Across OECD countries, governments are seeking policies to make education more effective while searching for additional resources to meet the increasing demand for education. The 2008 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries' performance. It provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on the performance of education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate and at the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students' performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults' chances of employment. New material in this edition includes: * A picture of entry rates in tertiary education by field of study * Information on the skills of 15-year-olds in science * An analysis of the socio-economic background of 15-year-olds and the role of their parents * Data on the extent to which the socio-economic status of parents affects students' participation in higher education * Data on the returns to education * Information on the governance of higher education institutions * An analysis of efficiency in the use of resources * Data on the impact of evaluations and assessments within education systems * A comparison of the levels of decision-making in education across countries The ExcelTM spreadsheets used to create the tables and charts in this book are available via the StatLinks printed in this book. The tables and charts, as well as the complete OECD Online Education Database, are freely available via the OECD Education website at www.oecd.org/edu/eag2008.