Nearly everyone, from parents to researchers, suggested causes for the decline in test scores and for the possible decline in literacy. Many conservatives were convinced that schooling innovations during the 1960s and early 1970s had been at fault. Many argued that permissive education — too little reading and writing, too many soft electives, and too few required academic courses; too much politics and too little rigor — was the culprit. Even in the 1970s, however, the vast majority of public schools were still traditional in nature. Christopher Jencks, who reviewed the test-score decline in 1978, found that "secondary school students took more academic courses in 1970-1 than they had in 1960-1." There was a slight decline in the number of academic courses taken in 1972-1973, but essentially the charge that the curriculum had been watered down was not proven. Even some liberals agreed, however, that...