British leader's take on our educational challenges

Michael Barber was a senior advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair. I heard him speak at an Achieve meeting during the fall of 2008.

In a short piece published by WestEd, Barber shares his view on our past success, present challenge and future response to our declining competitive posture in educational attainment.

Here's just one quote:

"This slippage is not the result of a lack of investment, which remains relatively high in the U.S. Rather it reflects -- to use hard economic terms -- a lack of productivity.... In international comparisons of the achievement of younger children, the United States does relatively well, which, given its wealth, is what one would expect. The problem is that, as they get older, American children make less progress each year than children in the best performing countries. We're not just talking about poor kids in poor neighborhoods; we're talking about most kids in most neighborhoods."