College And Literacy
When college students were tested on different levels of literacy and mathematics in a fairly recent study, the results were startling. Over 50% of students attending a four year program and over 75% attending two year programs were not able to complete complex literacy tasks, such as summarizing the results of surveys on parental involvement in schools, as well as being unable to compare credit cards that had different interest rates and annual fees. As well, over 50% of the students who were close to graduation lacked the necessary skills to complete tasks such as understanding an editorial article in a newspaper.
The main areas of this particular study included analyzing stories in the news and other writings, comprehending documents and utilizing the math skills necessary for checkbooks and even restaurant tips. One of the researchers may have understated the feeling of most when he said that it was a “little disturbing” that at this level of higher education students could not perform basic tasks.
Most of the students attending four year programs at universities and community colleges did show some intermediate skills, which means they were able to complete moderately challenging jobs. Examples of this include identifying locations on maps, consulting reference guides in order to learn what foods contained certain vitamins and some college students were also able to calculate the cost of ordering office supplies.
There is a brighter side; the overall average literacy level of university students is actually higher than the average level of adult literacy nationwide. However, even though it sounds encouraging, experts claim it is not exactly surprising given the fact that the group of adults tested included those who had significantly less education.
When compared with like levels of education, the college students demonstrated superior skills when it came to searching for and using information gathered from documents and texts. But, is it adequate enough for a population that is highly educated and an economy that is based on knowledge? Most experts say no because in those studies students performed worst on problems involving mathematics. Almost 20% of the students who were studying for a four year degree possessed only the basic amount of quantitative skills. For instance, they were unable to estimate whether or not a car had adequate fuel to make it to a gas station, and about 30% of the students following the two year path possessed only the basic mathematical skills.
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