Today in the New York Times, reporter Tamar Lewin wrote about the growing college-completion rate gap between the U.S. and other countries. The US previously led the world in 25-34 year olds with college degrees, but now ranks 12th out of 36 developed nations. This news echoes a trend we reported on in our 2008 report, ?Education Olympics: The Games In Review,? which details the K-12 education gap between the U.S. and other countries.
Unsurprisingly, the tale this report tells is not a comforting one. Americans accustomed to seeing the United States at the top of international rankings tables will not like what they see. And although the strengths of the U.S. economy and its higher-education system offer some hope for the future, the state of the K-12 education system depicted in the pages ahead should spark concerns about the long-term outlook for the U.S. economy.
The report combines the results from the (PISA), TIMSS, PIRLS, and CIVED international assessment tests and ranks the US 20th out of 23 total countries
This leaves us with a serious question. Has our high school failure reached a higher level of education?
?Saul Spady, Fordham intern