The Leader

Issue date: 11/8/06 Section: News

Do you know your history? Most likely you do not know as much as you may think you do. A study done in 2005 by The University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy has shown a dramatic drop in college student's knowledge of American history.

The study was a test of 60 questions given to college seniors and college freshman. It appears four years of college does not do much for a person's history knowledge as incoming freshman only scored one point lower than the seniors.

Even more shocking is that in 16 of the 50 schools the freshman outscored the seniors. "Seniors at 22 of the 50 schools scored on average below 50 percent, and seniors at four of the colleges had an average score below 40 percent," according to the University of Connecticut.

The study of 50 schools showed that universities "are failing to add to their graduates' understanding of America's history and essential institutions," which includes "some of the most expensive and elite" in the entire country.

Schools at the bottom of the list surprisingly include the prestigious universities of Duke, Brown, Yale and University of California-Berkeley. These are schools that claim they are "putting out well-rounded citizens" according to Chris Barnes of the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy.

So is higher education really still higher education? Six of the questions from the test were taken from National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is a test high school seniors' take to determine their knowledge of America's history and institutions. To make matters worse, college students scored even lower on these six questions then they did on the other 54.

The Leader had to find out for themselves how little or much college students know when it comes to American history. We came up with four basic questions that we felt anybody who has taken a basic American history class could answer. Much to our surprise we were incorrect. We asked six students from different colleges as well as one high school student the following four questions:

First question: When did t
he First World War take place? Answer: 1914-1918.

Five of the six answered correctly with exact years. So far we are looking pretty good.

Second question: What came first the American Revolution or Civil War? Answer: American Revolution.

This is where things take a turn for the worse. Renee, a senior in high school answered "Civil War." If somebody could explain how you can have a civil war before a revolution, that would be great.

Continued...

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