A federal report released this month offers a wealth of information on how the United States stacks up against its economic competitors in the Group of Eight nations in educating students from preschool to postsecondary school.
While three-quarters or more of 3- and 4-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom are enrolled in preschool, American preschools serve only 53 percent of children in that age group, the report says. The statistics also show that far more students in the United States have principals who pay attention to student-assessment results than is the case in other G-8 countries.
The study, put together by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, also compares teacher salaries, class sizes, teacher professional development, public spending on education, postsecondary educational attainment, and students’ mathematics and science achievement.
