The United States is among the highest-spending countries on education, joining Denmark, Iceland, and Korea in allocating at least 7 percent of their gross domestic products to schools, says the annual report on the status of education around the world from the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development.
The 525-page report features data on educational access and attainment, the relationship of educational levels to earnings, characteristics of education systems, and school climate in more than three dozen countries, many of which participate in international comparisons conducted by the Paris-based OECD.
The report finds increases in salaries of starting teachers in Australia, Denmark, England, and Scotland between 1996 and 2006, as well as for mid-career educators in Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The most experienced teachers in Finland and Greece got a salary boost in that time.
The report focuses extensively on the growing numbers of students entering higher education around the globe.
