Improving Our Educational System

THE CHALLENGE

• U.S. students trail their counterparts in more than twenty other industrialized nations in math and science achievement. Within an urban school environment, research into educational outcomes paints a disturbing picture.
• Significant disparities in education achievement persist between low- and higher-income students in the United States. In the United States, urban students are roughly two years of learning behind the average better-off student of the same age.
• Youth in urban areas are twice as likely to be living in poverty as other children, face more problems with a language barrier, have smaller chances of living in a two-parent household, and are much more likely to drop out of school due to many of these issues. They are also faced with factors such as community violence, teacher quality, and after-school opportunities that may be limited or non-existent depending on the availability of funding and services.
• 25% of students are at the proper reading level for their age or over, while only 5% of students are ready for college level reading by the time they graduate.
• Literacy in the United States is at an 8^th grade level.