NY Times article about lack of readiness for college

[Gregatron]

I teach at a medium size Midwestern university. (Hope it's okay that I invade here.) One of my colleagues sent me an email of this article: Many students are coming out of high school not ready for college. I see this myself. I think most of you guys represent a smarter portion of college students, and since I know many of you (in that message board way of "knowing"), I thought I would get your opinions on this.

This is the response I sent my colleague:
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While I am only in my first full year of teaching on the college level, I was once a public school teacher (in Mississippi). I saw teaching being forced to literally "teach to the test." (I was a special education teacher, so I was not required to do this.) IMO this seems to suppress critical thinking and abstract thinking skills that are so important to succeeding on a college level.

Sometimes I am simply amazed at the gibberish I get when students turn in papers. Not only can many of them not write a coherent sentences, but they can't even think well.

While I am only in my first year of teaching at this level, my mother is also a Ph.D. She tells me that this problem has been getting worse over the past several years -- students, she contends, are just getting dumber and dumber (though she puts it much less bluntly than that). We both believe this is, at least partially, the result of increasing reliance on standardized testing in our public schools as benchmarks to "success".

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Feel free to share your relevant thoughts or experiences.