The customers of our educational system are not happy with the results, especially in Math and Science.
The National Science Foundation released a study comparing the numbers of engineering graduates in six leading industrialized countries over 20 years. The US fell from first place in 1985 to fourth place in 2005, behind South Korea.
Worse, 58.6% of engineering doctorate degrees in 2005 were actually granted to foreign students holding temporary visas.
Bottom Line
Our educational system is not graduating enough US-resident engineers to maintain our global competitiveness in key technology markets, WHY?
By the 5th Grade, most urban students are already 50% below grade. By 9th Grade, this number rises to 80-90% below grade. Bringing these under-performers back up to grade is problematic on multiple fronts:
- There are no systems in place to rapidly assess each student’s performance.
- There is not enough funding to provide individualized tutoring for each under- performing student.
- Even if you had the funding, there are not enough math-proficient tutors for each student in need.
- A typical teacher does not have the time to both teach
to the new material AND help each under-performing
student catch up on past materials.