Why It Can Be True That Students Are Both Smarter and Less Prepared

I saw these stories going viral, all within the span of a few weeks: I’m a professor at Berkeley. Bring back this requirement for entry. and Students are doing worse than you think College Students Are Losing the Ability to Read There have been a lot of stories lately about the apparent lack of preparedness among incoming college students. Five years later, we’re seeing the consequences of COVID-related learning loss and the ill-conceived idea of making the SATs optional. These stories tend to come in waves. In addition to the above factors, I think some of the surge in unprepared college students is an artifact of more people attending college, who decades earlier would have never attended; and second, more media coverage. Well over a decade ago, by my estimate, at least half of my high school graduating class wasn’t proficient at math at all beyond the basics. The difference now is everyone is expected to attend college, so now teachers have to tailor their classes to accommodate…