Reclaiming the Lead: Higher Education's Future and Implications for Technology

Abstract

U.S. education, K-20, is under constant scrutiny as the country faces increasingly competitive global markets, a worldwide recession, rapid technological and demographic changes at home, and struggling educational systems nationwide. As recently as this past summer, President Barack Obama, in a speech on education at the University of Texas at Austin, said: "I want you to know we have been slipping. In a single generation, we've fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults. . . . In one generation, we went from number one to number 12. Now, that's unacceptable, but it's not irreversible. We can retake the lead. . . . The single most important step we can take is to make sure that every one of our young people . . . has the best education that the world has to offer."