Importance of Education
Good afternoon everyone. I will continue on the importance of education by illustrating three main aspects: Trends in US educational attainment, US student achievement and lastly, global position of the US education systems.
During the recent years, educational attainment in the United States is fairly high. In 2015, almost 9 out of 10 adults had at least a high school diploma or GED, while nearly 1 in 3 adults held a bachelor’s or high degree, and 12 percent reported an advanced degree, such as master’s, professional, or doctorate degree. Additionally, about 33% of women who had a bachelor’s degree or higher, while men had a slightly lower percentage with this level of education, which is 32%. Report from census government of United Stated also indicates that native adults were more likely to have a high school education or higher, but were no more likely than foreign-born adults to hold an advanced degree. This diagram from the census department of United State demonstrates the percentage of the population age 25 years and over by educational attainment. The data is shown from 1940 to 2011:
As you can see, 75.9% of population had their education less than high school, 19.6% of them had finished high school or some college and only 4.6% people had bachelor’s degree or high in 1940. On the other hand, the trend of educational attainment had become distinct: in 2011, there were only 11.7% of people whose educational attainment was less than high school, 56.4% of population had completed high school or some college and lastly, 32% of them had a bachelor’s degree or high, which was a notable increase.
This map points out the percentage of population 25 years old with advanced degree of each states in 2009. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maryland had more than 15% of population with advanced degree, such as master’s, doctorate etc.
This is another map indicates the percentage of population of 25 years old with bachelor’s degree or higher of each states in 2009. Massachusetts, Colorado, Maryland and Connecticut were the four states with greater than 35%.
Moving on to the next point, I will talk about United State student’s achievement. Even though educational attainment has stagnated, educational achievement is improving. The national assessment of educational progress assessment indicates that the performance of 9 years old and 13 years old children has been improving over