Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
This week, we’re discussing “Failing Our Students, Failing America,” a study of the state of civic knowledge at our nation’s universities. Researchers surveyed both freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities to measure their knowledge of America’s history, government, economy, and international relations. The students, even the seniors, failed at all four subjects—badly.

Today, we come to the second finding of that study: colleges inhibit students from learning about America. The study found that the average college freshman scored 50.4 on the civic knowledge test, while the average college senior scored 54.2. That’s less than four points’ difference after three years of college. From kindergarten through 12th grade, students’ rate of learning is approximately 2.3 points per year, but somehow, in college, it drops to 1.3 points per year.

The eight schools ranked lowest for civic learning actually decreased students’ scores between their freshman and senior years—the seniors knew less about America than they had as freshmen. Those eight schools included Princeton, Duke, Yale, and Cornell.

Ivy League universities, with their selective admissions criteria, had higher freshman scores, but they ranked the worst in actually adding to students’ knowledge by senior year.

Next time, we’ll talk more about the records of those so-called “elite” colleges. I’m Mike Farris.