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As someone who's currently teaching first year students in a well-known UK university, I can assure you that standards have fallen. I don't want to attack US students, as I came from the US system, but the difference between the preparedness for the level of work they expect and that which we expect is astonishing. British students tend to be more prepared for the work, as they've done their A-levels or Advanced Highers, and have gotten used to independent study. There is a similar debate here about A-levels getting easier (more people getting A grades and such), but it's not the same as what's going on in the States.
I've been teaching this course now for three years, and have noticed a significant decline in the basic abilities of students. Yes, there will always be some who are just lazy and don't listen, and on the other hand there will always be exceptionally good students. But the fact is that this year, I have been appalled by students who don't know how to footnote, can't write an 8-page paper (2,000 words), don't listen when I tell them they must have x number of sources in their bibliography, and then come back citing wikipedia, an exceedingly dodgy website with a busy background and tinny music, or the lecturer, instead of the reading list we provide for the paper topics. Overwhelmingly, these students have been American. I actually had one student ask to change the set topic for the paper because it hadn't been covered in-depth in lecture. Of course it's not going to be covered in-depth: that's why we're giving it to you to research on your own!
There's definitely a trend to spoon-feed information to students in high school, and then they come to us at a world-class university and expect the same. It's not my job to prepare you for the exam, it's my job to teach you the subject matter (which of course comprises the entirety of the exam), and it's up to you to revise it. I'll happily assist you in understanding the format of the exam, answer any questions you may have from lecture, tutorial, or your reading, and give you examples, but it ends there. The things they're having trouble with now are things that were addressed in my education when I was about 13 (so about 12 years ago). Because education is now geared more to testing, as opposed to actual learning and retention, students have lost a lot of the skills related to essay-writing, revising and presenting that many of us who went through the system before or during the 90s take for granted.
I must say that while the article is anecdotal and a bit too sensationalist, the underlying theme is correct. Students might not be getting dumber, but they aren't getting the same level of education they once did (because of budget cuts and all this no-child-left-behind rubbish) and this is leaving them ill-prepared for vocational training, university or the job market.
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