@alh I come back to cognitive ability and conscientiousness. If colleges fail to educate students, that is because they admit students lacking in ability and or conscientiousness. If students fail to learn, it is for exactly the same reasons.
I do not see a dichotomy between getting an education and getting employable skills at the same time. With proper planning, I believe this can be achieved with a 4 year degree. In fact, I don’t understand why it is not possible to get a good solid education by the end of high school; 12 years is a long time.
Glad that you mentioned “Paying for the Party”. I find it disturbing that SES can have that great an impact on one’s life outcome. A cautionary tale for the working class for sure:
@lookingforward One of the big problems with social science research is the lack of replication studies. Whenever I see unusual or eye-catching results, I would immediately look for statistical sleight of hand, and or comb through the researchers’ research history for bias, political or otherwise.
To check the validity of “Academically Adrift”, I reasoned that if students are this poor, similar results should be expected for younger cohorts and older adults alike. Here is what I found:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/us/us-adults-fare-poorly-in-a-study-of-skills.html?_r=1
Disturbing, to say the least.