Efforts to monitor the progress of U.S. education and respond to its opportunities and challenges depend on reliable, accurate, and timely data. To provide such data, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) each year submits to Congress the mandated report, The Condition of Education. This year's report presents indicators of important developments and trends in American education. Recurrent themes underscored by the indicators include participation and persistence in education, student performance and other outcomes, the environment for learning, and resources for education. In addition, this year's volume contains a special analysis that presents key findings of several recent international assessments that examine the achievement of U.S. students in reading, mathematics, and science and the literacy of adults relative to the performance of their peers in other countries. This analysis is particularly timely given the concern for the competitiveness of the United States. This report is organized into the following sections: (1) Participation in Education; (2) Learner Outcomes; (3) Student Effort and Educational Progress; (4) Contexts of Elementary and Secondary Education; and (5) Contexts of Postsecondary Education. The following are appended: (1) Supplemental Tables; (2) Supplemental Notes; and (3) Standard Error Tables. A glossary and bibliography is included.