Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (January 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226028550
• ISBN-13: 978-0226028552
• Read:  Yes
• Remarks: An interesting read on the quality of education in America particularly at the undergraduate level. The US has been falling behind other nations but new evidence is showing that even students who get accepted and do well in our various institutions are actually learning very little. Two findings I found alarming: About 45 percent of the students showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning or written communication during their first two years in college. Students described their college experience as being surprisingly easy; studying slightly more than 12 hours per week on average. Few courses required 40 pages or more of reading a week or writing as much as 20 pages over the course of a semester. Academically Adrift doesn't read like "chicken little" rather is packed with data, which in parts can be daunting but play a crucial supporting role. There are many variables presented as to how we got to where we are, each being presented in order and several were fascinating to contemplate respective contribution. Enjoyed reading.
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• In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there?
  
  For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list.