The Book of Knowledge

Published October 1, 1999

Earlier this year, Merrill Lynch & Co. published The Book of Knowledge, a 193-page in-depth report on the $740 billion education and training market in the United States, updating the firm’s first report on the industry, produced four years ago. The authors of the report, Michael T. Moe, Kathleen Bailey, and Rhoda Lau, identify five “Big Ideas” they expect to transform the education and training industry over the next decade:

Distributed Learning. “Democratization” of education by the application of Internet and PC technology.

Education Portals. Education-focused gateways to the Internet for the 55 million children in K-12 schools, the 14 million students in post-secondary institutions, and the 136 million working adults.

Accountability and Assessments. With graduation from high school becoming dependent on satisfactory test performance, there will be a growing demand for greatly improved information systems to track student performance on an ongoing basis.

Private Management of Schools. School choice and the resulting greater competition for students will increase the demand for private companies to manage traditional public schools as well as charter schools. This trend also will be driven by the push for greater accountability.

Increased Teacher Training. With computer literacy becoming an almost essential requirement in the new economy, K-12 teachers need to become proficient in the technology. This represents a significant opportunity since some 2 million new entrants are expected to boost teacher ranks to 3.5 million over the next ten years.

While copies last, The Book of Knowledge is available at no charge from Merrill Lynch & Co., Global Growth Research & Economics Group, 101 California Avenue #1100, San Francisco, CA 94111, phone 415/676_3570, email [email protected]. Tell them School Reform News sent you!