The higher education community has been buzzing about Academically Adrift, a new study by researchers Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa about how much students are learning in college. What do the authors conclude? Students aren’t learning much. In fact, 45 percent of students made no gains on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (a test of higher order thinking skills) during their first two years in college. And 36 percent made no gains over the entire four years. Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the smallest gains.
The focus in America has changed from getting students into college to getting them to successfully complete college, but this study shifts attention in a different direction — what are students actually learning while they are in college?
This study raises other questions too: Why does America have the most envied higher education system in the world if students learn very little while they are enrolled? Does higher education suffer from the same ailments as K-12 education? Why are students in certain majors (especially education!) making even fewer gains?
You can order the text from the University of Chicago Press at http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?isbn=9780226028552 .
