• Introduction
• Highlights
• Reference

International Education Indicators: A Time Series Perspective: 1985-1995 compares educational trends in economically developed countries over time. The countries examined in this report are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an organization of 29 countries dedicated to promoting economic growth and development around the world.

This report extends the earlier National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) publication International Education Indicators: A Time Series Perspective (Perie et al. 1997) from a 7- to an 11-year time series to provide a more comprehensive picture of continuity and change in countries' education systems. The 11 years included in this report were a period of rapid social, political, and economic changes for many OECD countries. These years also saw renewed interest in the issues of educational standards and finance reform.

This report presents 18 indicators that each give a broad picture of an education issue, allowing for comparisons to be made both among countries and over time. Each indicator contains findings summarized in textual, graphical, and tabular formats. The indicators permit us to assess how well the United States has met some of the educational challenges of the past decade and to compare developments here with those in other developed countries. These indicators also should aid policymakers in determining what changes, relative to other countries, have been made in the education system in the United States during this period of intense reform.

Preceding the indicators is an essay that provides a broad comparison of 1985-1995 educational trends across OECD countries, with specific emphasis on how the United States compares with other countries, especially other "Group of Seven" (G-7) countries. (The G-7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.)

The period 1985-1995 witnessed increases in the rates of enrollment in secondary and higher education in virtually every OECD country. Among G-7 countries in 1995, the United States had the fourth highest enrollment rate of 14- to 17-year-olds at the lower and upper secondary level, and the second highest enrollment rate of 18- to 29-year-olds in higher education.

An increasing percentage of students in many countries received their primary and secondary education from private schools between 1985 and 1995, although this was not the case in the United States. There was also a slight decrease in the percentage of students enrolled in private higher education during this period.

Public direct expenditures on education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remained fairly stable across OECD countries between 1985 and 1994. In the United States, expenditures as a percentage of GDP rose slightly at the primary level, remained stable at the secondary level, and declined slightly at the higher education level.

First university degree graduation ratios¹ increased in most OECD countries between 1985 and 1995. In 1995, the United States had the lowest high school graduation ratio² of any G-7 country, but the highest first university degree graduation ratio. Furthermore, the gender gap in first university degree graduation ratios reversed between 1985 and 1995, so that by the middle of the 1990s, graduation ratios for women surpassed those of men in most OECD countries.

The percentage of first university degrees awarded in science increased or remained stable in the majority of OECD countries reporting data between 1985 and 1995. The most notable exception to this trend was the United States, where the percentage of science degrees dropped by 5 percentage points, placing it last among G-7 nations, but only slightly lower than Canada.

Reflecting the overall trends in enrollments and graduation ratios, the educational attainment of adults ages 25-64 increased in most OECD countries. In 1995, the United States continued to have a greater percentage of adults with at least a university education than any other G-7 country.

In 1995, university graduates in the United States had a 74 percent earnings advantage over high school graduates, one of the highest earnings advantages reported by OECD countries.

¹The first university degree graduation ratio is the number of students receiving a first university degree in a given year per 100 persons in the population who are at the typical graduation age. The typical graduation age for first university degrees is 22 in the United States and ranges from 21 to 26 across OECD countries.

²This ratio is the number of students graduating from upper secondary school in a given year per 100 persons in the population who are at the typical age for completion of upper secondary education. The typical upper secondary completion age is 17 in the United States and ranges from 17 to 20 across the OECD countries.