Release of the Condition of Education 2023

Today, NCES released the Report on the Condition of Education 2023, which reports on the state of education in the United States, from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. In order to improve readability and access to equitable data, this year’s Condition of Education (1) employs a new bulleted structure to highlight key findings, (2) presents interactive data visualizations in our online indicator system, and (3) presents data on Puerto Rico and U.S. outlying territories when available. Key findings from the report include: Some 70 percent of public schools reported that the percentage of students who had sought mental health services from school had increased since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In comparison, only 12 percent strongly agreed and 44 percent moderately agreed that their school was able to effectively provide mental health services to all students in need. Generally, among public and private schools with open teaching positions in particular subject-matter fields, higher percentages reported having difficulties filling these openings in 2020–21 than in 2011–12. In 2020–21, the proportion of K–12 public school teachers who were White (80 percent) was higher than the proportion of K–12 public school students who were White (46 percent), whereas the proportion of teachers of other racial/ethnic groups was lower than the proportion of students in those groups. The percentage of 3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in school in 2021 (50 percent) was 10 percentage points higher than 2020 (40 percent), but remained lower than 2019 (54 percent). Between fall 2019 and fall 2020, while traditional public school enrollment decreased by 4 percent, public charter school enrollment increased by 7 percent. Between fall 2010 and fall 2021, total undergraduate enrollment decreased by 15 percent (from 18.1 million to 15.4 million students), with 42 percent (1.1 million students) of this decline occurring during the pandemic. Meanwhile, total enrollment in postbaccalaureate programs increased by 5 percent between fall 2010 and fall 2019 (from 2.9 million to 3.1 million students) and continued to increase by another 5 percent during the pandemic (to 3.2 million students in fall 2021). Of the degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions in 2020–21, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields made up 8 percent of associate’s degrees, 21 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 17 percent of master’s degrees, and 15 percent of doctor’s degrees Between 2010 and 2022, educational attainment rates among 25- to 29-year-olds increased at different levels of attainment. In general, educational attainment rates increased for both male and female 25- to 29-year-olds as well as for most racial/ethnic groups. However, attainment gaps between some groups persisted in 2022. The summary report is available here. In addition, an initial set of detailed analyses in the form of indicators are also available on the Condition of Education webpage today with further updates throughout the summer. Analyses in the report are supported by tables in the Digest of Education Statistics. Readers can browse these tables for additional detail on topics presented in the Condition.