The data comes from the book Academically Adrift, which raises some fundamental and surprising questions about the quality of U.S. undergraduate education.

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Academically Adrift addresses whether college students learn to think critically and solve problems, while In the Basement laments how ill-prepared students flounder in literature classes.

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The higher ed world is all abuzz about the release of a brand new book by sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.

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According to a controversial recent study, led by the sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa and summarized in their book "Academically Adrift, " nearly half of all undergraduates fail to demonstrate significant improvements in critical thinking or writing skills during their first two years in college.

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Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa in their great book Academically Adrift have taken data from a respectable indicator of critical thinking and problem solving skills, the Collegiate Learning Assessment, as well as the National Survey of Student Engagement and have concluded, roughly, that typically students neither work very hard nor learn very much.

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