College students don’t know much about their government’s history, says a new survey that shows many can’t identify the century the first American colony was established or recognize a line from the Declaration of Independence.
A glimmer of good news is that seniors at Colorado’s two public-research universities had higher scores than freshmen who took the 60-question quiz, contrasting with some of the nation’s elite institutions where freshmen scored better.
But that’s not much to brag about, because students at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University still got failing grades, according to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which contracted with the University of Connecticut to conduct the three-year study released Tuesday.
“It’s not encouraging,” said CU regent Tom Lucero, who helped establish a Center for Western Civilization on the Boulder campus last year to promote the study of American history and government.
The study included 14,000 freshmen and seniors chosen randomly from 50 schools in the fall of 2005. They answered questions about America’s history; government; America and the world; and the market economy.
Nationally, seniors got 53.2 percent of the questions correct, a score that represented “failure by a wide margin on a traditional grading scale,” the study said.
Seniors barely knew more about American history than freshmen, who scored an average of 51.7 percent at the 50 schools.
At 16 schools, including Duke, Brown, Georgetown and the University of Virginia, seniors scored lower than freshmen, a phenomenon that Josiah Bunting III, the institute’s National Civic Literacy Board chairman, calls “negative learning.”
The two Colorado universities included in the study did not have “negative learning.” But freshmen at CU and CSU were among the least prepared in the nation, scoring an average of 40 percent on the test.
Seniors at CSU scored a 51.5 percent, compared with 48.6 percent for CU seniors.
CSU ranked second and CU fifth in the change between freshman scores and senior scores.
“We can take considerable satisfaction that we rank as high as we do, but when you look at what a No. 2 ranking means, you still have a long way to go,” said Alan Lamborn, CSU’s vice provost for undergraduate affairs.
Georgetown University ranked 43rd and Yale 44th in that section of the survey.
Doug Yarrington, CSU history department chair, said the survey doesn’t account for wider knowledge of history that can’t be measured purely by facts.
“Students are spending less time studying U.S. history, but spending more time studying the history of the world as the whole,” he said.
Yarrington and CU regent Lucero, who has invited one of the study directors to present the findings to CU regents next week, said it shows students aren’t absorbing enough civics knowledge in the K-12 system.
“There has been a great emphasis in recent years of getting back to the basics, and sometimes history and government get left out,” Yarrington said.
Staff writer Karissa Marcum can be reached at 303-954-1858 or kmarcum@denverpost.com.
College knowledge
Among the questions included on the survey given to 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 schools:
The idea that in America there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state appears in:
a) George Washington’s Farewell Address.
b) The Mayflower Compact.
c) The Constitution.
d) The Declaration of Independence.
e) Thomas Jefferson’s letters.
Answer: e
The phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …” is from:
a) The Federalist.
b) The Preamble to the Constitution.
c) The Communist Manifesto.
d) The Declaration of Independence.
e) An inscription on the Statue of Liberty.
Answer: d
What kind of government is a junta?
a) military.
b) religious.
c) populist.
d) social democratic.
e) parliamentarian.
Answer: a
Among which of these groups would Saddam Hussein have found his most reliable supporters?
a) Islamic Brotherhood.
b) Baath Party.
c) Communist Party.
d) Hamas.
e) Israelis.
Answer: b
Source: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
