> I still simply cannot under stand why anyone finds this study in the least
> interesting.
>
I'm still thinking about this, myself. I am inclined to agree with you that it is not interesting as an indictment, accusing the educational system of having gotten worse at teaching people. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, maybe it was never any good. I haven't yet understood this study as making that case compelling.
What it does seem to do, however, is to say that a lot of students seem not to be getting out of their education a lot of what they are told they are going to get out of their education, which is the same as what many of us who teach would like for them to get out of it: critical thinking abilities. There could of course be a million reasons for this. A big one being that they don't read. Which brings us back to Doug's question, btw. But it still begs the question, imo, of whether "they" *ever* read.
Aw, crap. I'm going to have to go read this fricking thing, now, aren't I? Dammit. I have classes to prep.
Harumph
j
ps -- on a related note, I learned this morning that Diane Ravitch is speaking at an event a week from tonight in Milwaukee (at UW-M). Hoping to go in for it.