Commentary: Current Year

Foreword

By James B. Hunt Jr. and Garrey Carruthers

How well do the 50 states and the nation educate and train their citizens? Six years ago, we began to answer this question in Measuring Up 2000. Since then, the biennial Measuring Up series has become a widely accepted gauge of state and national higher education performance. Measuring Up 2006, the fourth report card, builds on earlier editions and adds an international perspective.

As did its predecessors, Measuring Up 2006 compares and evaluates the performance of each state along critical dimensions of college opportunity and effectiveness to assess our national performance. From high school preparation through the bachelor’s degree, the report card examines the contributions of public and private, two- and four-year, non-profit and for-profit colleges and universities. Current performance is measured by grades for each state, and improvement is shown by arrows pointing up, down, or sideways for each state and the nation. Our Measuring Up report cards and other National Center programs and activities encourage each state to improve on its own past performance by striving to emulate the performance of the leading states in each category—preparing young people for college, enrolling high school graduates and working adults in college-level education or training, in completing college degree and certificate programs, and keeping college affordable for students and families.

Measuring Up 2006, by introducing an international perspective to our understanding of higher education performance, underscores the imperative for improvement. Using the most reliable information available, the report card compares the performance of our states and nation with that of other nations. The results will surprise many Americans, especially those who have become comfortable with the conventional wisdom that our higher education is the “best in the world.” Many of our individual colleges and universities do rank among the best anywhere, but other nations now surpass us in several key indicators of higher education performance, particularly on measures of accessibility and completion of degree and certificate programs. Generally, the United States is doing as well on these measures as it has in the recent past, but the nation has improved very little since the early 1990s. While our own progress stalled, much of the rest of the world has improved—educating more people to higher levels. Uneveness of performance across states led to this conclusion in Measuring Up 2004: “The inescapable fact is that the United States is underperforming in higher education.” The international comparisons in this report card confirm this earlier conclusion.

Other nations’ gains in college participation and degree attainment reflect their recent recognition of the enormous advantages that a college-educated population represents in the context of a knowledge-based economy and growing global competition. As the international indicators show, the United States must not remain satisfied with past achievements—with the proportions of Americans who enrolled and completed education and training during the 1990s. Any residual complacency from our years of world leadership is now an impediment to educational improvement and economic strength. We can and must mobilize our nation, our states, and our colleges for success in this external competition—as we did in the mid-20th century when the G.I.’s returned from Europe and Asia, and when the baby boomers came of college age. We can do it again.

It is time to recognize that American higher education, as it evolved in the 20th century was, for all its success, a way station, not a destination. In the 21st century, higher education must respond to an expanding, knowledge-based global marketplace. In responding, the results of past success—unparalleled facilities and faculties—can be a firm foundation, but only if the new context is clearly recognized. As in other important transitions, public policy leaders must lead, not simply oversee. Fortunately, several promising signs have appeared since we issued Measuring Up 2004: A summit meeting of the nation’s governors recognized that every high school graduate must be ready to undertake college-level education or training. And the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education will shortly make recommendations that address the major issues identified in this and earlier Measuring Up report cards.

Recognition of the new context is necessary but not sufficient. What is now needed is a sense of urgency among policy leaders, educators, and business leaders comparable to the policy emphasis that other countries are placing on higher education—as reflected in shifting international rankings. Solutions may be complex, responsibilities dispersed, and priorities upset, but the central issue can be stated simply: The current level of performance will fall short in a world being reshaped by the knowledge-based global economy. Our country and our states need to educate more people with college-level knowledge and skills.

James B. Hunt Jr.
Chairman, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
Former Governor of North Carolina

Garrey Carruthers
Vice Chairman, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
Former Governor of New Mexico