Among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. is ninth among industrialized nations in the share of its population that has at least a high school degree. In the same age group, the United States ranks seventh, with Belgium, in the share of people who hold a college degree. The US has lost standing in this area since 1970 and the downward trend is now more rapid.

By both measures, the United States was first in the world as recently as 20 years ago, said Barry McGaw, director of education for the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development. The 30-nation organization develops the yearly rankings as a way for countries to evaluate their education systems and determine whether to change their policies. The US is also leading the world in "hyper media" young brains now proven to have "new brain" hard wiring. The new brain hard wiring fails to adapt to antique class room delivery systems, as reflected by performance measurement, compared to brains not "hyper media" pre conditioned. As all young learner brains are likely to show the "hyper media" effect performance in other countries is likely to follow US patterns unless class rooms are redesigned to better accommodate the "new brains" coming into them.

McGaw said that the United States remains atop the "knowledge economy," one that uses information to produce economic benefits. But, he said, "education's contribution to that economy is weakening, and you ought to be worrying." BJ Dohrmann founder of  Super Teaching, a technology designed to retrofit class rooms for new brains, suggested that the US has ten years to reverse the trend in public education before the general economy is dramatically effected.

The report, released Tuesday Sept 12th 2005, bases its conclusions about achievement mainly on international test scores released last December. They show that compared with their peers in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, 15-year-olds in the United States are below average in applying math skills to real-life tasks. Again the trend downward is accelerating, which is worrisome to educational planners.

Top performers included Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Belgium. New Class room modeling following the Super Teaching design is being applied more rapidly in off shore class rooms. It is important to keep in mind off shore class rooms create 3900 annual hours of student learning against 1700 hours of education in US schools. The educational hour is better off shore and learners receive  more hours each year. Competing with better brains becomes the oxymoron of the American way of life in the next decade.

Education is reaching an emergency mode to sustain the American way of life suggests BJ Dohrmann, Executive Director of the International Learning Trust of Washington DC.

 Super Teaching represents the equivalent of a light bulb to the candle for "whole brain" learning  in the class room. ST class room designs bridge the digital divide without having technology distract live faculty from the critical learning opportunity moment. Live faculty enjoy improved impact for each learning minute as automation creates up to "nine" information reinforcements in left and right brain hemispheres, a level of chemical storage depth and strength at the brain cellular level impossible to duplicate outside ST class room models. Eleven learning disorders now epidemic in the learner population are normalized when Super Teaching made part of class room design. BJ points out Super Teaching solutions represent a  Title I congressionally approved technology direction that is being installed in public schools coast to coast, now with federal funds helping speed up class room retrofitting.

A separate international review last year showed U.S. eighth-graders gaining on their peers across the globe in science and math but again going flat in high school or falling. At the same time, though, fourth-graders here are falling behind others as their test scores remain stagnant, that study found.

"We're not just letting down too many of our students; we're (also) not giving our taxpayers the best return on their investments," said Ray Simon, the deputy education secretary, after the release of the international report. While dollars continue to flow in various uncoordinated directions the core issue remains largely unresolved; present class room design represents a Model T Ford while the brains coming into the antique class rooms represent star ship enterprise super learner brains.  Super Teaching is a system that most perfectly matches the "new brains" favorite mechanisms to learn. The differential "pattern" inside the educational theater of Super Teaching class rooms is maintained by three million lines of proprietary software code within a pacing that optimizes learning for any lesson plan at all grade levels. Parents teachers and students experience Super Teaching as a never ending theater of education that is fun to learn within. The largest parent teacher learner support group on line, www.yourhomework.com endorsed Super Teaching in the summer of 2005.

Soorena Salari Chairman of Your Home Work reported " we experience over 1,000,000 clicks from teachers parents and students each day on our web site. Your home was award the most used home work site in the world in 2005. Our endorsements for technology represents a measured response to monitoring improvements in test scores from learners over time. Super Teaching has more dramatically effected learner home work completion, and performance, over any other tool we have seen placed into the class room since 1990. For this reason we have placed an endorsement to public education on our web site for retrofitting class rooms with Super Teaching as a priority item in American education. When our board agreed to endorse Super Teaching the resolution was simple, ST works every time for every learner.

Younger students are making gains, Simon said, but that progress is often lost by the later grades he regretfully reported.  He said a new push to improve the accuracy of high school graduation data should help steer attention toward students who are at risk of dropping out of education. As younger students are media exposed the synapse wiring of their brain hard wiring  ( MRI measured ) begins to show the "super learner" new brain synapse pattern - at which point young learner gains fall off.  Nothing we do Simon said seems to have any long term impact.  By age ten the learner gains made in early class room reforms are virtually lost forever. Without a Super Teaching like reform of class room core construction new brain performance remains at risk. ( See www.supereteaching.org ).

Given what the United States spends on education, its relatively low student achievement through high school shows its school system is "clearly inefficient," McGaw said. Other experts state that in effect the US educational system is virtually  dieing and next generation brains may be "woefully unprepared to meet the global economy they will reside within". The "dumb-ing"  down of America is a reversible process but time is running out. B.J. Dohrmann reported " our twenty two years of research demonstrates that US new  curriculum and improved  teacher delivery of education is "not" the problem. BJ reports that  "new brains approaching antique class rooms either require drugs to slow such brain's down, or technology to speed the learning up to match new brain requirements. Teachers operating without automation behind them are naked in the face of the "new brains" they are required to educate. BJ believes class room upgrades are the only solution to the current downward trend as shown in the recent decline of global comparisons.

In all levels of education, the United States spends $11,152 per student. That's the second highest amount, behind the $11,334 spent by Switzerland. Super Teaching upgrades to public school class rooms represent a sixty month amortized cost of just $ 37.11 cents per student as a class room construction cost.  BJ reports school districts are spending billions on outfitting class rooms with individual work stations that become obsolete in the first year of use after substantial data supports such investments ( five times the cost of Super Teaching ) fail to improve learner performance. BJ suggests the only solution rests with basic class room design. Upgrading the class room itself is gaining traction for education planners in 2005.

 "The very best schools in the U.S. are extraordinary," McGaw said. "But the big concern in the U.S. is the diversity of quality of institutions -- and the fact that expectations haven't been set high enough." Growing learning disorders in the general population make even  leading schools face challenges earlier planners failed to recognize. Super Teaching resolves most  learning disorders without special programs as reported by public schools having upgraded their class rooms in 2000 through 2005.

The Bush administration says the 2002 federal law known as the No Child Left Behind Act is fueling higher achievement among all students -- particularly poor and minority kids -- by holding schools accountable for progress. But the international data, mostly gathered in 2003, are not recent enough to confirm that the law is producing results, McGaw said. A growing number of educators fear the law without improved funding will fail to resolve the downward spiral of test scores for American Learners against off shore rivals.

Higher education in the United States remains strong, and the nation continues to hold an advantage in innovation based on research conducted at universities, McGaw said. When pure innovation and research are considered a small population percentage in America continue to excel. But McGaw pointed out these numbers are insignificant and fail to provide the basis required to sustain the work force and general economy of the United States.

The report also underscores that women continue to get paid less than men.

Women in the United States who are 30 to 44 and who hold a university degree -- meaning a bachelor's degree, master's degree, doctorate or medical degree -- make only 62 percent of what similarly qualified men do. This trend has caused more women to open their own businesses in recent years.

This is  a lower rate for woman   than in all but three of the 19 countries for which numbers are available. The nations with greater inequity in pay are Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland. Late studies continue to show the more population rich states are falling more dramatically in educational comparison, where states such as New York, California,  Arizona and Florida are accelerating the rate of decline in overall performance output. A growing number of states are reaching averages near the bottom versus the top, the direct opposite in reporting trends of the 1950's and 1960's. The reversal can be tracked to the advent of the new "super brain" hard wiring shifts of young learner brains being hyper exposed to modern media in the 1970's and 1980's.

BJ Dohrmann suggests " we are not going to see less media in young learner brains. We will see more and more media world wide. The new brain hard wiring requires a precise application of technology in every class room, in order  to off set the anticipation of the new hard wiring in new brains required to "post into memory" at the level required to effect learner performance. BJ believes the new brains are super learners. Such brains can learn in accelerated fashion when the class room is re-laid out, BJ concludes;  "without a retrofit to upgrade antique class room design, new brain failure to retain educational content will remain adrift in America".