Are Students Really Academically Adrift? Rethinking the Assessment of “Limited Learning” on College Campuses
Four years ago I attended a presentation at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in which Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa previewed the findings of Academically Adrift , their influential book published in 2010. In a column for the Chronicle of Higher Education, I wrote that this “cool study” was producing some interesting results. Most importantly, I reported, that it seemed like the learning gains identified by the research “didn’t look like much.” I was concerned, for sure, and thus wasn’t surprised when the authors eventually subtitled their book “Limited Learning on College Campuses.” Fast forward, and after attending a presentation at this year’s ASA in New York last week, I’ve come to question my assessment—and theirs. At the time, I was looking at percentage point gains over time, and we know that these are not a good way to assess effect sizes since they do not take into account the amount of variation in th...