Common core is a disaster and hopefully will get undone. No child left behind had good intentions but if they students wants to drop out....FUCK IT let him! Stop throwing money at him or her.

Most likely Im 1 of if not thee youngest person on the forum. I got a very good education but at a very high price. I blame a lot on the lack of trade training. How to fix an air conditioner or doing an oil change.

You cannot go and learn how fix diesel engines without having a business sponsor you. Absolute bullshit. And for the few adult ed programs in the states. They dont give you any real life experience. I studied how to fix I/O engines for boats. Everything was inside the classroom. Comfy and easy. Once I got a job at a Marina it was a different ball game.

Further more...with the influx of illegals working for pennies you wont be able to find a job in such fields like you used to. Instead of someone training me and being patient they would let me go and hire Jose for half the price.

Now as far as this "Study" goes. Look what qualifies to go to a college now! Its everyone and anyone...so its not shocking. The older generations understand this and throw the idea of college out the window. They just want someone dependable,loyal and to just be a straight shooter.

Add Jay, I am probably one of the older posters on this forum, but I happen to agree with much of what you said. And most of the educators I have met agree with you about how bad the No Child Child Left behind became, and mixed feelings about Common Core. Teachers now complain about how much time they have to spend filling out paperwork for all these government mandates, instead of spending time teaching. These federal along with many state program have many teachers leaving in frustration. They spent 5 years studying to get a teaching credential to work with kids, not fill out government forms. When I was in High School, in the dark ages, we had a very active program for the trades, which is now largely missing, partly because of all the money having to be spent for these government mandates. Let me clue everyone in on something, teachers don't like the government interfering in them doing their jobs any more than anyone else does. So just give the educators a break when you complain about all these government programs, they are complaining too.

The one thing I would add to your comment, high school trade and vocational school programs now need to include a lot more than just fixing engines, they need to teach computer network installation and servicing, website design, medical office and technology training, and of course welding, running automated machine tools, and many many others. Much of what they would teach depends on the area, which is why curriculum choice is better left up to the educators in the region, rather than federal mandates, whether they be from the left or the right.

America, home of the Stupid. Harvard, MIT, California Tech, Stanford, Yale...places we Yanks educate our idiots at.... Lol

Well put!
Possibly one reason why averages are low is that such a large proportion of the population in the U.S. has tertiary education as opposed to other countries. Only 3 countries have a larger percentage of their population with college degrees. In addition the U.S. has a relatively large number of people attending college for which English was not the primary language used at home. I am not sure the averages tell the whole story. Certainly as you alluded to, and has been pointed out many times, the U.S. hosts the majority of the worlds top universities.