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<DIV class=timestamp>May 14, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Your So-Called
Education</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By RICHARD ARUM and JOSIPA ROKSA</H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>COMMENCEMENT is a special time on college campuses: an occasion for students,
families, faculty and administrators to come together to celebrate a job well
done. And perhaps there is reason to be pleased. In recent surveys of college
seniors, more than 90 percent report gaining subject-specific knowledge and
developing the ability to think critically and analytically. Almost 9 out of 10
report that overall, they were satisfied with their collegiate experiences. </P>
<P>We would be happy to join in the celebrations if it weren’t for our recent
research, which raises doubts about the quality of undergraduate learning in the
United States. Over four years, we followed the progress of several thousand
students in more than two dozen diverse four-year colleges and universities. We
found that large numbers of the students were making their way through college
with minimal exposure to rigorous coursework, only a modest investment of effort
and little or no meaningful improvement in skills like writing and reasoning.
</P>
<P>In a typical semester, for instance, 32 percent of the students did not take
a single course with more than 40 pages of reading per week, and 50 percent did
not take any course requiring more than 20 pages of writing over the semester.
The average student spent only about 12 to 13 hours per week studying — about
half the time a full-time college student in 1960 spent studying, according to
the labor economists Philip S. Babcock and Mindy S. Marks. </P>
<P>Not surprisingly, a large number of the students showed no significant
progress on tests of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing that were
administered when they began college and then again at the ends of their
sophomore and senior years. If the test that we used, the Collegiate Learning
Assessment, were scaled on a traditional 0-to-100 point range, 45 percent of the
students would not have demonstrated gains of even one point over the first two
years of college, and 36 percent would not have shown such gains over four years
of college. </P>
<P>Why is the overall quality of undergraduate learning so poor? </P>
<P>While some colleges are starved for resources, for many others it’s not for
lack of money. Even at those colleges where for the past several decades tuition
has far outpaced the rate of inflation, students are taught by fewer full-time
tenured faculty members while being looked after by a greatly expanded number of
counselors who serve an array of social and personal needs. At the same time,
many schools are investing in deluxe dormitory rooms, elaborate student centers
and expensive gyms. Simply put: academic investments are a lower priority. </P>
<P>The situation reflects a larger cultural change in the relationship between
students and colleges. The authority of educators has diminished, and students
are increasingly thought of, by themselves and their colleges, as “clients” or
“consumers.” When 18-year-olds are emboldened to see themselves in this manner,
many look for ways to attain an educational credential effortlessly and
comfortably. And they are catered to accordingly. The customer is always right.
</P>
<P>Federal legislation has facilitated this shift. The funds from Pell Grants
and subsidized loans, by being assigned to students to spend on academic
institutions they have chosen rather than being packaged as institutional grants
for colleges to dispense, have empowered students — for good but also for ill.
And expanded privacy protections have created obstacles for colleges in
providing information on student performance to parents, undercutting a
traditional check on student lassitude. </P>
<P>Fortunately, there are some relatively simple, practical steps that colleges
and universities could take to address the problem. Too many institutions, for
instance, rely primarily on student course evaluations to assess teaching. This
creates perverse incentives for professors to demand little and give out good
grades. (Indeed, the 36 percent of students in our study who reported spending
five or fewer hours per week studying alone still had an average G.P.A. of
3.16.) On those commendable occasions when professors and academic departments
do maintain rigor, they risk declines in student enrollments. And since
resources are typically distributed based on enrollments, rigorous classes are
likely to be canceled and rigorous programs shrunk. Distributing resources and
rewards based on student learning instead of student satisfaction would help
stop this race to the bottom. </P>
<P>Others involved in education can help, too. College trustees, instead of
worrying primarily about institutional rankings and fiscal concerns, could hold
administrators accountable for assessing and improving learning. Alumni as well
as parents and students on college tours could ignore institutional facades and
focus on educational substance. And the <A class=meta-org
title="More articles about the U.S. Department of Education."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/education_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Department
of Education</A> could make available nationally representative longitudinal
data on undergraduate learning outcomes for research purposes, as it has been
doing for decades for primary and secondary education. </P>
<P>Most of all, we hope that during this commencement season, our faculty
colleagues will pause to consider the state of undergraduate learning and our
collective responsibility to increase academic rigor on our campuses.
</P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>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, are the authors of “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College
Campuses.” </P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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