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Many college students become very frustrated by the materials they are instructed to read. Students often find the textbooks they are assigned very difficult to comprehend. The question we need to ask is who is to blame for this: the textbook authors; the instructors who assign them; the students? I think the answer lies somewhere else. Though students have the primary responsibility for their college education it is not entirely their fault that they are unable to comprehend college level reading material. I believe the primary fault lies with their earlier education. In particular, the fault lies with those who passed them on even though they were not really capable of doing grade level work. Sometimes this is the work of their teachers, but more often it is due to the upper hand of an administration that is committed to outcomes as opposed to knowledge. What do I mean by this? Please see my evidence below.

It is common knowledge that schools receive funding based partially on statistics such as retention rates. Who passes to the next grade and who fails largely determines a school's reputation. Never mind whether the students are really prepared to move on, they are often promoted to preserve the illusion of progress and success. When it comes time to graduate high school many students do not have a 12th grade reading ability. Without this, they are certain to find college difficult and many may be doomed to fail out entirely.

Here's one shocking statistic that tells the tale: according to the 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Only three out of ten eighth graders read at or above grade level. What are the odds that this number has gone up to ten out of ten by the time the student graduates high school?

So, where does this leave the student? Unfortunately, as I said before, the student is the one who is primarily responsible for their education. Colleges cannot afford to water down their material otherwise it is no longer college level material. Students must work to correct their deficiencies but first they must recognize them. Doing so can be a struggle because it is often easier to blame instructors for assigning difficult reading or blame the text itself for being too difficult to read. Insofar as blame does any good it should at least be directed at the correct source. The blame lies on whomever convinced the student that they were ready to do college level work.

Reading is a lot like exercise in that you have to start slow and continue to

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