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This "Spotlight" presents data and analysis on vocational education and training (VET) from Education at a Glance 2023. VET is a key component of most education systems in OECD countries. About one in three 25-34 year-olds have a vocational qualification as their highest level achieved, whether at upper secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary or short-cycle tertiary level. The first part of the Spotlight focuses on upper secondary programmes, analysing their components and outlining the main challenges to countries aiming to improve their quality, while promoting equity and ensuring better labour-market opportunities for their graduates. The second part focuses on progression pathways open to VET graduates and higher-level vocational programmes. Taken together, the two parts of this spotlight demonstrate the huge diversity of OECD country VET programmes.

This paper studies the contribution of parental influence in accounting for cross-country gaps in human capital achievements. We argue that the cross-country variation in unobserved parental characteristics is at least as important as the one in commonly used observable proxies of parental socio-economic background. We infer this through an indirect empirical approach, based on the comparison of the school performance of second-generation immigrants. We document that, within the same host country or even the same school, students whose parents come from high-scoring countries in the PISA test do better than their peers with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Differential selection into emigration does not explain this finding. The result is larger when parents have little education and have recently emigrated, suggesting the importance of country-specific cultural traits that parents progressively lose as they integrate in the new host country, rather than of an intergenerational transmission of education quality. Unobserved parental characteristics account for about 15% of the cross-country variance in test scores, roughly doubling the overall contribution of parental influence.

Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or somewhere else on the gender/sexuality spectrum (LGBTQI+) are among the diverse student groups in need of extra support and protection in order to succeed in education and reach their full potential. Because they belong to a minority that is often excluded by heteronormative/cisgender people, they are often the targets of physical and psychological harassment. Such discrimination can place them at risk for isolation, reduced academic achievement, and physical and mental harm. This paper provides a brief history of how the LGBTQI+ population has often been misunderstood and labelled in order to understand challenges faced by students who identify as a part of this population. It continues by considering supportive educational policies and programmes implemented from national to local levels across OECD countries. Finally, the paper considers policy gaps and discusses policy implications to strengthen equity and inclusion for LGBTQI+ students.

In spite of advances in recognising that girls and boys, and women and men, do not have to be bounded by traditional roles, gender stereotypes persist in education and beyond. Children and youth are affected by gender stereotypes from the early ages, with parental, school, teacher and peer factors influencing the way students internalise their gender identities. As such, not only is intervening in pre-primary education necessary, but also measures at the primary and secondary levels are key to eradicate gender stereotypes and promote gender equality. Based on the analytical framework developed by the OECD Strength through Diversity project, this paper provides an overview of gender stereotyping in education, with some illustrations of policies and practices in place across OECD countries, with a focus on curriculum arrangements, capacity-building strategies and school-level interventions in primary and secondary education.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important tool for school systems as they seek to enhance education and make it more efficient. This has become all the more apparent and urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic. But what degree of access do students from different socio-economic backgrounds have to ICT-based quality instruction? Overall, disadvantaged students tend to have less access to digital learning opportunities both at home and at school. The data also suggest that the way teachers with certain characteristics are distributed can facilitate better equity. Two examples highlighted in this brief are teachers' digital self-efficacy and training in ICT-based instruction.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) strengthens students' abilities to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours and to interact successfully with others. There are an array of important social and emotional skills (SES): goal-setting, working to one's potential, resilience, creativity, perseverance, problem solving, and caring about the welfare of others, among them. All students need SEL, but newcomer and refugee students may have particular challenges requiring SES. The beginning of this paper examines the current situation of refugee and newcomer students in OECD countries, SEL, its frameworks and skills and how they apply to newcomer and refugee students. The paper concludes with an examination of SEL policies and practices for newcomer and refugee students in OECD countries.

Since UNESCO's Salamanca Declaration in 1994, inclusive education has progressively attracted attention in international debates around education policy. While some evidence exists on the positive impact that inclusive education reforms can have on the academic and personal outcomes of diverse students -- and in particular of students with special education needs -- limited information is available on the economic sustainability of such reforms. Starting from the literature on the correlations between education and individuals' life outcomes, this paper reviews the existing evidence on the potential benefits and costs of inclusive education reforms. Specifically, the paper discusses the evidence on the shortcomings of current education settings for diverse groups of students -- with specific sections on students with special education needs; immigrant and refugee students; ethnic groups, national minorities and Indigenous peoples; gifted students; female and male students; and LGBTQI+ (which stands for 'lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex') students. It highlights the individual and societal costs deriving from the low academic, social and emotional outcomes of these students and the socio-economic costs these yield for societies. Where possible, the paper also presents evidence on the effects of inclusive education reforms on diverse student groups.

On a daily basis, a deluge of academic studies, reports and news tell us that the Earth's ecosystem is in danger. They further warn that we need more than just information to address the climate crisis, protect the environment, and promote a sustainable way of living. We need action. Education plays a pivotal role in raising awareness and sensitivity about the environment. It must provide the foundational knowledge and skills to identify and resolve environmental challenges, and shape attitudes and behaviours that lead to both individual and collective action.

Classrooms have become increasingly diverse places where students from various backgrounds share their learning experiences. To promote inclusive school settings for all, building teacher capacity for inclusive teaching represents a key policy area. Education systems need to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared for inclusive teaching and supported throughout their career. Mechanisms to attract and retain a more diverse teaching body as well as to monitor and evaluate teacher preparation and work with respect to diversity and inclusion should also be developed. While teacher policies have increasingly addressed some of these areas, most education systems lack comprehensive capacity-building frameworks for inclusive teaching. This paper maps policies and practices to build teacher capacity for inclusive teaching across OECD countries. It then presents core elements and competences to design and implement inclusive teaching strategies. Finally, the paper reviews some of the evidence available on teacher diversity and interventions for inclusive teaching.

There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015-2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.

The higher education experience was markedly different than usual for those enrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education institutions of all kinds found their instructional methods profoundly disrupted by the closure of their physical campuses, and the crisis exposed the urgent need for policy makers and institutional leaders to adjust their established educational and policy models. This report looks at comparative statistics the OECD has collected across a number of education systems to track developments in the higher education sector throughout the pandemic.

Everyone feels lonely some of the time. However, chronic loneliness can impair learning, affect physical and mental health, and is even linked to early death. Loneliness is thus not only a personal matter; it is a public health concern. Schools provide spaces and opportunities for friendships. By bringing together students from different backgrounds, education can help forge connections across social groups, strengthen social skills and provide access to activities that are meaningful over a lifetime. It can also build skills needed to prevent or break the negative thought processes associated with chronic loneliness.

Digital technologies have changed how people interact with information. PISA data shows that 15-year-olds increasingly read online to fulfil information needs (e.g. online news versus newspapers). At the same time, technological changes in the digitalisation of communication continue to reshape people's habits (e.g. chats online versus emails). Fifteen-year-olds' total online consumption has risen from 21 hours a week in PISA 2012 to 35 hours per week in PISA 2018 -- almost the equivalent of an average adult workweek in OECD countries. The massive information flow that characterises the digital era demands that readers be able to distinguish between fact and opinion, and learn strategies to detect biased information and malicious content such as phishing emails or fake news.

Understanding the gender dynamics in educational transitions can help target policies to support equitable access to education as well as its quality and labour-market outcomes. In almost all OECD countries, the gender gap in favour of women is wider in tertiary education than at upper secondary level. Differences in programme orientation and girls' educational performance at school may give them greater access to tertiary education than boys. Changes in the courses on offer in higher education, and the social value of a university education for young women may also influence their choices. In addition, young women tend to gain more from a tertiary degree in the labour market than their male peers, both in terms of employment and earnings, which may make pursuing higher education more attractive.

This paper studies how rewards based on class rank affect student effort and performance using a game-theoretic classroom competition model and data from the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees in the US. The paper finds that variation in the presence of strong or weak students changes the incentives and test scores of incumbent students depending on their ability group in accord with the competition model, with increases in the number of strong students lowering effort among strong and weak incumbents but raising the test scores of weak incumbents. The results suggest that competition induced by rank-based rewards within homogeneous ability groups lowers overall effort levels, while the presence of strong students directly augments the performance, but not the effort levels, of weak students despite the competition. The paper also rules out a number of alternative explanations for these school composition effects, including disruptions, teacher-initiated changes in curriculum in response to changing class composition, selective incumbent-student school exit, and endogenous responses of refugee location choices to school performance. [This report was funded by the China National Natural Science Foundation.]

School heads in public institutions are required to work on average 7-8 hours a day, as is the case for most office-based jobs. The hours worked and the list of tasks and responsibilities vary widely across countries. On average across OECD countries, they earn more than teachers and other full-time tertiary-educated workers. However, more than half of school heads in the OECD countries are not satisfied with their salary and feel quite stressed due to heavy administrative workloads and responsibilities other than leadership and management.

Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher learning and the delivery of professional development activities throughout teachers' careers. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to­-face professional learning challenging or impossible for teachers to attend in many contexts, online professional learning options for teachers have been receiving renewed attention. This paper puts forward research evidence on the effectiveness of various forms of online learning for teachers and adults, and examines prerequisite conditions for enhancing teacher learning through digital technologies. Teachers' engagement in online learning activities, as captured by OECD surveys, remained limited in many OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides a basis for investigating how policies can support teachers' engagement in professional learning using digital technologies and help strike a balance between system-level provision of online teacher professional learning opportunities and the facilitation of teacher-led initiatives.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. "Volume VI: Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World?" explores students' ability to examine issues of local, global and cultural significance; understand and appreciate the perspectives and worldviews of others; engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures; and take action for collective well-being and sustainable development. The volume explores students' outcomes on the cognitive test and corresponding questionnaire in addition to their experiences of global and intercultural learning at school and beyond. [The development of this volume was guided by Andreas Schleicher and Yuri Belfali and managed by Miyako Ikeda. This volume was drafted by Tarek Mostafa and edited by Marilyn Achiron and Susan Copeland. For "PISA 2018 Results: Effective Policies, Successful Schools. Volume V," see ED608394.]

The global spread of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented disruptions in schooling around the world that have animated increased interest among policymakers, educators, researchers and the general public in knowing about how education systems have responded to the pandemic and how students' learning experiences have changed. The PISA Global Crises Module was developed to address this need. 62 student questionnaire items (grouped into 11 questions) and 68 school questionnaire items (grouped into 14 questions) were developed following a process that involved input from leading questionnaire development experts, PISA National Centres, as well as small-scale cognitive interview studies in three countries. While all countries were affected by the pandemic in some way, the module seeks to illuminate differential effects on student learning and well-being, and the degree of interruption or changes to education across different education systems. Governing bodies, organisations and researchers can use the instruments and the descriptions of the underlying constructs for adaptation and broader implementation.

This paper illustrates similarities and differences between two international surveys that assess adults' skills: the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity (STEP) survey. In particular, the paper highlights the issues that can arise for researchers interested to jointly analyse the data from the two surveys and to compare their results. The paper finds that, in spite of the many similarities, important differences exist between PIAAC and STEP, both in the way the data are collected, and in the way the proficiency of respondents is estimated. These issues can indeed affect the cross-country comparability of results from the two surveys. There is instead little evidence that the literacy assessment used in the two surveys is not adequate to form a basis for a valid assessment of adults' proficiency on a global scale.

Teachers' work is multifaceted and dynamic. They frequently encounter students with different needs, such as different ability levels and learning styles, and frequently need to give students feedback or interpersonal support. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed new challenges, as teachers have had to communicate with their students, facilitate learning processes and monitor students' learning without being physically present. While teachers' interactions with their students lie at the heart of the teaching and learning process, their relationships and interactions with their colleagues constitute a key professional dimension that has also been seriously affected by the pandemic. Collaboration with colleagues allows teachers to learn from each other's expertise, share knowledge within their professional community and, ultimately, improve the instruction and support they can give to their students.

This working paper identifies OECD countries' interests in digital innovation in education by analysing their policy papers on digital education. Many OECD countries have adopted a specific strategy on digital education, or integrated the topic in a generic strategy on digital innovation as such. The ideas that are expressed in the strategies differ greatly; some are work in progress, others contain bold envisions of the future. There is a high awareness among OECD countries of the benefits of digitalisation, and the role of government to support digital innovation in education. This paper covers and documents countries' policy focus before the 2020 coronavirus crisis.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. Volume IV, "Are Students Smart about Money?," examines 15-year-old students' understanding about money matters in the 20 countries and economies that participated in this optional assessment. [This report was developed under the general supervision of Andreas Schleicher, Yuri Belfali, Miyako Ikeda and Flore-Anne Messy. This volume was prepared by Jeffrey Mo and edited by Marilyn Achiron. For "PISA 2018 Results: What School Life Means for Students' Lives. Volume III," see ED601142.]

The COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted education around the world. As the first shock passes, planning is taking place on two timescales: the short-term challenges in the return to school, and the challenges over the next 18-24 months as systems work to build resilience and adaptability for the future. This "Trends Shaping Education Spotlight" touches on the global pandemic, strategic systems, students as the focus, the importance of teacher professionalism, strong and responsive school communities, and building resilient systems and schools.

Education is recognized to be a key factor of economic development, not only giving access to technological progress as emphasized by the Schumpeterian growth theory, but also entailing numerous social externalities such as the demographic transition (Murtin, 2009) or democratization (Murtin and Wacziarg, 2010). If the evolution of world distributions of income and longevity over the last two centuries have been described by Bourguignon and Morrisson (2002), changes in the world distribution of education have remained unexplored until now, despite their major importance. How has global education inequality evolved over the twentieth century? How should it be measured? Up to now, existing studies on education inequality have had limited spatial and time coverage. For example, Castello and Domenech (2002) and Thomas et al. (2001) provide a descriptive analysis of years of schooling inequality for a broad panel of countries, but their study starts only in 1960. Also, they remain at the country level and do not consider the world distribution of years of schooling, which takes into account educational differences both within and between countries. In contrast, this paper depicts the world distribution of education over 140 years, improving and extending the database recently released by Morrisson and Murtin (2009), which focuses on average years of schooling. The authors provide both average years of schooling and the distribution of education as summarised up by four quantiles in each country. Importantly, this new database is cross-validated by historical data on illiteracy rates. Then, they describe average stocks of primary, secondary and tertiary schooling by region since 1870, and estimate world inequality in years of schooling, which has been dramatically reduced since 1870. Focusing on the measurement of education inequality, this paper raises an important methodological issue. The authors show that a substantial share of inequality in years of schooling can be mechanically explained by a single component of the distribution of education, namely the population that has not attended school, subsequently called the illiterate population. Actually, they find that the observed decrease in inequality in years of schooling over the XXth century is almost entirely explained by the decline in illiteracy. They believe that this result, derived both theoretically and empirically, could help to reconsider an empirical fact discussed in the literature on education inequality (see Berthelemy (2006)), namely the cross-country negative correlation between the average of and the inequality in years of schooling. This correlation mainly reflects the negative and mechanical correlation between average schooling and the illiteracy rate. In line with a recent macroeconomic literature (see for instance Hall and Jones (1999)), the authors then turn to human capital as defined by Mincer (1974), in order to confer a monetary dimension to education. They propose estimates of the world inequality in human capital, examining several definitions for human capital. They focus on one functional form in particular, which accounts for the existence of diminishing returns to schooling. It is the only one that can account for the cross-country negative correlation between Mincer returns to schooling and average years of schooling, as described by Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (2004). At the national level, they find that that human capital inequality within countries has increased then stabilized or even decreased in most regions of the world. When plotted against average years of schooling, human capital inequality within countries has clearly followed an inverted U-shape curve, namely a "Kuznets curve of education". At the global level, they also find that human capital inequality has increased from 1870 to approximatively 1970, then has decreased. They interpret these findings as a consequence of mass education and the existence of diminishing returns to schooling. (Contains 6 tables, 6 figures and 14 footnotes.)

Early years are a critical period for skill development. In this sense, the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programmes have an important role in promoting children's learning during this period. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of ECEC programmes by analysing the relationship between students' ECEC attendance and their later academic proficiency using PISA 2015 data. PISA results show that across the OECD countries, students who had attended ECEC tend to have higher scores in academic proficiencies at the age of 15. However, these differences in academic proficiencies between those who attended ECEC versus those who did not attend are almost nil when students' socio-economic status (SES) is considered. This relationship reflects differential access to learning opportunities for children from deprived contexts. Furthermore, results show that entering ECEC programmes earlier than the typical time is associated with lower proficiencies at the age of 15. Therefore, earlier entry to ECEC is not necessarily beneficial. Learning benefits of ECEC provision vary considerably across PISA countries illustrating the importance of a country-specific policy context and the quality of their ECEC provision. The analyses of several quality indicators point out that the improved quality of ECEC programmes is associated with higher academic skills at later stages. These results highlight that mere attendance to ECEC programmes is not enough to ensure better academic performance. The quality of the educational provision, especially concerning those students from disadvantaged backgrounds, should be ensured.

Lifelong learning is especially important for immigrants, who are often at a disadvantage in terms of the languages and skills that are valued in the labour market of their host country. Yet foreign-born adults are less likely to participate in training than native-born ones, and face higher financial and non-financial barriers to training. Policy efforts should focus not only on providing more training opportunities, but also on removing barriers to participation.

Playful experiences provide us with the opportunity to engage with others and learn in enjoyable ways. Recognising and building on the power of playfulness and play can be a way to support more meaningful educational experiences for all, life-wide and lifelong. This "Trends Shaping Education Spotlight" touches on gamification as a business, lifelong playing and life-wide learning, play and learning in the early years, letting children be children, supporting children in their play, games, gamification and playful learning at school, and how leisure can effect learning and well-being.

In almost all school systems, students are assigned to public schools based, at least partly, on their home address. Through this policy, students are typically assigned to the school closest to their home. The main objective may be to avoid long and costly commutes to and from school. However, over the past few decades, many countries have implemented reforms that provide more school options to families by loosening the link between home address and school. How do these reforms affect the social composition of schools?

Decreasing class sizes, even by as little as one student, comes with a price tag. It is possible to "pay" for this increase by compensating with one of the other factors influencing the salary cost of teachers: lower teachers' salaries, less required instruction time for students or more teaching time for teachers. Across OECD countries there seems to be a trade-off between smaller class sizes and higher teachers' salaries, thus prompting the question of which policy leads to the best student outcomes. The evidence points to the importance of ensuring high-quality teaching above all else. Although higher salaries can help achieve that, several other factors will also influence the quality of the teaching force and of the country's educational system as whole.

The teacher workforce could be better prepared to cater to the learning needs of special needs students. The low percentage of teachers reporting a positive impact from their professional development signals that there is more to be done regarding the quality of the training offered in special needs education. Also, allocating more experienced and trained teachers to high-need classrooms, and providing continuous support to teachers and schools, can improve the quality of learning experiences of special needs students. This is important to ensure equal learning opportunities for all children and to create the conditions necessary for students with special needs to succeed.

This brief focuses on the population aged 25-34. The sample includes data from OECD member, OECD accession and G20 countries, for the years 2005-16 for OECD member countries and 2005-15 for non-OECD countries. The share of young adults (aged 25-34) with a tertiary education has grown over the past decade in OECD and G20 countries, and it is expected to continue growing in the near future. In fact, the share of tertiary-educated individuals grew from 17% in 2005 to 22% in 2015, and it could reach as much as 30% by 2030 (Figure 1). There has also been a gradual widening of the gender gap in tertiary attainment, particularly since 2010, which is likely to persist over the next decade. In 2005, the share of young adults with a tertiary education in OECD and G20 countries combined was the same for men and women (17%) -- but by 2015 it had risen to 23% for women, compared to 21% for men. Given the trends observed over the past decade, as many as 32% of women are expected to have a tertiary education by 2030, compared to 27% of men. The projected increase in the number of tertiary-educated adults does not come as a surprise. There has been a rise in demand for skilled labour, in part driven by technological changes (OECD, 2017a), and governments have been promoting access to tertiary education through a variety of financial support policies (OECD, 2017b). One of the challenges in the near future will be to ensure that the types of skills acquired by tertiary graduates match the needs of an increasingly changing labour market.

Many governments in developing countries are realising that good quality jobs matter for development. However, little attention has been paid so far to explore what actually matters for young people in terms of job characteristics and employment conditions. Today, in many developing and emerging countries, a key development challenge is that existing jobs do not live up to youth aspirations. This study revisits youth labour market performance and the quality of jobs in developing countries. It places youth employment preferences at the forefront and answers the following questions. What is the nature of youth careers aspirations and job-related drivers of job satisfaction? What shapes such employment preferences? How likely will young people be able to meet their job aspirations? What policy makers can do to reduce the gap between youth preferences and the reality of jobs? The study draws on the comprehensive data from school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing and transition countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. It suggests a number of priority areas for policy makers to enhance youth well-being, raise labour productivity, and contain the chilling effects that unmet youth aspirations can generate on society.

This report from the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) presents responses to a questionnaire and supporting documentation from 107 universities and 22 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The survey covered 154 projects on teacher training, research, and evaluation in information and communication technology conducted between universities and primary and secondary schools. The first of two parts of the report begins by covering the context of the survey, including two levels of expertise for teachers in the pedagogical uses of information technologies; the role of universities in teacher training; and the objectives and organization of the survey. It then focuses on analysis, including the basic data on the projects; the main issues in their implementation (compensation of teachers' time, status of research and development, interdisciplinary and new educational technologies, and communication between researchers and teachers); improvement in cooperation between partners; and an increasing role for universities. A copy of the questionnaire is appended. Part II, which makes up the larger part of the report, presents fact sheets on projects in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each fact sheet provides the name of the project, a contact person, the duration, funding, associated universities, the aims of the project, its implementation, and its products. It is concluded that the results of the work to date show that the potential of the new information and communication technologies for improving learning and teaching will not be realized unless teachers are well trained and retrained in the pedagogical use of technology in the classroom. (ALF)

A substantial amount of money is spent on technology by schools, families and policymakers with the hope of improving educational outcomes. This paper explores the theoretical and empirical literature on the impacts of technology on educational outcomes. The literature focuses on two primary contexts in which technology may be used for educational purposes: i) classroom use in schools, and ii) home use by students. Theoretically, ICT investment and CAI use by schools and the use of computers at home have ambiguous implications for educational achievement: expenditures devoted to technology necessarily offset inputs that may be more or less efficient, and time allocated to using technology may displace traditional classroom instruction and educational activities at home. However, much of the evidence in the schooling literature is based on interventions that provide supplemental funding for technology or additional class time, and thus favor finding positive effects. Nonetheless, studies of ICT and CAI in schools produce mixed evidence with a pattern of null results. Notable exceptions to this pattern occur in studies of developing countries and CAI interventions that target math rather than language. In the context of home use, early studies based on multivariate and instrumental variables approaches tend to find large positive (and in a few cases negative) effects while recent studies based on randomized control experiments tend to find small or null effects. Early research focused on developed countries while more recently several experiments have been conducted in developing countries.

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the information from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) regarding adults with low literacy and numeracy proficiency. The paper first describes the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of these populations. Although, they are more likely than the rest of the population to exhibit certain characteristics, such as lower levels of educational attainment, lower rates of unemployment or more disadvantaged backgrounds, adults with low literacy are found in among all socio-demographic groups and in all walks of life. The paper then explores the frequency with which adults with low proficiency engage in the reading, writing and numeracy practices and the relationship between these practices and a range of social and economic outcomes. For most outcomes, levels of engagement in literacy practices appear to be as strong predictors as proficiency, indicating the importance of encouraging more intense use of these skills both in and outside of work. The unique data from the Survey of Adult Skills regarding performance on the simple reading tasks (the so called "reading components") is also analysed. Adults with low proficiency are found to be able to easily recognise commonly used words in printed form but often have difficulty with processing the logic of sentences and reading extended passages for basic meaning. Adults with low proficiency are considerably less likely than their more proficient peers to participate in formal or non-formal adult education or training programmes, which is mostly due to the socio-demographic and employment characteristics of this population. However, the lower participation rates among the low proficient adults does not appear to be a consequence of their lack of motivation as much as of the presence of various obstacles to participation, such as lack of time and the cost of training. PIAAC Methodology for Measuring AET [Adult education and training] and two supplemental tables are provided in an annex. Individual chapters contain references.

Adults tend to lose their information-processing skills as they age, especially if they do not use them. While older adults may compensate for this loss by developing other valuable skills, the importance of being proficient in information-processing skills in determining wages and employment does not diminish as workers age. Probably the most cost-effective way to ensure that economies do not suffer unduly as the working population ages is to ensure that students leave initial schooling with at least a basic set of information-processing skills on which they can build as they grow older. More opportunities for high-quality adult and on-the-job training should also be made available so that older adults can maintain the skills the already have and acquire new ones. The Survey of Adult Skills finds that adults aged 55 to 65 are less proficient in literacy and numeracy than adults aged 25 to 34. Differences in skills proficiency that are related to age vary widely across countries, implying that skills policies can affect the evolution of proficiency over a lifetime. While older adults are generally less proficient than younger adults, they do no worse--and often better--than younger adults in terms of labour market outcomes. [For "Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills," see ED567018.]

One in ten students at the master's or equivalent level is an international student within the OECD, and one in four at the doctoral or equivalent level. International doctoral students tend to choose countries investing substantial resources on research and development (R&D) in tertiary educational institutions. This offers these countries a channel to attract future workers with advanced training, particularly in science and technology; in several OECD countries more than half of those enrolled in a doctoral programme in science, engineering or agriculture are international students.

In designing policies and programmes targeting populations with poor literacy skills, it is important to take into account differences in the level of these skills within and among these populations. For example, native speakers of the mainstream language may require different language-development training than non-native speakers; and most adults who have poor literacy skills have more trouble comprehending what they read than recognising individual words. Also, low proficiency populations across countries differ in the level of their basic reading skills and will thus require varying degree of assistance in the basic literacy training. Countries can use the evidence gathered through the Survey of Adult Skills to fine-tune their assistance to the least proficient adults. This survey finds that even adults with the lowest proficiency in literacy possess some basic reading skills, although the level of these skills varies considerably across countries. Basic reading skills are revealed in both the accuracy in and speed of responding to reading tasks, which indicate the level of ease and automaticity of reading. Among adults with low proficiency in literacy, those who took the survey in a language different from their mother tongue had much poorer basic reading skills than native speakers. [For the related reports: "Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Skills Studies," see ED567018; and for "What Does Age Have to Do with Skills Proficiency? Adult Skills in Focus. No. 3," see ED567020.]

This paper provides an overview of the available information concerning selected policy instruments intended to promote employer-provided training, including the stated rationale and objectives, the target groups and operational design as well as a at a summary of the evaluative evidence regarding their operation. The analysis focuses on policy instruments providing financial assistance or incentives, specifically, subsidies (including tax incentives and grants) and levy schemes that devote a least some share of their resources to continuing training. Training leave regulations are considered only to the extent that they can be treated as a form of subsidy or a levy scheme, depending on the main financing mechanism involved. Instruments that focus solely on improving the quality of training or enhancing transparency in the training market are not addressed. In addition to offering a description of different instruments, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses (or risks and opportunities, respectively) of different types of instrument or particular elements of instrument design. It also specifies principles of successful instrument design that have been put forth in the literature and concludes with some remarks regarding the choice of policies. Training funds in combination with levy schemes in OECD and non-OECD countries are appended. Individual sections contain endnotes. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)