U.S. students decreasing rankings internationally was a cause for concern of the Commission. "We have slipped to 9th in higher education attainment and 16th in high school graduation rates." Additionally the report noted "between 1992 and 2003, average prose literacy (the ability to understand narrative texts such as newspaper articles) decreased for all levels of educational attainment, and document literacy (the ability to understand practical information such as instructions for taking medicine) decreased among those with at least some college education or a bachelor's degree or higher."

The Commission found a "significant achievement and attainment gaps between white and Asian students and black and Hispanic students remain during the college years." It also noted that Fewer American students are pursuing degrees in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), medicine and other disciplines critical to global competitiveness, national security and economic prosperity."

The Commission report's recomnendations to these issues is for institutions to "embrace a culture of continuous innovation and quality improvement by developing new pedagogies, curricula, and technologies to improve learning, particularly in the area of science and mathematical literacy. In that effort the report encourages incentives be created to promote "open-source and open-content" projects which permit the sharing knowledge and materials and "hold out the potential of providing universal access both to general knowledge and to higher education."