Unemployment is significantly escalating especially among the less skilled, and many are questioning whether our schools are adequately preparing students for the 21st century. Paul E. Peterson, Ludger Woessmann, Eric A Hanushek and Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadon created a paper titled "Are students Ready to Compete?" that examines the educational proficiency of students in America. Presently, the challenge seems to be in math, science, and engineering. Therefore, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education Coalition was formed in 2006 to raise awareness on how important these subjects are. In the past, teachers and administrators decided the level of math proficiency that students were required, but now the states and federal government established proficiency levels for students to reach. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standard was set by the U.S. Department of Education. According to the paper, in 2007 32% of 8th graders in public and private schools in the US performed at or above the NAEP proficiency standard in math and 31% performed at or above that level in reading.


The world's proficiency levels are assessed by the Program for International Students Assessment (PISA). US students in the class of 2011, came in 32nd among the nations that participated in PISA.  Six countries plus Shanghai and Hong Kong had a great amount of students performing at least at the proficiency level, while the United States had less than one-third. Shanghai topped the list with a 75 percent math proficiency rate, over twice the 32 percent rate of the United States. The US reading proficiency was 31%, ranked 17th among the nations of the world. We consider ourselves to be one of the top countries of the world, but our proficiency levels are relatively low compared to the rest of the world.

The article "Young people reading a lot less" by David Mehegan in The Boston Globe explains how this generation spends a significant amount of time watching television, surfing the Web, listening to music and using their phones, but less time reading. A report done by the National Endowment for the Arts released eye-catching information. The report states that only 30% of 13 year olds read almost every day. The number of 17 year olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9% in 1984 to 19% in 2004, and almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure. The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading. Also, only about a third of high school seniors read at a proficient level. Shockingly, things are not much better among college students. In 2005, almost 40 percent of college freshmen (and 35 percent of seniors) read nothing at all for pleasure, and 26 percent (28 percent of seniors) read less than one hour per week. Even among college graduates, reading proficiency declined from 40 percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003. This generation's students are not being educated properly, giving them a lower probability to succeed. Things need to change, both in the educational system and in the student's effort in order to improve and create a more sophisticated leading nation.


Mehegan, David. "Young People Reading a Lot Less." Boston.com. The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2007. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/19/young_people_reading_a_lot_less/?page=full

Peterson, Paul E., Ludger Woessmann, Eric A. Hanushek, and Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadon. "Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete? - Education Next." RSS. N.p., 16 Aug. 2011. Web. 01 Feb. 2015 http://educationnext.org/are-u-s-students-ready-to-compete/