“From science and culture to sports and politics, ideas and capital are crossing borders and spanning the world. The globalization of business, the advances in technology, and the acceleration of migration increasingly require the ability to work on a global scale. As a result of this new connectivity, our high school graduates will need to be far more knowledgeable about world regions and global issues, and able to communicate across cultures and languages.

Our students must emerge from schools college-ready and globally competent, prepared to compete, connect, and cooperate with their generation around the world. Parents, teachers, policymakers, and business leaders have begun to respond to this reality and are seeking to redesign education to focus on learning for the 21st century. However, the U.S. education system has not yet created an environment to prepare every student for the globalized world. To move international education from the margins to the mainstream, we must work together to ensure an environment of excellence and equity in a global era.”