Surprised? So were the researchers who tested and compared workers in 23 countries.

We hear about the superior tech savvy of people born after 1980 so often that we tend to assume it must be true. But is it?

Researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) expected it to be when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries.

When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a new report, that Millennials in the U.S. fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and — hold on to your hat — a category called “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”

Not only do Gen Y Americans lag far behind their overseas peers by every measure, but they even score lower than other age groups of Americans.

Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the U.S. ranked dead last.

Okay, but what about making smart use of technology, where Millennials are said to shine? Again, America scored at the bottom of the heap, in a four-way tie for last place with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland.

Even the best-educated Millennials stateside couldn’t compete with their counterparts in Japan, Finland, South Korea, Belgium, Sweden, or elsewhere. With a master’s degree, for example, Americans scored higher in numeracy than peers in just three countries: Ireland, Poland, and Spain. Altogether, the top U.S. Gen Yers, in the 90th percentile, “scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries,” the report notes, “and only scored higher than their peers in Spain.”

“We really thought [U.S.] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the U.S. or to the same age group in other countries,” says Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher who worked on the study. “But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”

What does that mean for U.S. employers hiring people born since 1980? Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree. True, U.S. Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma (albeit less well than college grads in most other countries).

“But a degree may not be enough,” Goodman says, to prove that someone is adept with basic English, can do what she calls “workaday math,” or has the ability to use technology in a job. Curious about how the PIAAC measures those skills, or how you’d score yourself? Check out a few sample math questions, or take the whole test ( http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/educationandskillsonlineassessment.htm )

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2841800&forum_id=2#27577884)

Sure, it's easy to shit on American Millenials and pretend that they're incompetent--right up until you need someone to issue-spot privilege manifestations and microaggressions. But keep talking shit as they work to make the world a fairer place for your grandchildren, you bigot.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2841800&forum_id=2#27577915)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2841800&forum_id=2#27578974)

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/sample_num.asp

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2841800&forum_id=2#27578980)

I would like to say that this comes as a surprise to me, but after having spent most of the last twelve or so years working on college campuses, I can only say that this isn't news to those of us who work in higher education. You have a whole generation of people who, like someone else said, think Wikipedia is reliable research source; who think they can write research papers with the same syntax they use in text messages (OMG); who think Abraham Lincoln actually fought vampires, and so on.

This is caused by a variety of things. Sure, the "everyone-gets-a-medal" mentality is a contributor; people like to say it's because the system has been dummied down to accommodate the "less gifted." At the same time, though, there are all the well-to-do people out there who have their kids in the best school systems available to them who raise hell with their kids' instructors when their children come home with subpar grades. I worked at a community college in one of the most affluent communities in the country, and I heard all types of stories about high school teachers and even college instructors who were run out on a rail because they were "too tough."

Then there are the "helicopter parents" who can't/wont/don't give their children the opportunity to mess up and LEARN from their errors. I literally watched parents start to fill out college admissions applications or registration forms for their 18-, 19, or even 20+year-old kids. I would stop them and ask if there was something preventing the child from completing the documents themselves. Some of the parents realized how silly they looked, but not all of them did.

I'm speaking to you as someone born in the mid-1970s. I'm not a baby boomer, and I'm definitely not a millennial. For many years, I've heard people say that these millenials are the smartest group of Americans to come along in quite awhile. I've been very vocal in my disagreement. I think they're probably the dumbest batch ever. They have the ability to manipulate technology that wasn't available when you or I were younger, but if you take that technology away from them, many of them couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted them the "C" and the "T."

So...are we REALLY surprised?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2841800&forum_id=2#28680091)