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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Hurray for College!
#5215849 - 01/23/06 10:08 PM (18 years, 1 month ago) |
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Why are us Americans so stupid? I constantly see statistics detailing how 80% of Americans can't find obvious stuff on a map and shit like that.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/20/literacy.college.students.ap/index.html
Study: College students lack literacy for complex tasks
Friday, January 20, 2006; Posted: 4:29 p.m. EST (21:29 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found.
The literacy study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the first to target the skills of graduating students, finds that students fail to lock in key skills -- no matter their field of study.
The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.
Without "proficient" skills, or those needed to perform more complex tasks, students fall behind. They cannot interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.
"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization.
Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills. That means they can do moderately challenging tasks, such as identifying a location on a map.
There was brighter news.
Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education.
Also, compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents.
"But do they do well enough for a highly educated population? For a knowledge-based economy? The answer is no," said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent and nonpartisan group.
"This sends a message that we should be monitoring this as a nation, and we don't do it," Finney said. "States have no idea about the knowledge and skills of their college graduates."
The survey examined college students nearing the end of their degree programs.
The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study.
Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.
Baldi and Finney said the survey should be used as a tool. They hope state leaders, educators and university trustees will examine the rigor of courses required of all students.
The college survey used the same test as the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the government's examination of English literacy among adults. The results of that study were released in December, showing about one in 20 adults is not literate in English.
On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools.
It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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mycogirl
goddamn
Registered: 07/03/05
Posts: 1,135
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Wow, Imagine the people who haven't been to college?
Plus, I think they pay people a shit load of money to make that shit misleading as hell.
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Re: Hurray for College! [Re: mycogirl]
#5215927 - 01/23/06 10:23 PM (18 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
mycogirl said: Wow, Imagine the people who haven't been to college?
Yeah really. What is it with us Americans? Is there some stupidity chemical in our water supply?
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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I blame television.
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Re: Hurray for College! [Re: Vvellum]
#5215975 - 01/23/06 10:35 PM (18 years, 1 month ago) |
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I guess this is what happens after 4 years of beer bongs, STDs, 420 and Xbox.
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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I think people are stupid before college...
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Xelios
God of Pancakes
Registered: 06/19/05
Posts: 95
Last seen: 17 years, 1 month
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Quote:
RandalFlagg said:
Quote:
mycogirl said: Wow, Imagine the people who haven't been to college?
Yeah really. What is it with us Americans? Is there some stupidity chemical in our water supply?
Yeah, it's called flouride.
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daimyo
Monticello
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 7,751
Last seen: 12 years, 1 month
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Instead of holding students back, teachers and administrators push them right on through. As long as you show up, and aren't a bad apple, you pass. No intellect required.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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Koala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG
Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,752
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Quote:
RandalFlagg said: Why are us Americans so stupid? I constantly see statistics detailing how 80% of Americans can't find obvious stuff on a map and shit like that.
Why are *we* Americans so stupid?
Sorry. (zing)
-------------------- You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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NosferatuMan
Stranger
Registered: 07/05/04
Posts: 527
Last seen: 18 years, 10 days
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I wish it was this easy in Canada. I really fucking do.
We have a literacy test in grade 10 so this kinda shit doesn't happen.
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nice
friend
Registered: 10/17/05
Posts: 127
Loc: Portland or Nyc
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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id blame football if we could only get people do amped up about string theory
go seahawks
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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I'm currently editing this book for my grandfather. It's a compilation of essays from various scholars. What amazes me is how poor a job many of these guys do at formatting their essays(with citations and such). These are all guys with PhD's, but if I were an English teacher, I'd flunk them all.
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Quote:
elgr said:
Quote:
RandalFlagg said: Why are us Americans so stupid? I constantly see statistics detailing how 80% of Americans can't find obvious stuff on a map and shit like that.
Why are *we* Americans so stupid?
Sorry. (zing)
Doh!
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Penguarky Tunguin
f n o r d
Registered: 08/08/04
Posts: 17,192
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I blame it on Bush, American Idol, that redneck comedy show, Oprah, and Maury Povitch....oh yeah, and all the "judge" shows.
-------------------- Every mistake, intentional or otherwise, in the above post, is the fault of the reader.
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MadSeasonAbove
Reef Donkey
Registered: 09/29/03
Posts: 3,143
Loc: Florida
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The general public education system in the US is a joke. I blame the govt. for dumbing down the population. Probably for the past 20 years this has been happening. Do they even fail kids anymore? I know in my HS it was rare for someone to fail. Everyone passed!!! If you failed, you didnt come to school/skipped all the time.
Television is horrible. The media focuses on nothing but the bad now a days. What happened to the good news? TV could be a useful thing, but it's not. It's airways are overflowing with crap.
yay for ranting!!
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bobjones
...
Registered: 10/12/05
Posts: 999
Loc: Tx
Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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im in college now...and it is such a waste of time. its all busy work, im not learning anything...and im a junior. anything that i do learn is on my own time outside of class.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -Mark Twain
-------------------- "Outside of a dog a book is a man's friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read" -Groucho Marx
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Scarfmeister
Thrill Seeker
Registered: 10/31/02
Posts: 8,127
Loc: The will to power
Last seen: 4 years, 8 months
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Re: Hurray for College! [Re: Silversoul]
#5219179 - 01/24/06 07:18 PM (18 years, 1 month ago) |
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They are scientists not editors. What is it with geeks who read dissertations and complain about every little format error they can find? Some guy spends years researching organic chemistry and you think you are smarter than him because he neglected to properly format his text? Yes quoting and referencing source material is ofc extremely important but i can forgive someone for using poor grammar if the core of the paper is excellent.
-------------------- -------------------- We're the lowest of the low, the scum of the fucking earth!
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Quote:
Shroomnoob said: They are scientists not editors.
Actually, they're theologians and philosophers.
Quote:
What is it with geeks who read dissertations and complain about every little format error they can find?
I only complain because I have to fix their mistakes.
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Re: Hurray for College! [Re: Silversoul]
#5219227 - 01/24/06 07:30 PM (18 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Paradigm said:
Quote:
Shroomnoob said: They are scientists not editors.
Actually, they're theologians and philosophers.
Quote:
What is it with geeks who read dissertations and complain about every little format error they can find?
I only complain because I have to fix their mistakes.
You got a job?! When did this happen?
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Gratos
Just thinkin anddrinkin
Registered: 08/21/05
Posts: 1,374
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