorry state of civic illiteracy among our college students is inexcusable.??We need to hold our colleges, and our high schools, more accountable for teaching our students to be informed, responsible citizens. ‘Information is the currency of democracy,’ said Thomas Jefferson.??If current trends continue, our lack of civic knowledge and civic responsibility could bankrupt our democracy.

Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of ‘Viewpoints,’ which airs on WCPI 91.3 FM.