The indicators in this section measure salient features of the context of learning in elementary and secondary schools. This includes the content of learning and expectations for student performance; processes of instruction; mechanisms of choice in education; characteristics of teachers and the teaching profession; the climate for learning and other organizational aspects of schools; and the financial resources available. There are 30 indicators in this section.

The first subsection examines learning opportunities afforded children. Measures include the extent of afterschool activities of youth and student/teacher ratios in public schools. Additional indicators show the availability of advanced-level academic courses (25-2005), participation in early literacy activities (33-2006), and the extent of out-of-field teaching (28-2003 and 24-2004).

The indicators in the second subsection look at special programs to serve the particular educational needs of special populations. For example, indicator 31 shows the extent to which students with disabilities are included in regular classrooms for instructional purposes.

School choice provides parents with the opportunity to choose a school for their children beyond the assigned school. Parents may choose a private school, they may live in a district that offers choice among public schools, or they may select a school by moving into that school’s community. Indicator 36-2006 examines parental choice of charter schools. Indicator 32 profiles the characteristics of public charter schools.

Teachers are critical to the learning process in schools. Indicator 33 examines the characteristics of full-time teachers by various individual and profess­ional characteristics. Indicator 37-2006 examines the rates at which recent college graduates become elementary or secondary teachers.

The fifth subsection considers the climate for learning, which is shaped by different factors in the school environment, including parent, teacher, and student attitudes; school staff and leadership; and students’ sense of physical security and freedom from violence. Indicators in the 2007 edition present measures of the last two factors.

The final subsection details financial support for education. Fundamentally, these financial sources of support are either private, in which individuals decide how much they are willing to pay for education, or public, in which case the decisions are made by citizens through their governments. In this subsection of The Condition of Education, the primary focus is on describing the forms and amounts of financial support to education from public and private sources, how those funds are distributed among different types of schools, and on what they are spent. Among the indicators in the 2007 edition are indicators on variations in expenditures per student and trends in expenditures per student in elementary and secondary education.