What Are Our College Students Learning?
Nick Taddeo /
The recent CPAC conference showed us that the conservative movement is powered, in part, by the students and young leaders who keep important political issues front and center on their respective campuses. A majority of the people who attended the conference were young people, and it was clear they took home a great wealth of knowledge about our founding principles, our political system and our economy. While it is certain that these students are well versed in these subject matters, it may not be true for their peers back on campus.
On Monday, February 22, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) conducted a panel discussion at The Heritage Foundation and discussed their recent studies on how well American colleges teach the political and economic principles that our nation was founded on. The 2007 and 2008 studies tested the civic literacy of respondents through questions on American history, politics and economics. The results were disturbing:
• Overall, college seniors failed the test.
• College seniors scored only slightly higher than their freshman counterparts overall.
• “Negative Learning” (where freshman score higher than seniors) occurs at Duke, Cornell, Princeton and Yale.
• Only 48% of Americans can correctly identify the 3 branches of government.