1.
How“literate”areU.S.collegestudents? HowdoestheirliteracycomparetothatofthegeneralU.S.adultpopulation? Howcanliteracybedefinedandmeasuredinreliableandvalidways? Apairofsurveyshasattemptedtoanswerthesequestions. Thesurveyswereunusualinthat,unlikemostsurveys,theydidnotinquireintorespondents’beliefs,attitudes,oropinions; norweretheydesignedmainlytocollectfactualinformation. Ratherthesesurveystestedtheknowledgeofrespondents. DetailscanbefoundonthewebsiteoftheAmericanInstitutesforResearch(www.air.org). Thisgroupconductedatwo-stageclustersample(seeChapter5)wasusedtoidentify1800studentsattwo-yearandfour-yearcolleges. Thestudents,whoweresurveyedshortlybeforetheygraduated,weregivenasmallpaymentfortheirparticipation(about90minutes). Theothersurvey--ofarepresentativesampleofalladults--wasconductedbytheNationalCenterforEducationalStatistics.
Bothsurveysmeasuredthreekindsofliteracy: proseliteracy,documentliteracy,andquantitativeliteracy. Forexample,couldrespondentsunderstandandcompareeditorials,completeacomplicatedapplicationform,orcomputeandcomparethecostperounceoffooditems? Oneofthewaysscoreswerereportedwastogivethepercentageofpeopleinvariousgroupswhoscoredatoneoffourlevels: belowbasic,basic,intermediate,andproficient.
Inallcategories,4-yearcollegestudentsdidbetteronthetestthanstudentsin2-yearcolleges,andallcollegestudentsdidbetterthanthegeneraladultpopulation. Forexample,fordocumentliteracy,thepercentproficientfor2-yearstudentswas23,for4-yearstudentsitwas38,andforthegeneraladultpopulationitwas13. Onlyminordifferencesoccurredbetweenmalesandfemalesoramongthestudentmajoringindifferentfieldsofstudy.
a.
Whydidthe2-yearstudentsscorelowerthanthe4-yearstudents? Dostudentsin4-yearcollegeslearnmoreperyearthanstudentsin2-yearcolleges?
b.
Canevidencefromthissurveybeusedtodeterminehowmuchcollegeshavetaughtstudents? Whyorwhynot?
c.
Doesthepaymentofstudentsfortheirparticipationraiseanypossiblequestionsaboutbiasinthesample? Coulditmakethesamplelessrepresentative? How?