"The Challenge" is the definitive guide to the key ideas and resources behind Ready by 21®.

The six partners who in 2007 made formal commitments to work with the Forum to advance the Ready by 21 Challenge represent the education, government, nonprofit, business and community philanthropy sectors. Each was chosen because they had pledged to do business differently and sought out the Forum to help in some way.

Twenty five years ago, the blue ribbon National Commission on Excellence in Education stunned the country by declaring:

“Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. . . If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. . . we have dismantled essential support systems . . . We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.”

By Karen Pittman, July 2008

Seven students recently joined me for breakfast in a windowless conference room in Des Moines to talk about “the high school dropout crisis.” They were experts: Five had dropped out. Another had come very close.

After a decade of moving ideas to impact, the Forum for Youth Investment continues to forge innovative ideas, strategies and partnerships to strengthen solutions for young people and those who care about them. Learn more about the Forum's beginnings and work in the 10th Anniversary Organizational Brochure.