Conservative group criticizes U.S. colleges for curricula failings

[sabra]

Source: Denver Post

Colorado's colleges continue to earn respectable rankings in U.S. News & World Report's Best College survey, but a conservative group says the schools aren't giving students the underpinnings of a complete education.

The group, the nonprofit American Council of Trustees and Alumni, graded 714 colleges and universities across the U.S. — 15 in Colorado — on their requirements for students to study seven core subjects: composition, math, science, economics, foreign language, literature, and American government or U.S. history.

The criteria call for: a writing class focused on grammar, style, clarity and argument; a literature survey course; three semesters of foreign language; a broad American history or government course; basic economics; college-level math; and a course in biology, geology, chemistry, physics or environmental science, preferably with a laboratory component.

Based on those criteria, the study found that nationally, schools public and private are "failing to ensure students cover critical subjects, most notably economics and U.S. government or history."

...

Liberal groups have attacked Washington, D.C.-based ACTA, founded by former Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynn Cheney, saying the organization engages in an ideological attack on higher education.

In a 2001 report, the nonprofit said college and university faculty have been a weak link in America's response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15810289

[Ian David]

1. The word "Failings" should be in quotes. n/t

[Igel]

3. Curricular requirements are a common topic of debate in universities.

I've had students--seniors--who couldn't write a coherent paragraph. They had freshman comp, but the main goal was to motivate students to do well. The actual mechanics of doing well were laid out so that they could write their essays by script. There was no need to learn how to write an essay. By their senior years they'd lost the handouts they followed for writing.

Then there are the college graduates that took "Chemistry in Society," looking at issues of social justice and how chemistry--pollution, mostly--made the life of the poor hell. Or "Physics for poets," in which the quantum-basis of consciousness, raised by the students, couldn't actually be dismissed on the basis of science because the students didn't have enough.

College graduates who manage to pass pre-calculus as their math class; when I was an undergrad that was remedial math and you got no college credit for it. Or who last studied a foreign language in high school: Required for entry to college, but once there unimportant.

The faculty were aware of these. But student groups pushed for social justice/multicultural subjects. Once I watched in dismay as a curriculum committee passed a multicultural course requirement (this one was "the cultures of the US," focusing on either Native American, Latino, Asian, or African-American culture). Somebody noted that the analysis presented didn't over all the curricula, engineering, in particular, but it passed anyway because, well, of course engineers need their consciousnesses "raised" more than most. The next meeting the engineering rep made a brief presentation: The new requirement would prevent any engineering student from graduating, since only a certain number of credits could count towards a degree and the new requirement put that number over the top.

Students argued that the new requirement was more important than the math, science, or engineering requirement. Get rid of something else. Their suggestion: Western civ or the 1-year foreign language requirement. In the interest of multicultural understanding, the foreign language requirement bit the dust. Universities are moving from produced educated people to producing people who are either sufficiently sensitive to certain social concerns deemed to be of great importance or to have a good professional or vocational training in a specific field. Politics and corporatism have mostly destroyed the idea of a liberal education (not the current definition of "liberal" used in politics, btw).

[Lightning Count]

6. I don't understand why we can't learn from Asian culture.

People who understand the importance of the math, foreign language, reading/writing, etc. and stress it in their educational system.

[NuttyFluffers]

13. our educational system is nowhere as bad as we think. been to Asia, done that, got the t-shirt.

who needs rote memorization when i have google? you need to know what to do with the material in the end. had the long chats w/ Japanese and Korean students/teachers and i can guarantee you that our system is still light years better because of one very simple thing: we allow our students to question things.

our big scholastic problem as a nation is obedience. everyone wants to go their own way, and the social support to "do well in school, or else...!" is currently lacking in our culture. but i can assure you that our social structure wasn't that way before; taking public education for granted is a very recent phenomenon (first you gotta have public education to take it for granted).

[Lightning Count]

15. When I was in school many moons ago the Asian transfer students blew everyone away.

And the dedication was just incredible. Maybe it is more cultural than due to curriculum. Their math skills were incredible though.

[NuttyFluffers]

30. they were/are literally beaten into submission physically, mentally, and culturally for school.

Just a few years ago when i was in Korea, grade school was from 7 am to 3pm and then private tutoring from 3pm to midnight is almost a standard practice to every parent that can afford it. further, the majority of children toys were academic in nature. kids would be bussed from the furthest stretches of one side of the city to the other well into the late night. there was no fun, only more pressure, and if you failed at any point you were an irredeemable disgrace and brought shame and failure to all the love and sacrifices your family had done for you.

in essence, it was a sick, emotionally dysfunctional hell. 2nd highest rates of youth suicide, just behind Japan, and the suicides are getting younger.

and it did not used to be this way for them. strict yes, but it's getting to psychotic proportions that it is a national dialogue now about what to do with schools and how to make kids study less so they can: sleep, eat, see their family more than a couple hours a day, see daylight beyond a commuter bus...

the key to anything involving success in life is dedication. talent only takes you so far -- it's tenacity that makes you go through failure enough to catch at least one success. just runing the numbers on probability on that one. even the natural world and hunting predators shows that difference.

so i very much believe it is a cultural issue in the states. when americans are smart, they are scary smart -- because they are open to new ways of thinking and like more than one solution to a problem. but just like any country, we have our not so academically smart people. but for some reason a deep seated resentment built up culturally against learning. tie that with longer work hours keeping parents from pressuring their kids, and poverty making making just about everything beyond immediate food and shelter concerns meaningless, and you have a society that does not put education as a premium.

[Jim__]

2. I agree that those subjects should all be required. My question is ...

... what is the cost to the coverage of the student's chosen major if those are all required. I don't think coming up with curriculum requirements is a simple task. Are the people in ACTA who have decided these should be required courses experts on college curriculum? If not, I wouldn't attach much weight to their opinion.

[wordpix]

4. The real problem here is pre-college. We have seniors graduating with 5th grade skills

Take it from me, I've taught them. Very few schools retain all students who should be retained. Grade levels mean nothing, so you can graduate high school with poor reading, writing and math skills, then go to college. And then it's the colleges' problem.

[Lightning Count]

5. Their curricula requirements sound sensible.

If these findings are accurate, it is very disturbing.

Among the findings:

• Less than 5 percent of colleges and universities require economics.

• Less than a third require American government or history, literature or intermediate-level foreign language.

• Nearly 40 percent don't require college-level mathematics.

[Francesca9]

28. History is a necessary course

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

7. I agree completely with this evaluation of the "end-product"

Universities and colleges in CO and all over the US are graduating students who lack foundational literacy and numeracy. It is a well-documented problem at this point in our history; we don't need Lynn Cheney to tell us this.

Where the nonsense arrives is the attack on teachers and "curricula" (which really = teachers + a few admin/Deans/Chairs) instead of a serious, in-depth discussion about how our current social and cultural values have brought us to a place where college educations are plentiful but essentially meaningless.

Our education crisis is just as much a spiritual/psychological/emotional neurosis as it is an issue of policy, curricula or "teacher effectiveness". The only way we will ever turn this around is to take a good hard look in the mirror; this type of activity is not exactly within our national learning style.

[XemaSab]

8. I don't have a problem with any of this

:shrug:

[EC]

9. Parker wrote about this yesterday in her column

and I thought to myself - the courses that they are judging the colleges on - are the courses that students going to the Ivy's (these are the colleges she was saying were worse than the matchbook cover colleges were)should already have been proficient at to get into those colleges. i.e. foreign languages, composition, lit and math. So maybe all those cheaper colleges have to get their students up to par in those areas, but you had better know your stuff in the Ivy's..

[enlightenment]

10. As a college history instructor, this gets no argument from me.

The ability to read, write, and reason is becoming a lost art. History is no longer a requirement at my school - except for history majors; other students are pushed into the classes because the state has a 'Constitution' requirement that is usually fulfilled by taking history or poli-sci. They don't care a whit about the material; just passing the course.

Foreign language requirements are virtually non-existent - three credit hours (one, single semester class). How much can you learn in fifteen or sixteen weeks?

The day that higher education became just a means to an end it began to die. What we are seeing now are the last feeble breaths of a once profoundly life-changing process of learning and maturation.

[wordpix]

20. see my post #4 - the problem starts in elem. school when students who should stay back are moved up

I know a 3rd grader quite well who should have been retained in 2nd. Good luck teaching him 3rd grade math. I know an 8th grader with 4th grade math skills and 2nd grade reading and writing skills. And so on. Our K-12 educational system is in shambles for the most part.

[Turbineguy]

11. "...a weak link in America's response to the Sept. 11 attacks."

Are they saying that an insufficient number of repub students have signed up for the military? Or perhaps the opposite that insufficient number of Democrats are getting killed or maimed in her husband's wars?

[NuttyFluffers]

12. that's basically the outline for the Liberal Studies major at most schools...

or at its most bare bones, the General Education requirement. it's already there. or are they trying to promote more Liberal Studies majors, from a conservative group? crrrazy!
:crazy:

sometimes i get the feeling conservative think tanks and action groups are like two failing neanderthals trying to start a fire with wet sticks.

[izquierdista]

14. Regis University?

Excuse me, but I can't take seriously the arguments of people who confuse myth with fact. I have to :rofl: :rofl: when dipshits argue for their for their skewed take on Friedmanomics and Zinnless history. They are arguing for a facts-free university education. :crazy:

[Doctor_J]

16. Cheney's organization is a terrorist cell

they're more ideological than Al Qaeda and probably more despicable since they do a lot of this terrorism for money

[Doctor_J]

17. Holy crap. Look at all of the Lynn Cheney fans in this thread

Am I in the wrong place?

[EFerrari]

19. No kidding. My junior college exceeded those standards

let alone my college.

This seems to be anti-intellectual day at DU.

[wordpix]

21. huh? Even grade schools have high standards but if students don't have to meet them

you've got a problem. HS seniors with 3rd grade reading/writing skills going on to college, for instance.

[EFerrari]

22. They are attacking requirements that already meet this criteria:

"The group, the nonprofit American Council of Trustees and Alumni, graded 714 colleges and universities across the U.S. — 15 in Colorado — on their requirements for students to study seven core subjects: composition, math, science, economics, foreign language, literature, and American government or U.S. history."

It's bullshit. They aren't about improving skills. They are about attacking liberal institutions.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Governmant and History. The Conservative strong point.

:eyes:

[EFerrari]

23. LOL Exactly. n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. And forget about composition, math, science, economics and foreign language.

They're so proficient at those.

[depakid]

29. I was thinking more like economics. LOL

[ieoeja]

25. Sounds like a good requirement ... for high school.

Strikes me as absurd for a college education. As a previous poster pointed out, if you're getting a non-specific college degree, fine. But for specialty fields, there are probably already too many useless requirements. Not too few.

My computer science degree required four semesters of French. I took that in high school, and wasn't the slightest bit interested in becoming better at it, so I only showed up for the tests listed on the syllabus. My last semester I showed up the last day of my French language course just in case the instructor decided to move up the final to that date (and she did). She smilingly told me I would have to get a perfect score on the test to pass as she had given a quiz every week.

I laughed and told her why I was in the class, that if she really wanted someone completely uninterested in her class taking it again next year, I would be happy to do so to get my degree, but that she was wasting both her time and mine.

She frowned and admitted that she should have learned my reasons for not attending class rather than sabotaging me. Whether I really got a perfect score on the final, or she just gave it to me, I dunno. I just know I graduated on time.

[starroute]

26. I agree

When I was in high school, we were required to take courses in English, Math, Science, and Social Science every year -- and complete three years of a language. I understand from my kids' experience that these days, English is the only required course by 12th grade, but even so kids on an academic track ought to be finishing high school with basic competency in all those areas.

If some of them manage to get into college despite lacking those skills, the colleges can provide remedial courses. But requiring fully prepared college Freshmen and Sophomores to re-learn everything they've already been learning for the past four years just sounds like a form of sadism.

[county worker]

27. Most of that should be taught in high school.