Arizona university graduates invest significant time and money so they can enter the world with a well-rounded education. But the state's university students don't seem to be getting their money's worth, according to a study released Tuesday.
The survey by the Arizona Association of Scholars, a group of faculty and administrators from the three state universities, questioned 167 seniors from ASU, UA and NAU who will graduate in May. There were 40 questions on the survey in 11 subject areas.
The respondents scored lowest in the American history category and quantitative reasoning. They scored the highest in pop culture, computer literacy and civics.
The Arizona Association of Scholars concluded that students are not being given the fundamental knowledge to be good citizens and to fulfill leadership roles expected from having a college education.
"Students cannot fully participate in society if they don't know the world around them," said Robert Franciosi, a consulting economist for the Arizona Association of Scholars.
One cause of the lack of knowledge in American history may be because Arizona colleges do not require students to take American history, Franciosi said.
Broadcasting sophomore Desera Blanco believes American history should be an integral part of a college education.
"Being American, we (students) should know what we went through to get where we are today and how things have changed in the past," Blanco said.
Business management sophomore Mac McNally said that most students do have knowledge of American history, but that it was received from a high school education and not from a university education.
Franciosi said this problem is not only evident in Arizona but around the nation.
"Other studies have shown students lacking knowledge in American history in universities across the country," Franciosi said. "Universities like Harvard and Yale scored a little better but were still not very high."
Less than half of the students surveyed knew when the Civil War ended and little more than a fifth could identify a quote from the Gettysburg Address.
Sixty-five percent did not get the correct answer to a question in quantitative reasoning and 80 percent were unable to answer a question in simple probability.
Though students scored low in the quantitative reasoning subject, Richard Burdick, chairman of the ASU statistics department, said most students take at least one statistics class in their college education.
"In the world we live in we have to assimilate information," Burdick said. "People need the tools to interpret data."
The Arizona Association of Scholars is a branch of the National Association of Scholars. The state branch has existed for 20 years. They conducted a similar study two years ago on the curriculum required to graduate and found there was a lack of general course work in the areas of history, literature, math, science and art.
Reach the reporter at kristin.roberts@asu.edu.
