Executive Summary

By The Editors

At a time when only seven in 10 American students graduate from high school in four years, President Barack Obama is demanding that the nation raise its educational sights even higher, asking all Americans to commit to at least one year of education after high school.

Ultimately, he wants the United States to retake a pre-eminent place in the global education arena by boasting the world’s highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

President Obama is the most prominent of a growing number of American policymakers to embrace the idea that some form of postsecondary education is crucial to students’ success after high school. The 2009 edition of Diplomas Count , titled Broader Horizons: The Challenge of College Readiness for All Students ...