Ill literacy
"It's appalling -- it's really astounding," said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. "Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder."
While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Experts could not definitively explain the drop.
"The declining impact of education on our adult population was the biggest surprise for us, and we just don't have a good explanation," said Mark S. Schneider, commissioner of education statistics. "It may be that institutions have not yet figured out how to teach a whole generation of students who learned to read on the computer and who watch more TV. It's a different kind of literacy."
"What's disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels," he added.
The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992. Schneider said the results do not separate recent graduates from those who have been out of school several years or more.
...
Gorman said that he has been shocked by how few entering freshmen understand how to use a basic library system, or enjoy reading for pleasure. "There is a failure in the core values of education," he said. "They're told to go to college in order to get a better job -- and that's okay. But the real task is to produce educated people."
-excerpted from the Wahsington Post December 25th article by Lois Romano
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400701.html
* * *
Holy hell.
You mean to tell me that only 41% of graduate students can 'proficiently' read and understand information in short prose texts?!
Computers and TV produce "a different kind of literacy"? Sure seems 'different' to me.
You say that colleges are supposed to produce educated people? Why, I had no idea!
Please, people. Stop giving high school diplomas to the people who can't read! They haven't mastered high-school-level material. They have not earned the diploma until they do! (Actually, they have not mastered elementary-level material, but I'm willing to let that go for a minute...)
Stop letting people into graduate school who cannot read a book and then talk intelligently about it!
What is the world coming to?
As Linus might say: "Aaugh!"
oh, help.
While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Experts could not definitively explain the drop.
"The declining impact of education on our adult population was the biggest surprise for us, and we just don't have a good explanation," said Mark S. Schneider, commissioner of education statistics. "It may be that institutions have not yet figured out how to teach a whole generation of students who learned to read on the computer and who watch more TV. It's a different kind of literacy."
"What's disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels," he added.
The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992. Schneider said the results do not separate recent graduates from those who have been out of school several years or more.
...
Gorman said that he has been shocked by how few entering freshmen understand how to use a basic library system, or enjoy reading for pleasure. "There is a failure in the core values of education," he said. "They're told to go to college in order to get a better job -- and that's okay. But the real task is to produce educated people."
-excerpted from the Wahsington Post December 25th article by Lois Romano
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400701.html
* * *
Holy hell.
You mean to tell me that only 41% of graduate students can 'proficiently' read and understand information in short prose texts?!
Computers and TV produce "a different kind of literacy"? Sure seems 'different' to me.
You say that colleges are supposed to produce educated people? Why, I had no idea!
Please, people. Stop giving high school diplomas to the people who can't read! They haven't mastered high-school-level material. They have not earned the diploma until they do! (Actually, they have not mastered elementary-level material, but I'm willing to let that go for a minute...)
Stop letting people into graduate school who cannot read a book and then talk intelligently about it!
What is the world coming to?
As Linus might say: "Aaugh!"
oh, help.