BusinessWeek in its current issue, discusses how the U.S. is falling behind in educating its workforce. And American companies are not happy – at all. Can you blame them?
Some startling statistics:
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48% of employers rate the preparedness of High School graduates as DEFICIENT.
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12% of employers rate the preparedness of Two-Year colleges as DEFICIENT.
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9% of employers rate the preparedness of College graduates as DEFICIENT.
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Despite being one of the richest countries, U.S. students faired poorly on science exams. It only faired better than Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, Russia, Ireland and Italy.
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SAT scores in reading lanquish (1972 vs 2007 data) and only slightly higher in math (1972 vs 2007).
Source: BusinessWeek 02/25/08 http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0214_numbers_education/index_01.htm?technology+slideshows
One of the most important factors to take into account with these stats is that the work has changed. Employers are demanding more and as a result they would be dissatisfied with even the same results year after year.
Another problem with the statistics is that they take a look at average scores which don’t really indicate the large numbers with high scores. For example, take Sweden. They can have tremendous scores on science test but the population is only 9 million. Of that probably less than 3 million are students. I think we could find 3 million students in the U.S. who are equal or better in science scores.
America also has a large immigrant population and many who barely speak English. Their scores are also averaged in. It may take a generation before these immigrants are up to average. Not really a problem in Norway.
The point, the big broad sweeping numbers really don’t make a lot of difference. It’s more important what they are on a local basis and with specific individuals.