In the article, “National Curriculum survey Calibrates ACT’s Assessment Tools, “Richard L. Ferguson, Act’s chief executive officer says, “These days, almost everybody needs some college education, or needs skills equivalent to the college-ready standard. Not teaching all students the skills they need to be ready for college is really doing them a disservice.” Three to five years they have a Curriculum Survey to measure high school student’s skills to see if they are learning what they need to know to prepare them for college. The survey found out that mostly students that were already college ready students was getting taught the things they needed to know to prepare them for college. A lot more students will be in some type of postsecondary education.
All of the U.S. Department of Labor jobs require at least a postsecondary academic or vocational certificate, and some two to four year college degrees. Some people looking for jobs enroll in programs to improve some of their skills. Eighty percent of jobs that pay more than minimum wage do not necessarily mean you have to have a degree, but they do expect peoples reading skills to be at least college freshman level. In these days now mainly everyone needs some type of college education or skills equal to college students. Not all high school teachers teach their students the skills they need to know to be ready for college. The surveys are looked at in four different areas such as; English, math, reading, and science. College and high school educators disagree in one key area: grammar and usage skills.

Work Cited
“National Curriculum Survey Calibrates ACT’s Assessment Tools” Activity Winter 2004:4

Summary
In the article, “The Illiteracy Time Bomb,” Aaron Bernstein says “Ten years ago, what worried corporate leaders most was the U.S. competitiveness would be undercut by in adequate workforce skills.” Some fears went away when the economy had went up in the late 1900’s and productivity also had rised. A series of questions about the countries capital, and the U.S. schools was still waiting to be asked. The educational Testing Service found out that the literacy of American adult is 10th of 17 industrialized countries. There is a gap in the U.S. between highly and poorly educated adults when it comes to minorities and immigrants. This number will drop more if adult training and education don’t improve. U.S. ranking is beat out by most of its major trading partners except Germany. There are more minorities, immigrants, and poor people in the U.S. than other participating countries. There are gaps between rich and the poor in the United State and the economy grows faster when more rewards go to talented and the entrepreneurial. The low skilled underclass is a big threat to the economic growth, unless the United State re-double its educational efforts for those at the bottom.
Work Cited

Bernstein, Aaron. The Illiteracy Time Bomb. 14 Feb. 2002.28 Sep. 2004.
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