Student enrollments are growing at all levels of education, and more students are taking advanced science and mathematics courses, yet gaps persist in educational performance and participation, a new federal report says.
“The Condition of Education 2001,” prepared by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, finds both positives and negatives in U.S. schools.
U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige says the report “tells us concretely that we are far from where we need to be in terms of student performance. We are failing to close the persistent achievement and attainment gaps — and we lag behind other developed nations in mathematics and science achievement.”
The 59 indicators contained in the report convey the most recent information about enrollment, outcomes, context and support for education.
“A growing and increasingly diverse population of elementary and secondary students continues to increase the challenge of providing high-quality instruction and equal educational opportunities,” says Gary W. Phillips, acting commissioner of educational statistics, in the report's conclusion. “At the postsecondary level, institutions must prepare for the record numbers of enrollments expected over the next few decades.”