An Education System in Crisis

Experts, Educators, Leaders, and the Public agree that not only is current Student Achievement unacceptable, but our Education System is in Crisis!

• 30% dropout rate - 3 out of every 10 of our students drop out before graduating High School, and the rate is nearly 50% for minorities
• The U.S. has fallen from #1 to #10 among industrialized nations in college graduation rates
• According to the Program for International Student Assesment (PISA), in 2006 15-year olds in the U.S. placed 28th out of the 57 nations tested in science, and were 37th out of 57 in mathematics
• Only 17 States showed improvement in Reading over the last two NAEP Assessments (2005, 2007)
• Only 23% of tested graduating seniors are “college ready” as defined by the ACT. College-readiness levels remain within two-tenths of a percentage point of where they’ve been since 2005, a finding that prompted the nation’s highest education official to renew his demand that schools do a far better job preparing students for college.

Costs are rising rapidly - billions have been spent and billions more will be spent soon - yet major federal and state efforts to reverse the trend have failed.

• The crisis threatens the U.S. position in the world economy with the proficiencies of U.S. students falling far behind competing foreign countries and getting worse

Something about Education must change in order to resolve the crisis!