Students Don't Learn That Much In College

The emphasis here seems to be that people should be demanding more from colleges, but I don't think that's the problem.

Since college is so expensive in money and time, Americans tend to think that there should be a vocational payoff down the road, in the form of higher salaries. There is an automatic assumption there that is close to us all. We need to rethink all that. Indeed, we've got to give up all that! Just like the idea that cigarette smoking soothes the lungs, it's a false doctrine that brings only grief to countless families.

As the study makes SO CLEAR, it's what people study that's important. College has a purpose, after all. The college model is not infinitely-elastic and it can't be applied successfully everywhere.

We need to shut down college programs in teaching, business, communications - vocational tracks (that bring money into colleges) - and we need to expand college programs in science, literature, history - the liberal arts (that bring in substantially less money into colleges and are thus less-popular with college administrations).

If people need specific skills down the road they can always go to vocational schools, or, God forbid, crack open a manual:

Richard Arum, a professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, recently completed a study of how much 2,300 statistically representative undergraduates—who enrolled as freshmen in a diverse group of 24 colleges and universities in 2005—had learned by the time they (in theory) were ready to graduate, in 2009. As a measuring tool, the researchers used the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a respected test of analytic reasoning, critical thinking, and written communication skills. Their findings were published this month in Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press) and in an accompanying white paper. It is, remarkably, the first study of its kind.

Their finding? Forty-five percent of students made no gains on the CLA during their first two years in college. Thirty-six percent made no gains over the entire four years. They learned nothing. On average, students improved by less than half a standard deviation in four years. "American higher education," the researchers found, "is characterized by limited or no learning for a large proportion of students."

The results for black students were particularly sobering. It turns out that the racial achievement gaps that shock the conscience in K-12 education get worse when students go to college.

...After controlling for demographics, parental education, SAT scores, and myriad other factors, students who were assigned more books to read and more papers to write learned more. Students who spent more hours studying alone learned more. Students taught by approachable faculty who enforced high expectations learned more. "What students do in higher education matters," the authors note. "But what faculty members do matters too."

The study also found significant differences by field of study. Students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, and math—again, controlling for their background—did relatively well. Students majoring in business, education, and social work did not. Our future teachers aren't learning much in college, apparently, which goes a long way toward explaining why students arrive in college unprepared in the first place.

Financial aid also matters. The study found that students whose financial aid came primarily in the form of grants learned more than those who were paying mostly with loans. ... Learning was also negatively correlated with­—surprise—time spent in fraternities and sororities.