EDU_01_Education_Decline_Source_Data

Education_Decline_Analysis: The Mechanics of Transmission Failure and the Onset of Civilizational Error Catastrophe

1. Introduction: The Entropy of Civilizational Memory

Civilization is an artificial state of high order, suspended precariously above the natural baseline of entropy. Unlike biological organisms, which transmit their essential operating instructions through the robust, high-fidelity mechanism of DNA, a civilization must transmit its “source code”—its values, its technical competence, its linguistic depth, and its civic logic—through the fragile, error-prone mechanism of culture. This process of Intergenerational Transmission is the primary function of the domain we broadly label “Education.” It is not merely a system of credentialing or workforce preparation; it is the civilization’s reproductive system. Without it, the complex informational structure that defines a society dissolves within a single generation.

The central thesis of this report is that this mechanism of transmission in the West, and specifically within the United States, has suffered a catastrophic degradation of fidelity. We are currently witnessing a systemic failure of Intergenerational Transmission, a phenomenon that can be best understood through the lens of Information Theory and Evolutionary Dynamics. The signal—the accumulated wisdom, competence, and operating protocols of the civilization—is no longer being successfully copied into the minds of the next generation. The “Copy Fidelity” has dropped below the critical threshold required to maintain the system’s coherence, initiating a phase transition toward what mathematical biologists term “Error Catastrophe.”

However, this collapse is currently masked by a pervasive and sophisticated system of statistical illusion. We have entered an era of “Fiat Education,” where the symbols of competence—grades, diplomas, and graduation rates—are being manufactured in excess, decoupling the credential from the reality it is meant to represent. This mirrors the economic phenomenon of fiat currency inflation: as the supply of money increases without a corresponding increase in production, the value of the currency collapses. Similarly, as the supply of high grades and diplomas increases without a corresponding increase in cognitive skill, the value of the educational signal collapses.

This report provides an exhaustive, multi-dimensional analysis of this transmission failure. It triangulates the crisis through three distinct but interconnected vectors of decay:

1. The Divergence of Metrics: The statistical impossibility of rising Grade Point Averages (GPAs) occurring simultaneously with plummeting standardized test scores (SAT/ACT/NAEP), providing irrefutable evidence of “Metric Hacking” and Goodhart’s Law in action.

2. The Atrophy of the Receiver: The neurological and behavioral collapse of “reading stamina” and deep literacy, rendering the rising generation increasingly incapable of receiving complex, linear cultural transmissions.

3. The Corruption of the Packet: The erasure of civic knowledge—the Logos of the Republic—resulting in a citizenry that occupies the machinery of democratic institutions without possessing the operational manual required to sustain them.

By synthesizing data from standardized testing boards, government longitudinal studies, and independent academic research, this analysis demonstrates that the West has breached the “Error Threshold.” We are no longer merely “declining”; we are decohering. The signal is being lost in the noise.

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2. Theoretical Framework: The Physics of Cultural Transmission

To fully grasp the magnitude of the educational crisis, one must move beyond the superficial policy debates of school funding or class sizes and view the problem through the rigorous frameworks of Information Theory and Evolutionary Biology. Civilization operates as a non-equilibrium thermodynamic system; it requires a constant input of energy and information to prevent a slide back into disorder. The “Education” domain is the channel through which this anti-entropic information is pumped into the future.

2.1 The Shannon Channel and Signal Degradation

In Claude Shannon’s mathematical theory of communication, any transmission system consists of a sender (the older generation), a channel (the educational apparatus), and a receiver (the student). The goal is to maximize the Fidelity (Q) of the message received. However, every channel is subject to Noise. When the noise level rises, or the capacity of the channel degrades, the information received is a corrupted version of the information sent.

The current educational landscape represents a channel overwhelmed by noise. The “Signal”—the rigors of grammar, the logic of mathematics, the history of the constitutional order—is competing with, and losing to, the “Noise” of administrative bureaucracy, ideological distortion, and the fragmenting effects of digital media. When the signal-to-noise ratio drops below a certain limit, information is not just garbled; it is effectively erased. The receiver does not get a “partial” message; they get a random string of data that lacks functional meaning.

2.2 Manfred Eigen’s Error Catastrophe

The most potent analogy for our current predicament comes from the Nobel laureate Manfred Eigen’s work on molecular evolution. Eigen formulated the concept of the “Error Threshold” in viral replication. For an organism (or a culture) to maintain its identity over time, it must replicate its genetic (or cultural) information with a high degree of fidelity.

Eigen defined a critical mutation rate, μmax​, which serves as an upper limit for the survival of information.

• If the actual error rate μ is less than the threshold (μ<μmax​), the population maintains its structure. Deviations are corrected by selection.

• If the error rate exceeds the threshold (μ>μmax​), the system enters Error Catastrophe.

In this state, the population of information carriers “melts” into randomness. The specific information that defined the species—or the civilization—is lost. The system loses the ability to distinguish between “correct” and “incorrect” states.   

Applied to education, the “Error Rate” is the gap between what is taught and what is learned. If a generation fails to learn a critical percentage of the civilization’s vocabulary, mathematics, or civic norms, the “cultural genome” mutates too rapidly. The next generation does not inherit the civilization; they inherit a corrupted ruin. The accumulation of errors—students who cannot read complex texts, citizens who do not understand the separation of powers—compounds with each generation. This is the mechanism of civilizational dissolution. We are currently watching the error rate spike well above the threshold of sustainability.

2.3 Joseph Henrich and the Collective Brain

Anthropologist Joseph Henrich expands this framework with the concept of the “Collective Brain.” Human success is not driven by individual raw intelligence (which has remained static or perhaps declined), but by our ability to accumulate complex cultural packages—tools, words, institutions—that no single individual could invent in a lifetime.   

This accumulation depends entirely on high-fidelity social learning. Henrich documents historical instances, such as the isolation of Tasmania, where a drop in the size of the interconnected population or a degradation in transmission networks led to the loss of valuable technologies (like bone tools and fishing gear). The society effectively “forgot” how to survive at its previous level of complexity.   

The West is facing a “Tasmanian Effect” at a grand scale. We possess the artifacts of a high civilization (advanced legal codes, complex literature, scientific institutions), but we are failing to transmit the cognitive skills required to use and maintain them. We are handing the keys of a Ferrari to a generation that we have failed to teach to drive, ensuring the eventual wreck of the machine.

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3. The Fiat Credential: The Economics of Illusion

The visible symptom of this transmission failure is the rampant inflation of educational credentials. Just as a government facing debt may print money to create the illusion of solvency, the educational system prints grades to create the illusion of competence. This “Fiat Education” system operates on the same perilous economic principles as a fiat currency.

3.1 Goodhart’s Law and the “Cobra Effect”

The driving force behind this inflation is Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

This principle is often illustrated by the “Cobra Effect.” In colonial India, British authorities placed a bounty on cobra skins to reduce the snake population. In response, locals began breeding cobras to kill them for the bounty. When the British realized this and canceled the program, the breeders released the worthless snakes, leading to a higher cobra population than before.   

In the American education system, the “Bounty” is the graduation rate. Federal and state policies, such as “No Child Left Behind” and its successors, tied school funding and teacher evaluations to standardized metrics of success: graduation rates and pass rates.

• The Metric as Target: Administrators, under immense pressure to show improvement, turned the graduation rate into the sole target.

• The Gaming of the System: Since actually improving student competence is difficult and resource-intensive, schools found it more efficient to lower the standards for graduation. The metric (graduation rate) went up, but the reality (competence) went down.   

3.2 The Mechanism of Metric Hacking

The specific mechanisms used to hack these metrics are well-documented and systemic. They constitute a “shadow policy” of deregulation in academic standards.

3.2.1 The “Floor” Policy and Grade Inflation

Across the country, school districts have implemented “No Zero” policies, mandating that the lowest grade a student can receive for submitted work (or sometimes even unsubmitted work) is 50%. The mathematical logic is that a zero is too punitive and makes it mathematically impossible for a student to recover. However, the behavioral result is the removal of the failure condition.

Teachers report significant administrative pressure to pass students who have not mastered the material. This includes:

• “Credit Recovery” Scams: Students who fail a course are often allowed to “recover” the credit by clicking through a brief online module that bears no resemblance to the rigor of the original course.

• Administrative Coercion: Principals and superintendents are judged on their school’s data. Consequently, they pressure teachers to change grades, creating a culture where a “D” or “F” is seen as a failure of the teacher, not the student. A “Gentleman’s C” has become a “Gentleman’s A”.   

3.2.2 Manipulating the Denominator

Another method of hacking the graduation rate is manipulating the timeframe. The traditional “four-year graduation rate” often paints a bleak picture, with national averages hovering around 33.3% for certain demographics or institutions. To mask this, record keepers began tracking the “six-year graduation rate,” artificially doubling the success metric to 64%. This moving of the goalposts allows institutions to claim victory while students languish in the system, accumulating debt and burning time.   

3.3 The Devaluation of the Symbol

The result of this systemic hacking is the complete devaluation of the high school diploma. It has become a “Fiat Credential”—a symbol backed by nothing.

In a functional system, a credential acts as a reliable signal to the labor market. A high school diploma used to signal basic literacy, numeracy, and the ability to show up on time. Today, employers can no longer rely on that signal. This forces the market to demand higher credentials (a Bachelor’s degree) for jobs that technically only require high school skills. This is Credential Inflation. The “price” of a job (in terms of education years) goes up because the “currency” (the diploma) has been debased.   

We have created a “Paper Ceiling” where the only way to prove basic competence is to obtain increasingly expensive and time-consuming degrees, not because the job requires advanced knowledge, but because the foundational degrees have lost all informational value.

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4. The Great Divergence: Metric Hacking in Practice

The claim of “Fiat Education” is not merely theoretical; it is proven by the “Great Divergence” in the data. If student competence were truly rising, we would see a correlation between internal assessments (GPA) and external audits (SAT/ACT/NAEP). Instead, we see a stark negative correlation. The internal metrics are soaring while the external audits are collapsing.

4.1 The Inflation of the Internal Metric (GPA)

The Grade Point Average, once a bellwether of academic performance, has broken loose from reality.

Table 1: The Inflation of High School GPAs (1990-2021)

Year	Average High School GPA	Interpretation
1990	2.68	A “C+” average, reflecting a normal distribution.
2000	2.94	Approaching a “B” average.
2009	3.00	The “B” becomes the floor.
2010	3.17	Acceleration of inflation.
2021	3.36	The “B+” average becomes standard.

Data Sources:    

The most damning statistic regarding grade inflation comes from the “American Freshman Survey.” In 1966, only 21.8% of incoming college freshmen reported having an “A” average in high school. By 2023, that number had inverted to an astounding 85.8%.   

This compression of the grading scale destroys the utility of the metric. When 85% of students are “A” students, the grade “A” contains zero information. It no longer distinguishes excellence from mediocrity. It has become a participation trophy. This “Compression of the Top” forces universities to rely on other metrics, yet paradoxically, many are abandoning test scores, leaving them with no objective way to filter applicants.

4.2 The Collapse of the External Audit (Standardized Tests)

While GPAs have marched relentlessly upward, objective measures of cognitive skill have stagnated or regressed. This divergence is the “smoking gun” of the transmission failure.

4.2.1 SAT and ACT Decline

The College Board and ACT, Inc. have presided over a decade of decline.

• SAT Trends: From 2006 to 2016, the overall average SAT score fell by 34 points. Every section of the test—Critical Reading, Math, and Writing—saw a decline. While a redesign in 2017 complicates direct year-over-year comparisons, the long-term trend remains one of stagnation or loss.   

• ACT Trends: The divergence is even more visible in ACT data. Between 2010 and 2021—the exact period where GPAs rose by 0.19 points—ACT composite scores reached their lowest levels in over 30 years.   

• The Divergence Gap: A study by the ACT organization found that grade inflation is accelerating. Students with the same ACT score in 2021 had significantly higher GPAs than students with that same score in 2010. This proves mathematically that a 2024 “A” is worth less than a 2010 “A.”   

4.2.2 The NAEP 2024 Catastrophe

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” is the gold standard for longitudinal educational data because it is not a college entrance exam and thus captures a representative sample of the population. The 2024 results are catastrophic.

• 12th Grade Collapse: Reading scores for high school seniors in 2024 were 10 points lower than in 1992. Math scores fell to their lowest levels since 2005.   

• The Proficiency Gap: In 2024, 45% of 12th graders scored below “Basic” in math, and 32% scored below “Basic” in reading.   

Consider the implication: nearly half of all graduating seniors—most of whom hold high school diplomas and passing GPAs—are functionally innumerate. A third are functionally illiterate. The school system is certifying these students as “competent” (via the diploma) while the audit reveals they are failing.

Table 2: The Divergence Summary

Metric	Trend (Last 2 Decades)	Signal
High School GPA	↑ Rising (Approaching 3.4)	Illusion: Students appear smarter.
”A” Grade Frequency	↑ Skyrocketing (85.8% of freshmen)	Inflation: Excellence is the norm.
ACT Composite	↓ Falling (Lowest in 30 years)	Reality: Cognitive skill is dropping.
NAEP 12th Grade Math	↓ Falling (Lowest since 2005)	Failure: Numeracy is degrading.
NAEP 12th Grade Reading	↓ Falling (Lowest since 1992)	Failure: Literacy is degrading.

This divergence creates a “reality trap.” Parents and students believe they are succeeding because the feedback loop (grades) is positive. It is only when they hit the “hard wall” of the real world—college calculus, complex workplace demands—that the illusion shatters.

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5. The Atrophy of the Receiver: The Death of Deep Literacy

If “Metric Hacking” explains the corruption of the measurement of education, the collapse of literacy explains the corruption of the process itself. Education is the transmission of complex information from one mind to another via the medium of language. This requires a “Receiver” capable of sustained attention, deep processing, and syntactic complexity.

The evidence suggests that the physical and neurological capacity of the new generation to receive this transmission is atrophying. We are witnessing the death of the “Deep Reading Brain”—the cognitive architecture capable of linear, abstract, and sustained thought—and its replacement by the “Screen Brain,” characterized by fragmentation, superficiality, and distraction.

5.1 The Collapse of Reading Stamina

“Reading Stamina” is the cognitive endurance required to focus on a text for an extended period, constructing complex mental models of the information. This is the prerequisite for all higher-order learning. Without it, one cannot read a history book, a legal brief, or a scientific paper.

Educators report a precipitous decline in this capacity. A survey by Education Week found that 83% of teachers in grades 3–8 believe students’ reading stamina has decreased since 2019. Anecdotal reports from the classroom describe students who are physically unable to sit still and read for more than 5-10 minutes without becoming agitated or disengaged.   

This is quantified by the decline in “Reading for Fun.”

• 13-Year-Olds: In 1984, only 8% of 13-year-olds said they “never or hardly ever” read for fun. By 2023, that number had nearly quadrupled to 29%.   

• Daily Reading: The percentage of 13-year-olds reading “almost every day” collapsed from 27% in 2012 to just 14% in 2023.   

• The Long-Term Trend: A study analyzing data from 2003 to 2023 found a sustained, steady decline in daily reading for pleasure of about 3% per year, resulting in a 40% total drop over two decades.   

5.2 The “TikTok” Effect and Neurological Fragmentation

This decline is not a random fluctuation; it is an adaptation to a new environment. The rise of short-form algorithmic media (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts) has retrained the neural pathways of the developing brain.

• The Switching Cost: Research from San Diego State University and others indicates that consuming short-form media creates a high “switching cost.” The brain becomes conditioned to rapid, high-intensity dopamine hits every 15 seconds. When such a brain confronts a static page of text—which requires slow, cumulative effort to yield a reward—it interprets the lack of stimulation as “boredom” or “signal loss” and disengages.   

• Attention Deficit: Studies on short-form video addiction show a direct correlation with reduced attentional control. Users exhibit “fragmented and unstable attention” patterns, with eye-tracking data showing more fixations and shorter duration, indicating an inability to focus steadily.   

The medium is the message, and the message of the short-form video is that sustained attention is unnecessary. The student is being neurologically wired to reject the very medium (books) through which civilization is transmitted.

5.3 The Dumbing Down of the Text

In a classic feedback loop of failure, the educational system has responded to this atrophy not by rigorous retraining, but by lowering the bar. If students cannot read complex texts, schools assign simpler ones.

5.3.1 The Decline of Text Complexity

Longitudinal analysis of textbook complexity reveals a steady “dumbing down” of the American curriculum.

• The 1962 Turning Point: Since 1962, the difficulty of texts used in grades K-12 has steadily decreased.   

• The 12th Grade Cliff: By the time a student graduates high school, the complexity of the texts they can handle is significantly lower than what is required for college or the modern workforce. There is now a 350L (Lexile) gap between the reading level of a high school graduate and the reading level required for entry-level college coursework.   

• Developmental Stagnation: In primary grades (1-4), researchers have observed a “lessening of developmental shifts.” The ramp-up in difficulty is flatter than it used to be, keeping children in “shallow waters” for longer and delaying the development of the “reading muscles” needed for deep water.   

5.3.2 The Shrinking Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the resolution of the mind. A limited vocabulary results in a low-resolution perception of the world.

• GSS Data: Analysis of the General Social Survey (GSS) “WORDSUM” vocabulary test shows that while raw scores have remained stable due to the older population, education-adjusted scores for the young are declining. We are getting “less vocabulary per year of education” than in the past.   

• Critical Thinking Correlation: Vocabulary is the toolset of thought. Research demonstrates a near-perfect correlation (0.81 to 1.00) between critical thinking skills and vocabulary mastery. You cannot think a complex thought if you do not possess the words to formulate it. By shrinking the student’s vocabulary, we are shrinking their cognitive horizon.   

We are producing a generation that is “textually disabled.” They can process visual stimuli and short bursts of text, but the architecture of the “Deep Reading Brain”—the capacity to follow a linear argument over 300 pages—is being dismantled. This is the severing of the transmission line.

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6. The Corruption of the Logos: The Failure of Civic Transmission

If Literacy is the capacity to receive the signal, “Civics” is the content of the signal essential for the survival of the political organism. The United States is a creedal nation, defined not by blood or soil but by a set of ideas: the Constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers. If these ideas are not transmitted, the nation effectively ceases to exist, even if the government buildings remain standing.

The data indicates that this transmission has failed. The Logos of the Republic—the reasoning principle that orders the state—has been erased from the collective mind of the young.

6.1 The Annenberg Paradox: Recall vs. Understanding

Recent data from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (2024/2025) presents a superficial paradox. The percentage of Americans who can name the three branches of government has risen to roughly 70%, up from significantly lower numbers (around 30-40%) in previous years. One might interpret this as a success. However, a deeper look reveals this is likely “panic learning”—a result of intense media saturation and political polarization rather than deep educational understanding.   

While citizens can parrot the names “Legislative, Executive, Judicial,” they lack any comprehension of how these branches interact.

• The Depth Deficit: A 2024 survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) reveals the hollowness of the knowledge:

  • 60% of students do not know the term lengths of members of Congress.   

  • Only 27% know who presides over the Senate.   

  • Only 28% know the 13th Amendment freed the slaves.   

  • Only 31% know James Madison is the Father of the Constitution.   

This is the difference between knowing the names of chess pieces and knowing how to play the game. The American public knows the names; they do not understand the rules. They see the institutions not as delicate mechanisms of checks and balances, but as raw instruments of power to be wielded by their preferred faction.

6.2 The “F” Grade in Citizenship

When tested on the actual mechanics of citizenship, the failure rate is staggering.

• The Citizenship Test Failure: A 2023 survey by the Woodstock Institute found that only 13% of native-born Americans could pass the basic U.S. Citizenship test—the same test immigrants must pass to naturalize. 27% scored 59% or lower, effectively failing.   

• The Generational Cliff: The decline is starkly age-correlated. Americans over 65 performed best (21% passed), while those under 45 scored worst (only 9% passed). This confirms the “Transmission Failure” hypothesis: the older generation holds the knowledge, but they have failed to transmit it to the younger generation.   

• High School Failure: In Florida, one of the few states to mandate a Civic Literacy Exam, the results are an indictment of the system. The statewide pass rate for high school students is just 47%, with some districts falling as low as 34%.   

6.3 The Collapse of Trust and the Rise of Entropy

The failure to transmit the Logos has direct consequences for the stability of the state. A citizenry that does not understand the reasoning behind the institutions cannot trust them.

• Trust Collapse: Trust in the Supreme Court has fallen to 41%, a record low. This is not a coincidence. If you do not understand the concept of judicial review or the necessity of an independent judiciary, every court decision looks like a partisan attack.   

• Vulnerability to Demagoguery: A citizenry that cannot define the “Free Enterprise System” (only 54% can ) or identify the constitutional limits of power is defenseless against ideological subversion. They lack the immune system of historical context.   

The “Packet” of civic knowledge has been lost in transit. The new generation is inheriting a machine they do not know how to operate.

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7. Conclusion: The Event Horizon of Error Catastrophe

The convergence of these three trends—the hacking of metrics, the atrophy of the reading mind, and the erasure of civic knowledge—points to a single, terrifying conclusion: Western Civilization is undergoing a Signal Degradation Event of historic proportions.

We have breached Manfred Eigen’s Error Threshold. The fidelity of transmission (Q) has dropped so low that the “mutation rate” of our culture (μ) now exceeds the maximum threshold for sustainability (μmax​).

• The Signal is Lost: The complex codes of our culture—Deep Literacy, Civic Republicanism, Mathematical Competence—are dissolving into the noise of short-term attention spans and bureaucratic illusion.

• The System is Decohering: The dissonance between our “Fiat Credentials” (everyone is an ‘A’ student) and our “Actual Competence” (record low literacy/numeracy) creates a society that is fundamentally delusional about its own capabilities.

• The Tasmanian Effect: We are forgetting. Like the isolated islanders who lost the ability to make tools, we are losing the cognitive tools required to maintain a complex republic.

This is not a “decline” that can be fixed with a new curriculum or a budget increase. It is a phase transition. Unless there is an immediate, radical intervention to restore the “Gold Standard” of competence—re-coupling credentials to reality, forcing the neurological re-training of deep attention, and rigorously reinstalling the civic software—the system will not simply degrade. It will suffer Error Catastrophe. It will dissolve.

The archives of our civilization are open, but the new generation cannot read them. The broadcast is active, but the receiver is broken. The transmission has failed.

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asc.upenn.edu

Americans’ Knowledge of Civics Increases, Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey Finds

Opens in a new window](https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/americans-knowledge-civics-increases-annenberg-constitution-day-civics-survey-finds)[

annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org

Americans’ Knowledge of Civics Increases, Annenberg Survey Finds

Opens in a new window](https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-knowledge-of-civics-increases-annenberg-survey-finds/)[

goacta.org

ACTA Releases Alarming New Survey Showing Dangerous Level of Civic Illiteracy Among College Students

Opens in a new window](https://www.goacta.org/2024/07/acta-releases-alarming-new-survey-showing-dangerous-level-of-civic-illiteracy-among-college-students/)[

medium.com

The Alarming Civic Illiteracy Crisis: | by gab1930s | Dec, 2025 - Medium

Opens in a new window](https://medium.com/@lovefoods_54026/the-alarming-civic-illiteracy-crisis-9ea72d535f4c)[

polk.edu

Polk State resources support student success on Civic Literacy Exam

Opens in a new window](https://www.polk.edu/news/polk-state-resources-support-student-success-on-civic-literacy-exam-2/)[

prnewswire.com

Americans’ knowledge of civics increases, Annenberg survey finds - PR Newswire

Opens in a new window](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-knowledge-of-civics-increases-annenberg-survey-finds-302553060.html)[

americancivicliteracy.org

Summary - Civic Literacy Report

Opens in a new window](https://www.americancivicliteracy.org/summary_summary-2/)

[

Opens in a new window](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED621326.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT_RR70.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/are-books-really-disappearing-from-american-classrooms/2025/10)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/most-americans-cant-recall-most-first-amendment-rights/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/majority-americans-cant-recall-most-first-amendment-rights)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.ppic.org/blog/recent-test-results-show-widening-gap-between-high-and-low-scoring-k-12-students/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/are-rising-grad-rates-pulling-down-naep-scores/2016/05)[

Opens in a new window](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=38)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/01/29/naep-reading-scores-decline-and-struggling-students-fall-behind/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=12)[

Opens in a new window](https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/11/five-paragraph-essay/)[

Opens in a new window](https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490?login=false)[

Opens in a new window](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171)[

Opens in a new window](https://aibm.org/research/boys-girls-and-grades-examining-gpa-and-sat-trends/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/average-sat-score-full-statistics/)[

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Opens in a new window](https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/2019-08/High%20School%20GPAs%20and%20ACT%20Scores-Aug2019-Consortium.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1454296.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1428813/full)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3757546/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/our-middle-school-reading-scores-are-dropping-help)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.thedp.com/article/2025/09/penn-annenberg-civic-knowledge-increase)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/political-communication/civics-knowledge-survey/)[

Opens in a new window](https://teachdemocracy.org/news/civic-education-is-gaining-ground-and-americans-are-taking-notice/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/political-communication/naes/)[

Opens in a new window](https://scholars.ln.edu.hk/en/publications/credential-inflation-and-decredentialization-re-examining-the-mec/)[

Opens in a new window](https://ijse.padovauniversitypress.it/system/files/papers/2011_2_12_0.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/88073/ssoar-eursociolrev-2022-6-araki_et_al-Credential_inflation_and_decredentialization_Re-examining.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/updating-cultural-transmission-models-to-reflect-the-modern-day)[

Opens in a new window](https://jweerkens.faculty.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/759/2022/10/jar2007.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.brhat.in/dhiti/problemofculturetransmission)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqsBx58GxYY)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/grade-inflation-trends-and-causes/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.gradeinflation.com/)[

Opens in a new window](https://educationaldatamining.org/EDM2024/proceedings/2024.EDM-posters.67/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2024/01/princeton-opinion-column-grade-inflation-acceptance-rate-deflation)[

Opens in a new window](https://ndlegis.gov/files/committees/64-2014%20appendices/17_5083_03000appendixp.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.luminafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/high-school-gpas.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/pdfs/R2321-Has-the-Predictive-Validity-of-HSGPA-and-ACT-Scores-on-Postsecondary-Enrollment-Changed-2024-01.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://leadershipblog.act.org/2022/05/grade-inflation-past-decade.html)[

Opens in a new window](https://sites.bu.edu/summerliteracyinstitute/files/2015/04/HiebertE-The-forgotten-reading-proficiency.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/education_etd/311/)[

Opens in a new window](https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2021/03/reading-skills-young-students-stalled-pandemic)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9383679/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.reddit.com/r/charts/comments/1nreii1/the_decline_of_reading_percentage_of_us_teenagers/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.daytonastate.edu/testing-center/civic-literacy.html)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.polk.edu/academics/civic-literacy-exam/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5668/urlt/68Spring24CivSRS.xls)[

Opens in a new window](https://cosspp.fsu.edu/academics/complete-the-civic-literacy-assessment-before-august-6/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/13223/chapter/23)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.edge.org/conversation/joseph_henrich-how-culture-drove-human-evolution)[

Opens in a new window](https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/Website/Papers/HenrichetalFiveMistake11.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9419136/)[

Opens in a new window](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-collapse/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.lajosbrons.net/blog/a-theory-of-disaster-driven-societal-collapse-and-how-to-prevent-it/)[

Opens in a new window](https://peterturchin.com/the-collapse-of-simple-societies/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1639865/the_collapse_through_the_lens_of_hypothetical/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/latest-news/commissioner-kamoutsas-celebrates-accomplishments-from-2025.stml)[

Opens in a new window](https://irsc.edu/programs/academic-resources-support/assessment-centers/florida-civic-literacy-competency-exam/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5663/urlt/2324K-12FCLEFactSheet.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://thefloridascorecard.org/pillar&c=10&pillar=1)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/civics/new-study-finds-alarming-lack-of-civic-literacy-among-americans)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.goacta.org/2024/07/new-survey-reveals-low-level-of-civics-literacy-among-college-students/)[

Opens in a new window](https://bsmknighterrant.org/2024/11/21/i-dont-know-what-that-means-students-vocabularies-are-dropping/)[

Opens in a new window](https://gss.norc.org/content/dam/gss/get-documentation/pdf/reports/social-change-reports/SC31%20Cohort%20Differences%20in%20Vocabulary%20Knowledge%20in%20the%20US.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED252565.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://sites.bu.edu/summerliteracyinstitute/files/2013/11/Allington-et-al.-2015.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://wowlit.org/blog/2018/05/14/limitations-of-lexile-levels-for-global-literature/)[

Opens in a new window](https://textproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Toyama-et-al.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-to-build-students-reading-stamina/2024/01)[

Opens in a new window](https://threeheads.works/2025/03/31/reading-stamina/)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3475198/)[

Opens in a new window](https://scholarwithin.com/average-reading-speed)[

Opens in a new window](https://reader.ku.edu/sites/reader/files/2024-01/How%20many%20words%20do%20we%20read%20per%20minute%20\(1\).pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.adlit.org/ask-the-experts/joan-sedita/sustained-silent-reading)[

Opens in a new window](https://openspaces.unk.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=undergraduate-research-journal)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.readingzone.com/news/marked-decline-in-children-s-reading-for-pleasure-highlighted-in-2024-report/)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12496190/)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/is-too-much-screen-time-too-early-hindering-reading-comprehension/2024/01)[

Opens in a new window](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/07/as-reading-scores-decline-a-study-primed-to-help-grinds-to-a-halt/)[

Opens in a new window](https://blog.washcoll.edu/wordpress/theelm/2024/11/readership-among-college-students-declines-in-response-to-curriculum-changes-social-media-and-the-pandemic/)[

Opens in a new window](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1470531.pdf)[

Opens in a new window](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5568516/)[

Opens in a new window](https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/portalin/article/view/31870)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.sid.ir/FileServer/JE/1024220100102)[

Opens in a new window](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.111085598)[

Opens in a new window](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/365/1548/1943/45534/Pathways-to-extinction-beyond-the-error-threshold)[

Opens in a new window](https://virology.ws/2009/05/14/pushing-viruses-over-the-error-threshold/)