A couple of posts back, I confidently predicted that most educated Americans would be able to name at least five of our nation’s Founding Fathers. But after reading the results of a survey by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, I’m now considerably less sanguine.

According to ISI, the average American college senior is appallingly ignorant of the basic facts of America’s heritage. Only 45.9 percent know that Yorktown was the battle that ended the American Revolution. Only 47.7 percent know that Ft. Sumter came before Gettysburg and Gettysburg came before Appomattox. Only 45.9 percent know that the line “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” comes from the Declaration of Independence. Only 42.7 percent know that NATO was created to resist Soviet expansion.

ISI’s findings are based on the results of a 60-question civic literacy exam administered to approximately 14,000 college freshmen and seniors nationwide. The average overall score for seniors was only 53.2 percent.

Harvard seniors scored highest on the exam, but their overall average was only 69.5 percent –- a D+

Even more remarkable was the finding that at certain Ivy League schools –- Cornell, Yale, Duke and Princeton –- seniors scored lower than freshmen, suggesting that by attending these universities, students lose basic knowledge of America’s history and institutions.

In contrast, some of the nation’s less prestigious (and less expensive) schools appear to do a better job of teaching their students the basics of citizenship than the elite schools. The 25 colleges in survey ranked lowest by U.S. News and World Report increased students’ civic knowledge by an average of 5.2 points, while the 25 colleges ranked highest by U.S. News and World report increased that knowledge by only 2.3 points.

You can take the 60-question exam yourself on an ISI web site: www.AmericanCivicLiteracy.org. So far, over 100,000 visitors have done so. The average score is 73 percent –- a better showing than Harvard’s seniors.