Critical Mass

Pete du Pont has written an astounding column in the Wall Street Journal, detailing the pitiful results of ISI's nationwide survey designed to test college students' knowledge of US history and civics.

More than 14,000 students from 50 major universities participated in the study by answering 60 multiple choice questions on topics ranging from US military victories to the Bill of Rights.  The results were disheartening:  The average college senior answered 53.2 percent of the questions correctly---in other words, a big fat F.

What's more, several prestigious universities such as Yale, Brown, and Duke produced "negative learning" trends, meaning that freshmen actually outperformed their senior peers.  I don't think the folks over at ISI are understating matters when they bemoan an impending "crisis of citizenship" in the United States.