Murray State University Ranks 3rd in National Study

Murray State University’s teaching of core values has earned it yet another national ranking over much larger universities. According to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Murray State ranked third in national standings in the “most valued added” category for 2007.

The ISI report titled “Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions” documented how much college students know and learn about American history and the documents that create a civil society. The Report showed that Murray State University freshman gained an almost 10% jump in retained knowledge regarding American history and core American values by their senior year.        

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute fired a warning shot across the bow of America’s top institutions of higher learning. In their second yearly in-depth study of how colleges teach American values, they found that some of the most expensive universities with the highest paid presidents are among the worst performing in the country regarding the teaching of America’s history. Harvard came in 17th out of 50 tested. The bottom six were Berkeley, Rutgers, Princeton, St. John’s (NY) Duke, Yale, and Cornell.

Murray State University freshmen and seniors outperformed their counterparts from prestigious Ivy League schools such as Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Duke. Although the Ivy League came in as freshmen with more knowledge, they failed to expand their knowledge of civics and history at university.

“Higher education is a $325 billion dollar business where, at many prestigious universities, presidents earn half million dollars a year or more.” says Josiah Bunting, III, chairman of ISI’s National Civic Literacy Board. “Ironically, based upon our research, the lowest gains in knowledge in America’s history and institutions are found at many of these elite universities where their presidents are simply not doing enough to help preserve our traditions of freedom and representative government”

The study of more than 14,000 randomly selected college freshman and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges and universities was conducted on behalf of ISI by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy. They administered a 60 multiple choice question civic literacy test about America’s history, government, international relations and market economy.

Take the test at www.americancivicliteracy.org. and view the full report.