by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

High schools in the United States must effectively deal with two simultaneous challenges.  In addition to preparing a portion of their population to have the tools required to succeed immediately in the work force after graduation they must also equip the remainder of the student body to thrive on a college campus. The latter responsibility is critical if this country is to be competitive in the global economy. Currently only 30% of Americans possess a college degree - a number that must improve. Strategies need to be designed to ensure that more students succeed in progressing through the kindergarten to college continuum.  But there are some troubling reports emerging concerning the quality of the education at many universities.   

A very low bar

According to an article by Mary Beth Marklein in the USA Today, “Nearly half of the nation's undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don't make academics a priority.”  The report was based on the book by New York University professor Richard Arum Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses which studied transcripts from more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29 campuses nationwide.  In addition the researchers used the results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students' critical thinking, analytic reasoning and writing skills.  The numbers are discouraging—after two years of college, 45% of the students demonstrated no significant gains in learning.  After four years, more than one third (36%) still showed little improvement.

Many reasons - few which are good

The report attributed the lack of academic progress to a number of factors:

-  Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty research than teaching younger students.

- Students were more involved in their social lives than their academic success.

- Students spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago.

- Half of the students in the survey said they never took a class in a typical semester where they wrote more than 20 pages; 32% never took a course in a typical semester where they read more than 40 pages per week.

Professor Arum, the lead author of the book, found the results of great concern. “These are really…shocking, disturbing numbers.”  One number that might be even more appalling was 3.2—the average GPA of the students in the study.  Arum then stated the obvious “Students are able to navigate through the system quite well with little effort.”

An unfortunate helping hand

One of those navigational skills employs the ability to purchase rather than learn.  I recently performed a Google search on the topic “Research Paper”.  The original intent was to find out information for someone who was seeking honors credit in a college class.  Much to my surprise four of the top five options were websites that offered “from scratch” essays ranging from term papers to dissertations.  These sites offered 100% guaranteed satisfaction, free delivery and charged on average less than $8 per page.  The turnaround time was the main cost consideration.  The student need only send in the required topic, format, citation requirements and length.  The proliferation of companies offering these services adds to Professor Arum’s arguments.

While such “services” are certainly not the main cause of the lack of learning on college campuses they do speak to the larger problem.  Too many lines are being blurred in the pursuit of a degree.  What accountability do colleges have in demonstrating that they are effectively teaching their students?  High schools are constantly under pressure to monitor the intellectual and moral development of their students.  Are universities responsible for scrutinizing undergraduates in the same manner?  Is success in college due to actual student performance or high parental tuition payments? 

Is this a concern for high school educators?

I have postulated that the decline in public education can at least partially be attributed to an attitude in our society that is more concerned about eliminating failure than it is in creating success.  These statistics give credence to the belief that this attitude has continued into higher education.

The poor academic performance of so many college students raises many questions in reference to their experiences in high school.  Is the ability to achieve good grades with little knowledge acquisition unique to the university or is it being cultivated in earlier years?  Is the lack of rigor and high expectations a carryover from the high school or is it found only at the university level?   Has grade inflation made all performances suspect?  

While the problems established in this research may apply exclusively to the students in college, they should be of concern to everyone in education.  Finding the root causes could reveal some weaknesses that need to be addressed.