1	In the News From politics to art, the headlines of Hispanidad. read more...
2	Up Front Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., looks at tensions between Hispanics and African Americans. read more...
3	Up Front Dr. Eduardo Padrón discusses the growing educational gap between the upper and lower income brackets. read more...
4	Media mun2 KICKS OFF PRODUCTION FROM BRAND NEW STUDIOS IN THE HEART OF CITYWALK AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD read more...

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up front

THE test of our time

In recent years, the country has split along the lines of excess and deficiency.

Crises in the era of hot communications are framed in neon and blood. The images beamed into our minds are stark and durable. Days later, the Katrina dead and the rubble of Iraq remain haunting pictures. That’s the intent, to grab your attention and hold on.
Indeed, these are odd and trying times for the nation. Our soldiers are sent to war, but our SUVs continue to gulp foreign oil. The economy is reportedly booming, but wages are stagnant. The middle class is dissolving, and the numbers in severe poverty have risen exponentially in the last five years. Spas and exercise emporiums suggest a health-conscious nation, but child mortality rates and obesity are peaking. Health insurance is unavailable to 47 million people. Last, but hardly least, the nation home to Harvard and Yale and MIT now ranks 10th in the world in high school completion. One-third of our high school students drop out before they graduate.
You read that correctly. One-third of more than 17 million high school students are, essentially, disappearing into a murky underclass. The recent report by the Educational Testing Service, One-Third of a Nation, concluded that the United States faces increasing dropout rates, a decline in support for at-risk students and ultimately, a deteriorating economic position. You simply cannot waste talent at such a rate and maintain top-drawer economic status in the world.
In years past we spoke of our shrinking planet, drawn closer by air travel, international long-distance and the miraculous fax machine. Did you know that 1.5 exabytes of new unique information will be generated across the planet this year, more than the previous 5,000 years? That the number of text messages sent exceeds the population of the planet. Every day. That 3,000 books are published—every day.
The neon counterpoint to all of this is the evidence that only 35 percent of high school students are proficient in reading. Twenty-seven percent lack even basic reading skills according to the
Nation’s Report Card, a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. In math, just 23 percent of 12th-graders were grade proficient, and 39 percent lacked basic high school math skills.
In this express age, the traditional ground is shifting. The top 10 jobs in highest demand by the year 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are preparing people for jobs that don’t exist. The amount of technical data is expanding so rapidly that one futurist projected that half of what students study in their first year of college will be outdated by their third year of study. And our kids can’t read.
This is the silent national crisis that generates multiple studies and a special report on the networks’ Saturday evening news, when the country has already gone to the movies. Today, creators of video games invest more in research and development than the United States government invests in educational R&D.
I am an optimist by nature despite the doom and gloom reported here. And I am more than encouraged by the innovative efforts by states and municipalities. Colleges and high schools are reaching out to one another to prepare students more effectively for college-level work. Dropout prevention programs are making a difference in the inner city and rural areas most affected. Creative outcome and assessment approaches are offering authentic measurements of student progress. Benefactors such as Bill and Melinda Gates are working closely with educators to uncover new and exciting methods to reach and teach young people.
These efforts prove what is possible. The immeasurable value in each young person is being tapped and there is no more valuable discovery. But this is a national challenge, a universal wake-up call to prepare a generation of young people for a world in constant transformation, and continue to provide learning alternatives throughout their lives. Such a task will take all the resources and creativity at our disposal. This is truly the test of our time.

Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón is president of Miami Dade College, the largest institution of higher education in the nation.