Education for Global Leadership

This report warns that the U.S. will become less competitive in the global economy because of declining quality foreign language education at the college and high school levels. Additionally, the American public's deficiency in foreign languages and cultures is hampering efforts to counter terrorist threats.

Recommendations in Education for Global Leadership

• Teaching international content across the curriculum and at all levels of learning to expand American students' knowledge of other countries and cultures.
• Expanding the training pipeline at every level of education to address the paucity of Americans fluent in foreign languages, especially critical, less-commonly taught languages.
• National leaders - political leaders as well as the business and philanthropic communities and the media - should educate the public about the importance of improving education in languages other than English and in international studies.