Two emerging realities are combining to make the need to close educational attainment gaps more urgent than ever in the US. First, the U.S. is in the midst of sweeping demographic changes. The fastest-growing groups within our population are racial/ethnic minorities (especially Hispanics) that our educational infrastructure has poorly served historically, while the number of White non-Hispanics in our public schools is declining. This is happening at a time when the globalized knowledge economy is increasingly demanding better-educated, higher-skilled workers from developed economies like that of the U.S. This report calls upon an array of state-by-state data to help WICHE’s member states better understand the scope of the challenge facing them and the relationships between educational attainment and workforce participation for different racial/ethnic groups. It paints a sobering picture of how much progress needs to be made in ensuring that all residents are well prepared to succeed in the global knowledge economy, in order for the U.S. to retain its place at the forefront of nations.