Those students are now voters, and they are expected to make sense of the deluge of statistical information that encompasses today's public-policy debates. It is silly to pretend that a nation that fails to educate its children can govern itself effectively. The situation is little better in higher education. Universities, having shed their core curriculum and sloughed off any pretense to moral leadership, not to mention stewardship of souls, have degenerated from knowledge centers into training centers. As students have flocked to financially attractive fields, disciplines such as literature, history, and philosophy have suffered greatly.
Education is trivialized when it is reduced to a venue for vocational marketability.
Toward a Well-Educated Citizenry Achievement tests measure more than future workplace skills. They also gauge whether our schools are fulfilling their mission to produce well-prepared citizens. Certainly knowledge is not all it takes to be a contributing citizen, but it is a prerequisite. Dismal test scores indicate that this basic democratic need is not being met. Fortunately, we can reverse this trend.