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Raising student achievement will be the top priority of Martha Kanter, who will be sworn in Wednesday as U.S. Undersecretary of Education, reporting to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Kanter, the departing chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, told an audience at Hewlett-Packard Co. Friday that the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's education strategy is to get more students into college and to substantially raise the college graduation rate.

"Nationally, one-third of students are dropping out of high school. Last year, 1.2 million teens did not graduate, which equates to 7,000 dropouts every day," Kanter told the forum, which was organized by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

Citing a McKinsey report, she said the U.S. lags significantly behind other advanced nations in educational performance and is slipping farther behind in math, science and literacy. In 2006, the academic performance of U.S. 15 year olds trailed that of students in countries like Canada, the Netherlands, Korea and Austria, with whom the U.S. competes for high-value jobs.

"Increasing student achievement —- that's what I care about and what I have devoted my life to. We simply have to get better than Canada," Kanter said, adding that she loves Canada.

Kanter's portfolio in the Department of Education will be post-secondary education, vocational and adult education and federal student aid.

She plans to take a "listening tour" of the country to identify best practices and apply them on a larger scale.

"There are tons of them, but some are better than others. We need to fund them properly. If we can increase student achievement, we'll cut down on all the revenue we're spending to get students caught up."

She said Silicon Valley companies can play a role in leveraging educational technology and in sponsoring innovative programs and educational partnerships in math and science. She also cited the value of open-source content and free online textbooks as a means of spreading quality content and reducing textbook costs.

She cited new planetarium technology that Fujitsu recently installed at De Anza in which "kids can fly through the human heart and fly through outer space. Imagine teaching with holographic opportunities and getting inspired when you're in seventh grade. These are the technologies we can put in schools."

Kanter said community colleges educate half of all undergraduates in the United States.

"If you're a person of color in America, 80 percent of you will enter higher education through a community college. We are a pipeline," she said.

Noting the rise of the Hispanic population in California, Kanter said last year, "Closing the gap for Hispanics and African Americans to enter and complete higher education will be essential for a humanitarian society and economic prosperity."

Kanter has been a longtime advocate of community colleges and, personally, an advocate for the underdog.

She has been chancellor at Foothill-De Anza since 2003 and, prior to that, was president of De Anza College for 10 years. She earned her doctorate in 1989 after an early career in special education and has worked in a variety of policy and administrative positions.

• Read a profile of Martha Kanter