And, a new book, discussed at length again in the NYTimes,

“Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” (University of Chicago Press) by a professor at New York University and another at the University of Virginia, attempts to answer questions [about how much students learn and how they spend their time] in a systematic way — and, as its title suggests, its findings suggest reason for concern.
In the book, and in an accompanying study being released Tuesday, the authors followed more than 2,300 undergraduates at two dozen universities, and concluded that 45 percent “demonstrated no significant gains in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and written communications during the first two years of college.”

So, we conclude that Americans hardly do any studying, hardly learn anything in college, and can hardly read and write when they graduate from high school.