Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education

Overview & Synopsis

International governments are increasingly comparing their educational outcomes to the best in the world, not just to see how they rank, but to identify and learn from top performers and rapid improvers. This process, known as "international benchmarking," has become an important tool for governments striving to create world-class education systems as nations race to create knowledge-fueled innovation economies. The author maintains that American education has not adequately responded to the challenges of the new education, is loosing its edge in educational attainment and that if state leaders want to ensure that their citizens and their economies remain competitive, they must look beyond America's borders and benchmark their education systems with the best in the world. The report concludes that it is through benchmarking that countries can understand relative strengths and weaknesses of their respective education systems and identify best practices and ways forward. A table of Countries Participating in International Assessments is appended. (Contains 138 notes, 6 figures, and 1 table.)