"Most college students lack skills" (#41; Topic E)

In a recent study by the American Institute of Research, reported online yesterday, "more than 50 percent of students at four-year schools ... could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, [or] compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees...." This study reminds of an episode more than 40 years ago, when I was an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. In a faculty meeting one day, our department chairman, using a student's writing in his class as a sample, discussed their poor command of English. Writing is important to students aiming for the public accounting profession, as junior auditors are expected to write internal-control memoranda and seniors to draft notes to financial statements. He proposed that all seniors in our department be tested for their English proficiency, and produced a sample test he drafted. Looking at it, I could not help wondering: the draft test was easier than the English portion of a college entrance examination I took when I was in China -- when I was a mere high-school graduate and where English was not my or other applicants' mother tongue.
Posted at 8:41 pm, Friday, January 20, 2006