Teaching failures shown in study

By Mathew Manweller

This summer I wrote about a nationwide survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, in partnership with the University of Connecticut, of 14,000 college students from across the nation. The survey found that when college seniors were tested on four subjects - American history, government, foreign policy and economics - the average correct score was just over 50 percent. Parents and all of us concerned about education need to be aware of some disturbing trends in civic education at our nation's universities and colleges.

The study revealed two other uncomfortable findings. First, the average college senior scored only 1.5 percent better on the civics exams than did entering freshman. Second, in 30 percent of the colleges, outgoing seniors experience negative learning, they actually knew less about civics than did the incoming freshmen.

But pointing out how little our college students are learning about civics is only the first step in addressing a serious problem. A community committed to rectifying this weakness not only admits there is a problem (the easy part), but also pledges itself to changing policies that have contributed to the failure.

To their credit, the researchers at Intercollegiate Studies Institute have done more than simply hold up a mirror to our society and say, "We are failing." They have also offered a roadmap for universities so that the next generation of college students knows more about our economic and political systems than the current one.

The first step is for each college and university to assess its own institution. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute studied 50 colleges. But each college has its own strengths and weaknesses. Maybe a particular university does a great job teaching American history, but not such a good job teaching economics or political science. Just as "one-size-fits-all" does not work in public policy, it probably will not work in fixing our institutions of higher education. Once education leaders at each college know their own particular weaknesses, then they will know where to concentrate their resources

Then there is the obvious. Students don't learn what colleges don't teach. We need our schools to offer more classes in political science, international relations, economics and history. And we need to make them required classes. As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," but that is not true for college students. University general education committees can decide what classes students must take to earn a degree. Given how little our graduating seniors know about their own society, more required civics classes would go a long way in rectifying the problem.

We also need to inform the leaders in our education system. Policymakers can only make changes if they know there is a problem. In Washington state, that means we need to let college presidents know. We need to let the governor's new P-20 Education Commission know. We need to let the Higher Education Coordinating Board know. The people who volunteer on these important councils have dedicated their time to improving the education of our children. If they know that graduates can only answer half of the questions on a basic civics exam, I believe they will take action.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute concludes their study by recommending the creation of localized centers of excellence at each university. These centers would be dedicated to improving civic education. In the 1980s and 1990s, university officials identified gaps in student learning and responded by creating special programs for women's studies, Latino studies, and gay and lesbian studies. If we can devote time, effort, money and attention to these specialized areas of learning, we can create centers of excellence for teaching about the fundamental institutions of American life.

Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

One of the ways we pass on freedom is to teach our children about the key institutions, important people and far-reaching events that created and maintained it. If our universities fail at that task, we may be the ones telling our children about a time when "men were free."

Professor Mathew Manweller is a member of the Washington Policy Center's Academic Advisory Board and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Central Washington University. He can be reached via 937-9691 or online at washingtonpolicy.org.