Heartening to see a by-the-numbers look at education and achievement in the US. Too many stories solely based on anecdotes only reinforce conventional wisdom. Story is worth a read. The key point is that college entrance exam scores have been rising "gradually if haltingly" since 1980.

Damn straight. The definition of news never was "it's news until I write about it" but myopic journalists still believe it is. The entire post can be summed up: "Newsrooms no longer have the luxury of wasting resources on non-stories".