Washington — In a speech that stressed shared responsibility for improving education and urged better systems of accountability, President Obama reiterated his belief today that America’s long-term prosperity rests heavily on the nation’s ability to do a better job of educating its people.

The president urged states and school districts to create better data systems to track students’ educational progress from childhood through college, told colleges and universities they needed “to control spiraling costs,” and said individuals have a responsibility to themselves and to their country to “walk through the doors of opportunity.”

Much of Mr. Obama’s speech, which he delivered to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, focused on his recommendations to improve elementary and secondary education, including rewarding effective teachers with extra pay and lengthening the time students spend in the classroom each year.

But he also reiterated his plans for higher education, including his goals for all Americans to commit to completing at least one year of postsecondary education and for the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

“Education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a prerequisite,” the president said.

To bolster his point, Mr. Obama cited statistics that said half of the 30 fastest-growing occupations in America require at least a bachelor’s degree. By 2016, he added, four out of 10 new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training.

The president talked about the need for institutions to improve access to job training for both young people and older workers, and called community colleges “a great and undervalued asset” in preparing workers for good jobs.

Mr. Obama also used his speech to tout a number of higher-education proposals in the 2010 budget plan he released last month. Those included his plans to make the Pell Grant an entitlement and tie increases in the maximum award to inflation, to abolish the bank-based student-loan program to help pay for his education priorities, and to provide states with $2.5-billion to identify and support practices and programs that help students stay in college and earn degrees. —Sara Hebel