[lbo-talk] College Makes Students More Liberal, but Not Smarter About Civics, Study Finds....not really though...

Bryan Atinsky bryan at alt-info.org
Wed Feb 10 06:01:52 PST 2010


I saw this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled:

College Makes Students More Liberal, but Not Smarter About Civics,

Study Finds

http://chronicle.com/article/College-Makes-Students-More/64040/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

While many graduates of American colleges cannot answer basic civics questions, a higher education does make their opinions more liberal on controversial social issues, according to a new report issued on Friday by an academic think tank.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an independent group with a tradition-minded view of issues, asked about 2,500 randomly selected people more than 100 questions to gauge their civic knowledge, public philosophy, civic behavior, and demographics.

"The Shaping of the American Mind," <http://chronicle.com/items/biz/pdf/2010%20Civic%20Lit%20Report%2012%2015%20FINAL_small_2_0.pdf> the fourth report from the institute on civic literacy, will be formally released on Wednesday.

Richard A. Brake, a co-author of the report, said he and his colleagues had sought to see what civic or social lessons students were learning in college.

The institute found that people who had attained at least a bachelor's degree were more likely than Americans whose formal education ended with a high-school diploma to take a liberal stance on certain controversial social issues. For example, 39 percent of people whose highest level of education was a bachelor's degree supported same-sex marriage, compared with 25 percent with a high-school diploma. The trend continued with advanced degrees: About 46 percent of people with master's degrees supported same-sex marriage, as did 43 percent of people with Ph.D.'s.

Previous surveys have found that, in general, college does not bring students up to a high level of civics knowledge. According to the institute's 2008 report, <http://chronicle.com/article/Most-College-Graduates-Flun/1357/> based on a survey of 2,500, people whose highest level of educational attainment was a bachelor's degree correctly answered 57 percent of the questions, on average. That is three percentage points lower than a passing grade, according to the survey's authors.

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So that piqued my interest, so I went to the actual study: http://chronicle.com/items/biz/pdf/2010%20Civic%20Lit%20Report%2012%2015%20FINAL_small_2_0.pdf

And this is how they measure civic knowledge:

Similarly, having more civic knowledge makes one more likely to agree that prosperity depends on entrepreneurs and free markets; but also less likely to agree that the free market brings about full employment. Civic Knowledge Increases a Person’s Regard for America’s Ideals and Free Institutions Gaining civic knowledge—as opposed to merely graduating from college—increases a person’s belief in American ideals and free institutions. If two people otherwise share the same basic characteristics, the one with greater civic knowledge will be more likely to support: • America’s ideals: He or she will be less likely to agree that America corrupts otherwise good people. • America’s Founding documents: He or she will be less likely to agree that the Founding documents are obsolete. • American free enterprise: He or she will be more likely to agree that prosperity depends on entrepreneurs and free markets, and less likely to agree that global capitalism produces few winners and many losers. • The Ten Commandments: He or she will be less likely to agree that the Ten Commandments are irrelevant today ------------------------------

Is this a joke? Why would The Chronicle of Higher Education even publicize this nonsense as legitimate research?

Bryan



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