Readers of this web site are familiar with the depressing results documented in Academically Adrift, last year’s landmark national study of college student learning. Adrift finds that 36 percent of students in its national sample fail to show a significant increase in general collegiate skills-i.e., critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills-after four full years of college. How did this dismal state of affairs come to pass? Doubtless, there is a plethora of factors at work. One of these factors, Adrift found, is that the average college student today spends only twelve to fourteen hours a week studying. According to an article in the Washington Post, the average weekly total in the 1960s was 24. How is such little effort treated by faculty? According to study reported in the New York Times, approximately 43 percent of all letter grades given on college campuses today are A’s, “an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988.”
How are students studying far less yet getting far better grades? Some suggest that teaching and learning have taken second place to political indoctrination on too many of our college campuses. As evidence for this contention, consider this story, courtesy of Mary Grabar at dissidentprof.com. The title of Grabar’s blog, “Ideological Litmus Test at University of Wisconsin,” tells the whole story. I have reprinted below the focus of the story, an employment ad for a position as Lecturer in World History posted by the Platteville campus of UW. I have bolded and italicized the relevant passages.
Department of Social Sciences, Lecturer – World History
Position Details:
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville has a position open for a lecturer in World History (9-month, full-time, possibly renewable). The successful candidate’s responsibility will be to teach 4-5 sections of the second half of World History each semester. Candidate contract period begins August 22, 2012
Qualifications:
A Ph.D. or ABD in History is preferred; M.A. in History is acceptable. Geographic specialization is open. . . .
Application Procedure:
Interested persons should submit a letter of application addressing all required qualifications; curriculum vitae; evidence of teaching experience and effectiveness; undergraduate and graduate transcripts (unofficial copies acceptable for application, official copies required upon appointment); names and contact information for three references; and a separate statement describing a history of working with or demonstrated commitment to addressing issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and/or other issues of historic marginalization. Review of applications will begin May 1 and will continue until the position is filled. Employment will require a criminal background check. Contact Dr. Melissa Gormley by e-mail with questions.
This is what it has come to at the University of Wisconsin, Platteville. Politics has ascended over learning. Little wonder that student-learning outcomes are falling.
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