College Graduate Reading Levels Falling

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Orson, Dec 26, 2005.

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  1. Orson

    Orson New Member

    Disturbing news as more Americans seek college degrees:

    Reading proficiency down among college grads, tests show - By Lois Romano, The Washington Post

    Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult-literacy assessment that says the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation.

    "It's appalling - it's really astounding," said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. "Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder."

    More Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission.

    Far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

    Experts could not definitively explain the drop.

    http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/13488249.htm
     
  2. APerson

    APerson New Member

    Why is this surprising?
     
  3. DesElms

    DesElms New Member

    Well, hell... I can!

    It's a young lifetime's worth of training the brain for skills like watching television and playing video games instead of low-tech endeavors like reading a book.

    It's a young lifetime's worth of having news compressed down into TV/radio sound bites, and USA Today-quality newspaper articles; and not requiring that children old enough to understand the news be required to try getting a little of it from someplace like the New York Times.

    It's everything that a kid with a short attention span and the belief that the world revolves around him/her means whenever s/he says, in response to anything and everything that isn't cool in his/her little high-tech world: "Whatever!"

    I agree APerson: Why is this surprising?
     
  4. Jigamafloo

    Jigamafloo New Member

    Ever try raising two kids (sons=old bull vs. young bulls mentality) against that perception? In short, Gregg, I couldn't agree more.

    I would hammer at homework, promises, and chores (light, I assure you, given the difficulty in getting them to do them), and in response it seemed that everything was a battle along the lines of:

    "Why isn't the cable connection faster? I need to download this movie...."

    "What do you mean IM's aren't unlimited on my cell phone? You can't take that away! It's a right!"

    "Why can't my girlfriend sleep over? Her parents are cool with it...."

    "So...you're saying we DON'T have the money for me to go to Cancun on spring break?!?"

    No matter how hard I tried to impose the whole "live within your means, stop having unrealistic expectations, and quit listening to media and peer perceptions that the world/universe/economy really DOES revolve around you", it was an uphill battle.

    By the time they were ready to graduate high school (one doing so this year and the older one two years ago) they seemed ready to deal with life in realistic terms, but I was ready to start a steady diet of Prozac and Jack Daniels.

    Sorry, but you struck a nerve there.....I have two fine young, responsible men on my hands now, but it was in SPITE of societal norms/popular perceptions as portrayed, not because of them.

    Wow.....somehow. I feel cleansed!

    Dave
     
  5. eckert16

    eckert16 New Member

    This topice has been bantered about in the press quite a bit.
    What is surprising to me, is that this is occuring even while colleges seem to be increasing their accreditations for various programs. It would just seem that if a school is accredited, a part of that process should be some type of proficiency guarantee of the basic skills (since high schools are not doing it). I'm really not sure what the solution is to this, just a thought.
     

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