Higher Education Short Changes Students
A Limited Skill Set:
Most college students today lack the literacy and math capability to handle common real-life tasks, according to a study by the American Institutes for Research. Given the cost of a college education, that's depressing and in today's highly competitive information economy, that's scary.
The study evaluated three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, math skills and understanding documents. Most students had an intermediate skill level. But without proficiency, their analytical skills leave them unable to interpret tables, such as information about exercise and blood pressure. They couldn't understand arguments of newspaper editorials, compare the interest rate and annual fees of different credit card offers or summarize survey results.
New Jersey Higher Education
Most college students today lack the literacy and math capability to handle common real-life tasks, according to a study by the American Institutes for Research. Given the cost of a college education, that's depressing and in today's highly competitive information economy, that's scary.
The study evaluated three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, math skills and understanding documents. Most students had an intermediate skill level. But without proficiency, their analytical skills leave them unable to interpret tables, such as information about exercise and blood pressure. They couldn't understand arguments of newspaper editorials, compare the interest rate and annual fees of different credit card offers or summarize survey results.
New Jersey Higher Education
