Globally Challenged: Are U. S. Students Ready to Compete?

Author/s: 
Paul Peterson, Ludger Woessmann, Eric A. Hanushek and Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón
Year of publication: 
2011
Publication: 
PEPG 11-03

At a time of persistent unemployment, especially among the less skilled, many wonder whether our schools are adequately preparing students for the 21st-century global economy. Despite high unemployment rates, firms are experiencing shortages of educated workers, outsourcing professional-level work to workers abroad, and competing for the limited number of employment visas set aside for highly skilled immigrants. As President Barack Obama said in his 2011 State of the Union address, “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”

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