(See article below and Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 91007.)
From a Yahoo! AP article, Study: Most College Students Lack Skills :
Study: Most College Students Lack Skills By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON - Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food. [/] Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers.
More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks. [/] That means they could not 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.
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. [/] "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, meaning they could perform moderately challenging tasks. Examples include identifying a location on a map, calculating the cost of ordering office supplies or consulting a reference guide to figure out which foods contain a particular vitamin.
"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 and university 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.
[…] On The Net: [/] American Institutes for Research: http://www.air.org/ [My ellipses and emphasis]
Poll Question: Send Skill Jobs Overseas? | Poll Choices:
1. Absolutely. That's where the skill is. | 2. Yes. More bang for the buck. | 3. Yes. Serves the slackers right. | 4. Yes. Regrettably. | 5. Yes. | 6. In many cases. | 7. In some cases. | 8. No. More money for education. | 9. No. Employers should train. | 10. No. Accept sloppy work. | 11. No. | 12. Other. | 13. No comment. | 14. No opinion. | 15. This poll is worthless. | 16. This poll is of negative value.
