Q: Why is the message of Beat the Odds so important for Arizona today?

A:
        For more than two decades, Arizona and the nation have been warned of the consequences facing us because of the declining performance of U.S. students at all grade levels.

• America no longer has the most educated workforce among industrial nations – long one of our greatest competitive advantages.
• Employers have access to increasing numbers of educated workers overseas who are willing to work for relatively low wages.
• Our proportion of the world’s population of college students has fallen from 30 percent to 14 percent.
• Among the advanced industrial nations, Americans now place in the bottom half for achievement in mathematics, science and general literacy.


-- Tough Choices OR Tough Times, Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, National Center on Education and the Economy

While the challenges are national, the situation in Arizona is especially critical.

• Arizona students score below national averages in mathematics, science, reading and writing skills on all benchmarks.
• Our high school graduation rate is also below the national average – and it cannot be attributed solely to the growing numbers of Latino students in Arizona.
• While Latino students now account for half of the K-12 enrollment in Phoenix and Tucson, other border states with similar demographics continue to outperform Arizona among all ethnic groups.


Graduation Rate for Texas and Arizona by Ethnic Group

As Jim Collins says frequently in Good to Great, “First, confront the brutal facts.”
Arizona schools are not performing at the standard we require today.

Far too many Arizona students are entering the workforce without completing high school. Many of our high school graduates are unprepared for higher education and not completing any post-secondary studies. Thus, their ability to participate in the high tech workforce of today is marginal at best.

According to Wendy Kopp at Teach for America, there are 13 million American children growing up in poverty today and Arizona has its fair share. By age nine, they’re usually three full grade levels behind. About half will graduate from high school. Those who do graduate will end up working, voting, parenting at about an 8th grade level.

This is not acceptable.