The College Fix

“thesis (the·sis)—Pronunciation:/ˈTHēsis, ˈθisɪs/—noun (plural theses /-sēz/)—1 a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved,” courtesy of the Oxford Dictionary. My tenth-grade English teacher described it to our class as a coat rack, a sentence upon which to hang the rest of your work.

So let’s try this one on for size:  Even though some 45 percent of all American undergraduate students demonstrate “no statistically significant academic improvement” over their first two years of college, the sky is not falling, and American higher education is still the best in the world.

That statistic is one of many seemingly alarming facts provided in a report that hit newspapers last week—just as newly elected GOP state legislators across the country were getting down to work slashing state budgets. Here in Iowa, Republicans are looking to cut state funding for our three public universities by about $18 million, even though state appropriations only made up 38 percent of the University of Iowa’s FY2010-2011 revenues. By contrast, state appropriations comprise some 48 percent of Ohio State’s revenues—over 26 percent more than UI.

The study then goes on to report that of the 45 percent of under-performing students, 80 percent (or 36 percent of all undergrads) will make absolutely zero “academic progress” over their entire college career. None. So, taking the results of this study combined with a re-empowered GOP eager to cut public education budgets and the ongoing rise of India and China, American education has to be on the verge of tapping out, right?

At first glance, that may seem like a solid counter-thesis, but I don’t think it’s quite so cut and dry.

For one thing, despite incessant warnings that America now scores worse than Latvia on international math proficiency exams, according to those same rankings, we graduate more “highest-proficiency” students in science and reading than any other country on Earth. Further, only Japan graduates more “highest-proficiency” math students. Besides, as University of California-Barkley Professor Vivek Wadhwa points out, “Do high PISA rankings make students more likely to invent the next iPad? Google? I don’t think so.”

Likewise, not showing improvement on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), the exam upon which the aforementioned study was based, is hardly synonymous with “didn’t learn anything.” Proving my point, the researchers found “significant differences by field of study,” with students in the hard and social sciences, humanities and math outperforming their peers studying business, education and social work. Let’s break that down.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the CLA focuses primarily on reasoning and writing skills. It makes a lot of sense that liberal arts students improved in these areas and scored significantly higher than their non-liberal arts peers. After all, as any professional educator will tell you, “reasoning and writing skills” are the foundation of a liberal arts education.

What about social work? While reasoning is an important part of just about everything, it’s not particularly pertinent to social work specifically—same for writing skills—so it makes sense that they aren’t a huge part of the curriculum. Social work usually has its own college or school, as it does here at UI.

The same goes for both education and business. They’re not as focused on liberal arts principles because they’re looking for specific skill sets that usually don’t require advanced reasoning or writing skills. Those who do require enhanced proficiency usually opt for Master’s degrees.

It’s a given that students who are admitted to college have at least some proficiency in writing and reasoning. It makes sense that for professions where “proficient” skills are adequate, no further development is needed.

And finally, there’s the question of cuts to public funding. Iowa Republicans are pushing for cuts of $18 million to the budgets of Iowa’s public universities. It’s also a mere three percent of UI’s education-related revenue. Sure, I don’t think the cuts are a good idea, but they’re not a crushing blow—especially if the universities aren’t allowed to raise tuition to cover the difference.

This isn’t to say, however, that everything is in tip-top shape. Last spring, I was shocked when the TA in one of my humanities GEs had to explain to the class what a thesis is and the role it plays in academic writing, something I’d learned—had imprinted on me—as a sophomore in high school. But the class learned. And that’s the point. Though American education has its shortcomings, and plenty of them, it’s still the best in the world. For now.

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter