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College students fail American history survey; SU professors stress facts don't tell the entire story
By Molly Gallagher
Posted: 10/3/07, 10:58 PM EST Section: News
College students are ignorant, forgetful and have a severe lack of knowledge when it comes to American history, according to a report released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) last month.
For the second year in a row, ISI, a non-profit educational organization, conducted a test of 14,000 college freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges and universities. And for the second consecutive year, the group said American students failed miserably, answering less than 55 percent of questions correctly.
"The evidence from our ongoing research shows that colleges are failing to advance students' knowledge of America's history, government and free-market economics, and consequently not preparing their students to be informed and engaged citizens," the ISI reported.
But the 60-question test on American history, U.S. government, international relations and economics did not impress most history professors at Syracuse University. Though the exam brings to light students' inability to retain critical information, the test merely gives a "snapshot of what people know," said American history professor David Bennett.
American history professor James Sharp offered an explanation for the results: Students typically study American history in high school, but the test is administered to college students.
"If someone is not an American history major, they haven't taken this course since high school, and people do forget things," said assistant history professor Andrew Cohen.
While professors at SU think the questions on the exam are fair, that doesn't mean they test a student's overall knowledge of American history.
"The questions look good, but I would also argue that it reinforces a view of history that consists of history being a string of facts," Sharp said. "(It) distorts what is important about history."
Sophomore photography major Jackie Poinier said she believes that students do not retain this information because "other countries have a deeper culture than we do. … Our country is not rooted in nationality."
For the second year in a row, ISI, a non-profit educational organization, conducted a test of 14,000 college freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges and universities. And for the second consecutive year, the group said American students failed miserably, answering less than 55 percent of questions correctly.
"The evidence from our ongoing research shows that colleges are failing to advance students' knowledge of America's history, government and free-market economics, and consequently not preparing their students to be informed and engaged citizens," the ISI reported.
But the 60-question test on American history, U.S. government, international relations and economics did not impress most history professors at Syracuse University. Though the exam brings to light students' inability to retain critical information, the test merely gives a "snapshot of what people know," said American history professor David Bennett.
American history professor James Sharp offered an explanation for the results: Students typically study American history in high school, but the test is administered to college students.
"If someone is not an American history major, they haven't taken this course since high school, and people do forget things," said assistant history professor Andrew Cohen.
While professors at SU think the questions on the exam are fair, that doesn't mean they test a student's overall knowledge of American history.
"The questions look good, but I would also argue that it reinforces a view of history that consists of history being a string of facts," Sharp said. "(It) distorts what is important about history."
Sophomore photography major Jackie Poinier said she believes that students do not retain this information because "other countries have a deeper culture than we do. … Our country is not rooted in nationality."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Eric Boyer
posted 10/04/07 @ 10:00 AM EST
People for the American Way's take on ISI:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16247
Tom Brown
posted 10/05/07 @ 9:09 AM EST
Wish your online version of the story had included a sidebar box giving a few examples of the questions that students flunked.
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