"[S]ome of the ways in which [college students] have changed - laid out in a new Education Department study Wednesday - may challenge the conventional wisdom a bit," Inside Higher Ed reports. "The demographic data provide little in the way of surprises; they show the high school-age population growing increasingly diverse over time, with white students making up 86 percent of the national high school senior class in 1972 and declining to 62 percent by 2004. Black Americans showed the most social mobility over this period, with the proportion of African-American high school seniors who fell in the highest socioeconomic quartile rising to 13.5 from 5.2 percent while the proportion in the lowest quartile fell to 37.1 percent from 62.8 percent. Although many faculty members like to complain about the declining capabilities of incoming students, the data show that students' have increasingly taken advanced courses in high school. Despite the popular perception that students are engaging in more activities (for resume padding if not out of enjoyment), the statistics suggest otherwise."