How academia fails America

posted at 8:00 am on February 10, 2010 by Karl

America has a problem with civic illiteracy — and modern higher education is not much of the solution. For its annual report — officially released today — the Intercollegiate Studies Institute polled over 2,500 Americans to measure the effect of college on their civic literacy. The poll asked questions drawn primarily from U.S. naturalization exams and high school progress tests. ISI also asked a battery of questions about American ideals and institutions, immigration, culture, religion, and economics.

The good news is not very good. Fifty-seven percent of college graduates failed the ISI test on civic knowledge, a bit better than the overall 71% failure rate. But college alone adds less than two percentage points per year to a graduate’s overall score. And with 60% being a passing score, the bar was set fairly low.

The ISI study also found the following:

• Getting a college degree does not significantly boost civic knowledge, but it does make their opinions more liberal on controversial social issues, including same-sex marriage and abortion. College grads are also less likely to believe anyone can succeed in America with hard work and perseverance.
• Gaining civic knowledge influences a person’s views on a broader array of issues, and appears to produce a more independent frame of mind.
• Gaining civic knowledge—as opposed to merely graduating from college—increases a person’s belief in American ideals and free institutions. For example, those with greater civic knowledge are less likely to believe that America corrupts otherwise good people, or that our Founding documents are obsolete.
• Being a college professor alters one’s worldview on propositions involving education, economics, religion, and America. Professors are more likely to believe that: America corrupts otherwise good people; the Ten Commandments are irrelevant today; and raising the minimum wage decreases employment. (Shocka, I know.)

ISI also has the civics quiz online, should you want to challenge yourself. The study is a nice companion piece to the recent Pew News IQ test — on which Republicans (and Independents) fared better than Democrats. It is also a nice answer to David Brooks the next time he champions the superiority of the “educated class.” That class should be getting more educated, and less indoctrinated.

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