Education Indicators - National Center for Education ...

[Pages:330]Education Indicators

An International Perspective

Nancy Matheson Laura Hersh Salganik

Richard P. Phelps Marianne Perie

Pelavin Research Institute

Nabeel Alsalam Thomas M. Smith

National Center for Education Statistics

with contributions by: Anne K. Anderson David Nohara Zhongren Jing

November 1996

U.S. Department of Education Richard W. Riley Secretary

Office of Educational Research and Improvement Sharon P. Robinson Assistant Secretary

National Center for Education Statistics Pascal D. Forgione, Jr. Commissioner

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries.

NCES activities are designed to address high-priority education data needs; provide consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends; and report timely, useful, and high-quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the general public.

We strive to make our products available in a variety of formats and in language that is appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from you. Please direct your comments to:

National Center for Education Statistics Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 555 New Jersey Avenue NW Washington, DC 20208-5574

November 1996

Suggested Citation U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Education Indicators: An International Perspective, NCES 96-003, by Nancy Matheson, Laura Hersh Salganik, Richard P. Phelps, Marianne Perie, Nabeel Alsalam, and Thomas M. Smith, Washington, D.C.: 1996.

Contact: Nabeel Alsalam (202) 219-2252

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FOREWORD

The need to compete in foreign markets with advanced technology has convinced U.S. business, economic, and political leaders of the importance of understanding the education systems of other industrialized nations. The awareness of how other countries educate their citizens provides insight into the competitiveness of those nations, and it provides a benchmark with which to compare our own education system. Education Indicators: An International Perspective expands on the traditional interest in student achievement and education finance by including a broad range of indicators, such as Gender differences in earnings, Time spent on homework, and Home and school language, among others. The indicators focus primarily upon comparisons between the United States and other industrialized nations with large economiesparticularly those that most closely resemble the United States in terms of size and are viewed as our major economic competitors. Among a multitude of sources used in this report, the most comprehensive is Education at a Glance (1995), the international education indicators report produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Other data sources include the International Assessment of Educational Progress, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, and the International Assessment of Adult Literacy. The importance of Education Indicators: An International Perspective lies in its ability to provide a comprehensive selection of international indicators geared toward a U.S. audience. This particular set of indicators is presented together for the first time and much of the data are derived from sources not readily accessible to U.S. readers. The publication, then, contributes to the continuing effort to make comparative information accessible and useful to U.S. leaders.

Jeanne E. Griffith, Acting Associate Commissioner National Center for Education Statistics

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Education Indicators: An International Perspective was authored by a joint National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)/Pelavin Research Institute (PRI) team under the general direction of Thomas M. Smith of the Data Development and Longitudinal Studies Group. Overall direction was provided by Nabeel Alsalam, Director of the Special Studies and Reports Program.

The authors wish to thank all of those who contributed to the production of this report. Special thanks go to Diedra White at PRI who provided valuable contributions to the production of this publication from its conception to end. Wed also like to acknowledge the staff at EEI, including Amy Lenihan, Kathryn Hall, and Kim Agnew, who were responsible for the final design and layout of the publication as well as its preparation for printing. Finally, wed like to recognize Norberto Bottani from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for his key role in the International Indicators of Education Systems (INES) project, from which many of this publications indicators originated.

Numerous staff from PRITsze Chan, Bing Deng, Erin Sheehan, Maria Stephens, Scott Brancolini, and Jack Eastonmade important contributions to the preparation of this report. Joel Sherman and Jay Moskowitz provided helpful comments on the draft manuscript. From the American Institutes for Research (AIR), David Baker wrote the sidebar entitled Similarities among national education systems, Keith Tidman coordinated the final layout and production of the publication, and Sally Dillow edited the final draft of the manuscript.

Many thanks are due to NCES staff, whose contributions range from providing general direction at the beginning of the project to helping resolve specific issues along the way. In particular, we would like to thank Sue Ahmed, Marilyn Binkley, Mary Frase, Jeanne Griffith, Marilyn McMillen, Eugene Owen, Lois Peak, and Thomas Snyder for their help.

Several individuals served as invited external peer reviewers of the draft manuscript. These reviewers offered many insightful comments. The peer reviewers were Dorothy Gilford, former Staff Director of the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education of the National Academy of Sciences; Howard Nelson, American Federation of Teachers; Delia Pompa, U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Director for Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs; Diane Ravitch, New York University; and Edith M. Rasel, Economic Policy Institute.

Lastly, thanks are due to our colleagues in the G7 countries who reviewed the matrices of comparative information on countries education systems for accuracy, and to many others who have generously shared their time and knowledge to help us better understand their countries education systems.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. x i List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. x v Introduction

Over view ...................................................................................................................... 3 Purpose and Goals of This Publication ...................................................................... 4 Structure of This Publication ...................................................................................... 6 Indicators Participation and Student Flows Over view .................................................................................................................... 13 1 Enrolled Persons 529 Years Old ............................................................................. 16

Sidebar: ISCED levels of education ............................................................. 19 2 Enrollment in Early Childhood Education .............................................................. 21 3 Secondary Education Enrollment ............................................................................. 24

Sidebar: The structure of upper secondary education................................ 27 Sidebar: Strategies for preparing youth for employment ........................... 29 4 Nonuniversity Enrollment ........................................................................................ 32 5 University Enrollment .............................................................................................. 35 Sidebar: Differences in programs offered across education levels.............. 38 6 Enrollment in Upper Secondary or Higher Education ............................................ 40

Achievement and Attainment Over view .................................................................................................................... 45 Sidebar: Using data from sample surveys.................................................... 47

7 Reading Literacy ........................................................................................................ 50 Sidebar: Comparing reading scores from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA) Reading Literacy Study and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) ..................................................................... 55

8 Achievement in Mathematics and Science ............................................................... 58 Sidebar: Curricular requirements: mathematics ......................................... 64

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)

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9 Geography Achievement........................................................................................... 66 10 Adult Literacy ............................................................................................................ 69

Sidebar: International adult literacy ............................................................ 77 11 Education Attainment ............................................................................................... 79 12 Upper Secondary Education Attainment ................................................................. 82 13 Education Attainment for Females........................................................................... 85 14 Science and Engineering Degrees (As a Percentage of All Degrees) ....................... 89

Education and Labor Market Destinations Over view .................................................................................................................... 95

15 Labor Force Participation and Education ................................................................ 96 16 Labor Force Participation of Males and Females ..................................................... 99 17 Education and Relative Earnings............................................................................ 103 18 Gender Differences in Earnings .............................................................................. 106 19 Unemployment and Education............................................................................... 109

Sidebar: Alternative unemployment measures ......................................... 112

Education Institutions Over view .................................................................................................................. 117 Sidebar: Similarities among national educational systems ....................... 119

20 Locus and Mode of Decisionmaking in Education ................................................ 121 21 Class Size ................................................................................................................. 126

Sidebar: Class size in the United States and Japan ................................... 128 22 Teaching Experience ............................................................................................... 129 23 Number of Schools and School Size ....................................................................... 132 24 Time in Formal Instruction .................................................................................... 137

Sidebar: Organized instruction outside of formal schooling ................... 141 25 Time Spent on Homework ...................................................................................... 142 26 Testing in Mathematics and Science Classes .......................................................... 147 27 Scientific Experimentation ..................................................................................... 150 28 Calculator Use ......................................................................................................... 153 29 Computer Use ......................................................................................................... 156

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