IMS Global: How would you compare regional differences around the world with respect to priorities in improving education?

MB: That's a good question. From our research and experience working with institutions and government leaders, there's actually a tremendous amount of commonality in educational objectives worldwide. First and foremost, there's a desire for everyone to have access to a quality education. The goal of universal primary education by 2015 is being embraced worldwide. However, there's a lot of concern that the infrastructure for tertiary and secondary education is not adequate to accommodate the demand that this growth in primary education will create. We believe that technology is a key solution for helping secondary and tertiary institutions to scale to meet this demand.

Second, governments around the world realize that quality education must be a top priority to ensure economic development and global competitiveness. This is a key driver for improving education. What's interesting about that is everything is relevant. In this country, for example, there is great concern about the erosion of certain jobs that are going to other parts of the world. So when we talk about what is going to be done with our skill base, we've got a crisis around innovation. What do we need to be able to do to fuel our comparative advantage around innovation? Interestingly enough, having traveled to Vietnam fairly recently, they are at that emerging level. The skill level they are trying to build up is to fuel a burgeoning manufacturing center. Everyone moves along that continuum. Even India now, with its developing labor pool, is starting to lose its comparative advantage on the world economic stage over labor rates. So they, too, are going to have to take their labor force to the next level. The differences we see are really time and space. But the macro common element that moves through every government in the world is the direct correlation between an adequate education infrastructure to fuel the skills and the economy that it needs to thrive and prosper to return the economic prosperity to its citizens.

At the individual level, one of the differences that we do see is in the motivation of students and their parents. We like to think about it in developed markets where student enrollment has been high for some time. We joke about it a little around here, but those students are really motivated by getting their schoolwork done so they can have fun and focus on their social lives. In emerging segments of the world, where students and their parents have not had the broad access to education before, we primarily see them getting their work done to get ahead. In these emerging segments, students are focused on high-stakes tests because those tests are a ticket to a better life. If you are in that top half of a percentile that gets you into the India Institute of Technology, that distinction will change your life.