The Perfect Storm-A Crisis in Literacy

From the Eide Neurolearning Blog I learned about The Perfect Storm, a report by the Educational Testing Service. Even though I have my reservations about ETS and all of the intense testing going on across the US, the foundations of this report made sense to me and fit my observations of what is going on around me in education and employment.

The report says that three things are happening to undermine "The American Dream".

1. Substantial disparities in skill levels in reading and mathematical literacy- I look at what is going on in Austin and the differences between the low income areas and the higher income areas in education. There are HUGE differences and NCLB is not making a difference.
2. Seizmic Economic Changes-the ENORMOUS gap between what a CEO is making and an average worker in the same company, the types of jobs available to lower educated people and their hopes for advancement.
3. Sweeping demographic changes (less education, lower skills)

It looks like something worth taking seriously.