{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"[2.5] The End of Education","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/614dadb9772a06c8466159a2/1784900401028-aa0f853b-4e23-4929-9771-fa26747aadec.jpeg?height=200","description":"
We explore the state of education just before the rise of AI, compare it to today, and extrapolate into the future.
Sources
Tyler Jagt, \"My Students Can't Read,\" Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026.
NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment
Pew Research, \"Reading for fun has become less common,\" 2021.
James S. Coleman et al., Equality of Educational Opportunity (\"The Coleman Report\"), US Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1966
Kathryn Borman & Monique Dowling, Teachers College Record, 2010.
Dan Goldhaber, \"The Mystery of Good Teaching,\" Education Next, 2002 Steven Rivkin, Eric Hanushek & John Kain, teacher-effects study, Econometrica, 2005.
Xitao Fan & Michael Chen, parental-involvement meta-analysis, Educational Psychology Review, 2001
World Bank, \"Vietnam's Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges,\" 2020 (PISA science outperformance on low per-pupil spend).
OECD, \"Does Money Buy Strong Performance in PISA?\", PISA in Focus No. 13, 2012 (no score/spending relationship above ~$35k cumulative per-student spend).
NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 236.55 (US per-pupil spending, $6,873 → $17,495 real dollars, 1970-71 to 2020-21)
Boston Globe, 2001 coverage of Harvard grading (\"laughing stock of the Ivy League\"; 91% of seniors graduating with honors).
Harvard Crimson, Oct. 5, 2023 (~79-80% of 2020-21 grades in the A range)
Anemona Hartocollis, \"Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say,\" New York Times, Oct. 6, 2025.
Gallup, confidence-in-higher-education tracking, July 2023 and July 2024 releases (57% in 2015 → 36% in 2023/24; Republican confidence ~56%→~19-20%, Democratic decline much smaller)
Pew Research, Aug. 2019 (share saying colleges have a negative effect on the country, 26%→38%, 2012-2019, driven almost entirely by Republicans/leaners)
Challenge Success (Stanford, Denise Pope), Fall 2018 survey
Mark Galloway, cheating in advantaged-community schools, Ethics & Behavior, 2012
Stacy Dale & Alan Krueger, \"Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College,\" NBER WP 7322, Aug. 1999; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002. Follow-up: NBER WP 17159, Jun. 2011; Journal of Human Resources, 2014.
ProPublica & The Chronicle of Higher Education, \"The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a 'Peer-Reviewed' Author,\" May 2023.
Nataliya Kosmyna et al., \"Your Brain on ChatGPT,\" MIT Media Lab, arXiv:2506.08872, 2025.
Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee et al., \"The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking,\" CHI 2025, peer-reviewed, n=319.
Turnitin AI-detection data, 2023-2026 (>80% AI-written flags: ~3% early 2023 → ~15% early 2026).
Inside Higher Ed / Generation Lab Student Voice survey, Aug. 2025
Rose Horowitch, \"The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books,\" The Atlantic, Oct. 2024.
\"Hilarius Bookbinder,\" \"The Average College Student Is Illiterate,\" Persuasion, Mar. 2025.
Tyler Jagt, \"My Students Can't Read,\" Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026.
NAEP 2024 12th-grade reading assessment, released Sept. 2025 (lowest since assessment began).
Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar & Ruyu Chen (Stanford Digital Economy Lab), \"Canaries in the Coal Mine?,\" Nov. 2025, ADP payroll data