Questioning the Data

According to this article in CNN, a study cites that "More than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers"

Wow, we're in for a world of hurt if that's true. Later...

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

How about this - if it's close to E at all, find the nearest service station and fill up. If you're really that dumb, you won't even find the need to compare gas prices. Rocket science, no?

At the end of the article: "On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools." How about the more likely explanation - the 1827 students didn't give a rat's ass about this test.

The issue here isn't college. If these things are TRULY menacing problems, the problem is lack of a solid high school education. Everybody's got a weak spot (I had some stock do a 3 for 2 split, and the math for that wasn't immediate for even software developer me), but, really, people, I'm more likely to believe test takers didn't care/weren't applying themselves than I am to worry about college grads not being able to function in society.

hln

Posted by hln at January 20, 2006 05:31 PM | RANT | TrackBack