By host Tom Ashbrook:

The headlines say too many American college graduates can’t do the basics such as calculate a tip at the restaurant, make sense of a newspaper editorial, or balance a checkbook.

Cartoonists have had a field day with that. Others want action. Some want standardized testing — the kind of testing that the federal government has imposed on K-12 education in recent years. A high-powered federal panel is going to recommend something, soon.

Parents paying megabucks a year for college may want proof of results. Critics say standardized testing would kill real college education.

Hear about the call for accountability, and girding for battle, on America’s college campuses.

Guests:

Claudio Sanchez, education correspondent, NPR

Charles Miller, chairman, Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education

Leon Botstein, president, Bard College

Kim Adams, sophomore at the University of MIssouri-Columbia and a columnist for the student paper, The Maneater

Lee Shulman, president, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.