Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of partner economies. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication - as well as links to much more available on the educational database - provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools. This country note provides a country-specific overview of the United States.

Across OECD countries, higher education graduates enjoy higher employment rates and earnings than workers with only an upper secondary qualification. However, not all graduates find jobs that make full use of their skills and help them launch rewarding careers, and employers in some economic sectors point to a lack of qualified graduates. Policy makers are concerned about the current alignment of higher education systems to labour markets, and are increasingly uneasy about the future of work and the resilience of higher education systems in uncertain economic times. This report, which focuses on four US states - Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington - is the third of a series of country-specific reviews conducted as part of the OECD project on the labour market relevance and outcomes of higher education. The report offers a comprehensive review of graduate outcomes and policies supporting alignment between higher education and the labour market in the four participating states in 2018-19, an overview of the US labour market and higher education context, and a range of policy examples from across OECD jurisdictions to help improve the alignment of higher education and the labour market.

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international large-scale survey that provides a voice to teachers and school principals, who complete questionnaires about issues such as the professional development they have received; their teaching beliefs and practices; the assessment of their work and the feedback and recognition they receive; and various other school leadership, management and workplace issues. This note presents findings based on the reports of lower secondary teachers and their school leaders in mainstream public and private schools in the United States.

The first five years of a child's life is a period of great opportunity, and risk. The cognitive, social-emotional skills that children develop in these early years have long-lasting impacts on their later outcomes throughout schooling and adulthood. This report sets out the findings from the Early Learning and Child Well-being Study in the United States. The study assesses children's skills across both cognitive and social-emotional development, and how this relates to children's early learning experiences at home and in early childhood education and care. It is enriched by contextual and assessment information from the children's parents and educators. It provides comparative data on children's early skills with children from England and Estonia, who also participated in the study, to better identify factors that promote or hinder children's early learning.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This country note provides a country-specific overview of the United States.

The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in three information-processing skills: literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. This country note provides a country-specific overview of the United States.

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international large-scale survey that provides a voice to teachers and school principals, who complete questionnaires about issues such as the professional development they have received; their teaching beliefs and practices; the assessment of their work and the feedback and recognition they receive; and various other school leadership, management and workplace issues. This note presents findings based on the reports of lower secondary teachers and their school leaders in mainstream public and private schools in the United States.

The OECD Skills Outlook 2017 shows that skills matter for global value chains. The report presents new analyses based on the Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), and the Trade in Value Added Database. It develops a Scoreboard on Skills and Global Value Chains with the objective to measure the extent to which countries have been able to make the most of GVCs through the skills of their populations in terms of skills, global value chains, and social and economic outcomes. It also explains what countries would need to do to specialise in technologically advanced industries.

This short country note recaps some Background on the 2014 OECD Measuring Innovation in Education report, the main Key report findings on innovation in education, the Report approach to measuring educational system innovation, along with the United States' top five organisational education innovations for the 2003-2011 period and the United States' top five pedagogic education innovations for the same interval.

This report compares the performance of 15-year-olds in the United States in PISA against the global patterns and trends. But it goes beyond the aggregate level analysis that have so far been published in the PISA 2012 reports, to give analysis of student performance on individual mathematics test items in order to reveal students' strengths and weaknesses. Considering this also in the context of the relationship between PISA and the Common Core Standards for Mathematics can help connect these results to what the United States aspires to teach in classrooms and help inform teaching practices that can support performance improvement.

The 'basic skills' of literacy and numeracy are among the most fundamental attributes of human beings and their civilization, lying at the root of our capacity to communicate and live and work together, to develop and share knowledge, science and culture. Their contribution to workforce skills have increasingly been recognized as critical to economic success, while evidence on gaps in adult basic skills and the link with economic and social outcomes has also been growing, both at national and international level (e.g. International Survey of Adult Skills of 1994-98 and Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey of 2003-2007). Most tellingly, there has been a belated realization that despite universal basic education in advanced countries, some adults have slipped through the net, leaving them with very weak literacy and numeracy. All of these factors underline the importance of the OECD's new international Survey of Adult Skills. This report on skills in the US draws out the policy implications of the Survey for the US, while also making use of some additional data collected for the Survey on the US alone. The study does not directly evaluate relevant US policies and programs - such as schooling and adult education. Instead it identifies in the results of the Survey some key lessons about the strategic objectives and directions which should form a frame for policy development in the US, including policy on adult learning and schooling.

This book examines vocational education and training programmes in the United States, including coverage of how they are changing, how they are funded, how they are linked to academic and university programmes and how employers and unions are involved.

US President Obama has launched one of the world's most ambitious education reform agendas. Under the heading "Race to the Top", this agenda encourages US states to adopt internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace: recruit, develop, reward, and retain effective teachers and principals; build data systems that measure student success; and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices and turn around their lowest-performing schools. But what does the "top" look like internationally? How have the countries at the top managed to achieve sustained high performance or to significantly improve their performance? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides the world's most extensive and rigorous set of international surveys assessing the knowledge and skills of secondary school students. This volume combines an analysis of PISA with a description of the policies and practices of those education systems that are close to the top or advancing rapidly, in order to offer insights for policy from their reform trajectories.

This review of career and technical education (CTE) in Texas is part of "Learning for Jobs", the OECD policy study of vocational education and training, a program of analytical work and individual country reviews designed to help countries make their CTE systems more responsive to labor market needs. The review of Texas assesses the main challenges faced by the CTE system and presents an interconnected package of four policy recommendations. Each recommendation is described in terms of the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.

This review of career and technology education (CATE) in South Carolina is part of "Learning for Jobs", the OECD policy study of vocational education and training, a program of analytical work and individual country reviews designed to help countries make their CATE systems more responsive to labour market needs. The review of South Carolina assesses the main challenges faced by the CATE system and presents an interconnected package of four policy recommendations. Each recommendation is described in terms of the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.

The present country report describes the context of the policies and provisions related to support and aid for students with disabilities or learning difficulties in the United States. The primary focus of the report is on the current policies and provisions as well as the key factors that are influencing transition policies in the educational field for disabled students. However, the report also includes references and descriptions of related factors in the field of employment. The report is structured according to the guidelines for country reports proposed by the OECD and covers the following topics: definitions of disability; data; policy and future developments; funding; provisions; support services; informational and learning resources as well as parental involvement.

Many adults in OECD countries have low language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills. The consequences of these low foundation skills span the economic, health and social well-being of individuals, families and communities. Investment in this sector of adult education is therefore crucial. This country report on the United States examines the impact and implementation of different teaching, learning and assessment practices for adult LLN learners with a focus on formative assessment; the way innovative programmes address the very diverse needs and goals of this population; and the policies that support or hinder effective practice.

The main purpose of the thematic review on adult learning is to understand adults' access and participation in education and training and to enhance policies and approaches to increase incentives for adults to undertake learning activities in OECD countries. It is a joint activity undertaken by the OECD Education Committee (EDC) and the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee (ELSAC) in response to the need to make lifelong learning a reality for all, to improve learning opportunities of low skilled and disadvantaged adults and to sustain and increase employability.

The longstanding debate on teacher quality in the United States is framed by the culture of accountability required by the implementation of No Child Left Behind. Policy-makers are focused on results, and have defined three characteristics of "highly qualified" teachers. A highly qualified teacher must have a bachelor's degree, full state certification or licensure, and demonstrate competency in the subject matter they teach. There is a debate in the United States on the efficacy of traditional teacher training programs and certification, whether and how these can be strengthened, and the development of "alternative certification" processes. The adequacy of teacher salaries and the difficulty of staffing in certain subjects and geographic locations are also topics of lively debate.

This review covers children from birth to compulsory school age and includes the transition period into primary schooling. In order to examine thoroughly what children experience in the first years of life, the review has adopted a broad, holistic approach to study early childhood policy and provision. To that end, consideration has been given to the roles of families, communities and other environmental influences on children's early learning and development. Particular emphasis has been laid on aspects concerning quality, access and equity, with an emphasis on policy development in the following areas: regulations; staffing; programme content and implementation; family engagement and support; funding and financing.

The thematic review places young people's transition to work within a lifelong learning framework. The transition from initial education to work is only one of many transitions that young people will need to make throughout their lives. It is of critical importance, though, since the process by which young people move from education to work can influence the extent to which the benefits of education are retained, and opportunities for new learning are opened up. From this perspective, improving the transition to work means more than getting young people into jobs -- it also requires helping them to become effective learners throughout their adult lives.

The purposes of this review of the first years of tertiary education as stated in the guidelines are i) to examine the extent to which the structure of provision, programmes, teaching and learning at the tertiary level are evolving to meet the expectations and capabilities of students and the needs of the economy and society, and ii) to undertake an analysis of how policies might best promote needed change. The American experience, in a period of significant structural change in its tertiary education system, provides significant insights into change processes and highlights several issues that are central to the overall cross-country analysis of trends and issues.