College Exit Exam Proposal
College Exit Exam Proposal
America has always been regarded as the land of opportunity and the best nation in the world to live in. This has been clearly evident over the history of the United States and continues today through the countless multitudes of immigrants that cross its borders everyday. How is it then that the public opinion of America according to the rest of the world has decreased severely and continues to do so? The answer to this lies in the overwhelming number of countries that view Americans as "rude" (Allen). A basic definition of "rude" that helps to clear up this opinion is "uncivil, lacking in manners or socially acceptable behavior". In essence, the fact that Americans don 't act acceptable to the rest of the world directly affects their public opinion. Americans lack this acceptable behavior because they are uneducated about the rest of the world. It 's not even a lack of international behavior knowledge, but a lack of general world knowledge. To help and improve this international ranking, it is proposed that college students be required to pass a world knowledge exit exam before they are allowed to graduate. In a recent survey conducted by The Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) at the University of Connecticut, 65 percent of college seniors were unable to pass a U.S. history survey that was based on the high school level. Such schools included in the survey were Yale, Smith, Northwestern, and Bowdoin (Starr). This begs the question that if college seniors at some of the most prestigious schools cannot pass a high school level history test, how could they possibly fare in the realm of world knowledge? This is such a big problem that one senator, Democrat Joseph Lieberman from Connecticut is quoted as saying "[The] survey reveals that our next generation of leaders and citizens is leaving college with a stunning lack of knowledge " (Starr). The one sure way to help resolve this national ignorance and to improve our
America has always been regarded as the land of opportunity and the best nation in the world to live in. This has been clearly evident over the history of the United States and continues today through the countless multitudes of immigrants that cross its borders everyday. How is it then that the public opinion of America according to the rest of the world has decreased severely and continues to do so? The answer to this lies in the overwhelming number of countries that view Americans as "rude" (Allen). A basic definition of "rude" that helps to clear up this opinion is "uncivil, lacking in manners or socially acceptable behavior". In essence, the fact that Americans don 't act acceptable to the rest of the world directly affects their public opinion. Americans lack this acceptable behavior because they are uneducated about the rest of the world. It 's not even a lack of international behavior knowledge, but a lack of general world knowledge. To help and improve this international ranking, it is proposed that college students be required to pass a world knowledge exit exam before they are allowed to graduate. In a recent survey conducted by The Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) at the University of Connecticut, 65 percent of college seniors were unable to pass a U.S. history survey that was based on the high school level. Such schools included in the survey were Yale, Smith, Northwestern, and Bowdoin (Starr). This begs the question that if college seniors at some of the most prestigious schools cannot pass a high school level history test, how could they possibly fare in the realm of world knowledge? This is such a big problem that one senator, Democrat Joseph Lieberman from Connecticut is quoted as saying "[The] survey reveals that our next generation of leaders and citizens is leaving college with a stunning lack of knowledge " (Starr). The one sure way to help resolve this national ignorance and to improve our
Cited: Allen, Jodie, ed. American Chapter Gets Mixed Reviews. Comp. Andrew Kohut. Pew Research Center. Washington, D.C.: Pew Global, 2005. 1-68. Classmates. Personal interview. 23 Oct. 2006. Starr, Linda. "Students Fail US History Test." Education World. 2000. CSRA University of Connecticut. 25 Oct. 2006