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The Current Educational Landscape in the United States

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This literature review provides a synopsis of the current educational landscape in the United States and how it influences global competitiveness, describes American students’ academic performance, reviews the shortage of graduates in STEM fields, and explains how the open education movement can improve academic access, student success and reduce educational costs. The purpose of this literature review is to understand American students’ academic progress and how open educational resources can assist in decreasing the educational divide among the most vulnerable citizens. There is a fierce competition for world dominance as China is poised to overtake the United States as the preeminent world power. China’s growing gross domestic product (GDP) rivals that of the US with economists predicting the Chinese economy will surpass that of the US by 2020 (Morrision, 2014; Strauss, 2013). In 2012, China had a GDP of $8.22 trillion (World Bank, 2014a) experiencing an annual average growth rate of 9.86% between 1999 and 2012 (World Bank, 2014b); whereas the US had a GDP of $16.24 trillion in 2012 (World Bank, 2014a) with an average growth rate of 2.15% from 1999 to 2012 (World Bank, 2014b). More than half of the GDP growth in the past decade can be attributed to labor income growth among college educated employees. Even during economic recession, income growth among college graduates had a positive effect on GDP (OECD, 2012). Since 1978, China’s economy has been systematically

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