Knowing your A B C’s is apparently not enough…
I was listening to NPR Radio this morning and my mouth dropped hearing a news report about Standardized testing in colleges. A literacy study funded by the Pew Charitable Trust found that over 50% of students at 4 year institutions cannot understand a news story or editorial (this is why journalists are taught to write for 6-8 grade audience) and struggle with basic math such as figuring out a 15% tip! How outrageous is that?! These students are surely not ready for the real world work! It’s good to know that we have concern for domestic issues. The Bush administration has appointed a commission that is considering standardized testing for all institutions receiving federal funding. The testing is meant to measure the quality of higher education in the US.
I never believed that standardized testing is an effective method of measuring quality, but it has proven otherwise… I guess we’ll have to stay tuned for this one!
