Nationally, students are not being prepared for a future that will be entirely different from their present. Rapidly changing technologies and economies are bringing people from around the world elbow to elbow. America's children, however, are still being prepared as workers for a declining industrial society, when they need to be trained as problem solvers for an internationally interdependent and competitive society. Our children will be thrust into a global village of knowledge workers when they graduate, yet they are being prepared only for disappearing jobs in American factories.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50% of all the jobs created between now and the year 2005 will require a college degree. Nationally, 60% of high school graduates go to college (Elfin 1994). However, only 50% of those students who enter a state university ever complete a degree. According to a study by Texas A&M, by the year 2030 only 18% of Texans will have a degree (Henderson 1997). The growing number of students unprepared for college success threatens the economy of Texas. Incoming freshmen must pass TASP, the Texas Academic Skills Program, in order to be allowed to enroll in college classes. In 1989-90, 34% of incoming college freshmen failed the TASP, but by 1995-96, 57% of incoming college freshmen failed the TASP, an increase in the failure rate of 23% in just 5 years (Lee 1997). Texas is facing a severe shortfall of highly educated persons, which will lead to economic disaster.
Bright Ideas School has a proven track record of superior preparation for college, with students succeeding in college at 14-17 years old. Bright Ideas' mission is to prepare students for high achievement in college and successful competition in the 21st century global society. On the cutting edge of education, our work is rooted in research findings about optimal brain development, which shows us that intellectual capacity may not be limited, and can be vastly affected by environment. We've proven that most children can achieve at much higher levels than is commonly thought possible.
Our vision for the next 5-10 years is to continue to meet our mission by preparing more students to be highly educated and successful in a global society. We want to give children who can not afford private school the opportunity to get the world class education that Bright Ideas has proven it can deliver. The following step will be to work with other public schools to build a supportive culture of systemic change to make possible implementation of our programs.