Are entering college students as well educated as they were 10 years ago, 20 years ago?

Having taught at the university level for a long time, I can tell you that in past years, on the whole, entering students had much better skills in terms of written expression. (I agree with the above comment that there has always been, and there continues to be, an outstanding group of students at the top with superb skills.)

I have wondered about this precipitous decline in writing skills, and have looked into the potential causes of this phenomenon. It seems that over the last 20 years, elementary and secondary teachers have decided that instead of focusing on grammar, spelling, proper argumentation, and the like, it is more important to reward students for producing opinions. Students at the elementary and secondary level are now often asked to produce "reflection papers" in which they write about their feelings on a topic, or experiences encountering a situation or text. They are graded on how well they "reflect" or "express feelings" rather than on how well they understand a reading, or on how well they construct an argument (or paragraph, or sentence). Grammar and spelling are considered to be "lower-order" concerns, and are therefore not emphasized.

In my opinion, this pedagogical method has done a great disservice to students. It has also made it necessary for university professors to teach in our introductory courses what would, in decades past, have been considered remedial writing skills. This necessity complicates (and often detracts from) our ability to teach just the subject at hand.

For example, in my introductory courses in a subject in the humanities (NOT English composition), I have learned to give a series of assignments that require students to identify the thesis statement, the evidence, and the conclusions drawn in a particular scholarly article. I then, step by step, require students to compose a thesis statement, supported by evidence, that leads to a conclusion. On the rubric I use to grade these assignments, I include the requirement of proper grammar and spelling. I often receive frustrated comments from students along the lines of "This is not an English class! Why do we have to do all this?" The answer, of course, is that they must master the elementary skills of reading and writing in order to proceed with any further study at the university level.

To what do I attribute this phenomenon? First, to the low valuation of elementary and secondary teachers in contemporary US society. They are poorly paid, and poorly rewarded for their efforts. They are often made to enforce the mere accumulation of basic data (rather than critical reading and writing skills) in order to enable students to pass statewide tests. Second, it is a well-documented fact that students who enter schools of education, nationwide, and both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, are themselves the students with the lowest SAT scores, the lowest GPAs, and the most tenuous reading and writing skills. They often go into education in order to "work with children" rather than to convey passion for a particular area of study, or to furnish students with a particular set of skills. Finally, these students are being required to major in "Education" rather than in a particular subject area. This gives them no special body of knowledge (history, chemistry, physics, ENGLISH) to teach to secondary and elementary students.

Well, that's my rant for the day.

Best wishes to you.

true indeed many people who go to college are ill prepared for college which is why the ratio of actual graduation is lower then one might think it is.

But before you judge you can obviously tell i do not spell or use the greatest grammer on a college level

however i do well in college not based on previous skills but determination because when i was in high school i averaved a 2.0 because i didnt try i only got what i could to pass

yes this has made college very hard for me and although i may not be able to spell well or do great grammer i can function on top with anybody else based on determination

WHy>? Simple i study my butt off i work hard and i do not want to make 1200 dollars in nebraska a month which is no good (for the rest of my life) i graduate in 2 months and i will be making near 55,000 as a paralegal in nebraska that will be good. Compared to my 24,000 at most a year. Determination is all that matters the bs about spelling and grammer means nothing people understand you when you talk and thats what spell check and punctuation is for! If you are looking for the reason that education has fallen so much my reason would be this

to much put on these young kids back in your days you may have studied hard and all that but new technology is being learned at such a young age it takes all the energy out of these kids'

for instence

POWER POINT IN GRADE 5? holly shnikees are you kidding me

I teach at University and I think that several things have changed and some have stayed the same.

The number of clever (outstanding) students as a percentage of the population has stayed the same but the proportion of people going to University has increased. I don't think this is a bad thing in itself at all. Many people are clever enough to go to university.

THe style of education has changed and this has advantages and disadvantages for individual subjects and for the learning styles of different students.

Some kids see university as a thing that you do just for the sake of it, not because they have a desire to study that subject, which is sad. I expect first year students to spend most of their year drinking rather than studying but they could at least pretend that they are bothered. However by the third year most of these students have their arses in gear!

There are many subject and issues discussed in high school that used to be only on the university curriculum so I wouldn't say that education levels have fallen but they have changed radically and sometimes some of the grounding of the old systems have been totally lost. Whilst some of it was old fashioned and not effective parts of it were.

All educational tests, whether it be in grade school, middle school, high school, or the SATs, have lowered their standards over the past thirty five years, so the answer to your question is no, they are not as educated. And you're right--I am honestly horrified when I read the questions and answers on this forum!! And I don't mean to be a smart-a**, but your fellow classmates had better skills T-H-A-N this (not "then").

i think college stududents or those entering college now a days are much more educated than the past. when i was in school 25 years.ago and longer with grade school i know i never was as much educated as the kids are today . every thing is much more advance now. and most kids have more education in the 6th grade now as we did in the 8th.. i think that we have more tools for education now than the past decades.

20 years ago, I was 8, living in Canada & going to the local Elementary School. Now I'm not doing any of those things :)

education is the same but its application has changed.People tend 2 use shortcuts so dnt go with their vocabularies cuz the might know a lot more than us

Is is about making money at the expense of thinking ideas of improving life. In other words,if kids can have a bigger bank account then they have fulfilled their life's goal.

I don't believe they are because times have changed. Blessings

education is better, but less go to school.