Arum on NPR cites lack of rigor at American colleges

Richard Arum of New York University, interviewed on National Public Radio, on the lack of academic rigor at American college campuses.
Her is the link to the audio archive file at NPR's site.

Arum emphasized the need for students to apply themselves. He cited studies showing that students did very little homework and avoided courses that required writing long papers. Students apply themselves? I thought that teachers'/instructors' jobs was to entertain students. Someone send the memo to college and school administrators!

Arum also negatively cited the practice of evaluating instructors by relying on student evaluations of teachers. Positive student evaluations college instructors are inevitably correlated with the grade that they anticipate receiving and their sense that the instructor is entertaining, rather than boring. Any wonder that there is grade inflation.