The Condition of Education 2022

Posted June 21, 2022

Release of the Condition of Education 2022

Today, NCES released the Condition of Education 2022, which contains indicators on the state of education in the United States, from prekindergarten through post secondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. This year’s edition includes two Spotlight indicators, which use experimental data from the Household Pulse Survey to examine possible educational impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, including homeschooling and post secondary plans.

Key findings from the report include:

Among adults with children under 18 in the home enrolled in school, 6.8 percent reported that at least one child was home schooled during the 2020–21 school year.
Among adults with at least one household member planning to take post secondary classes in fall 2021, some 44 percent reported there was no change for any household member in their fall plans for post secondary classes due to the coronavirus pandemic, compared with 28 percent in fall 2020.
Enrollment rates for 5-year-olds fell 6 percentage points from 2019 to 2020 (from 91 to 84 percent), while enrollment rates for 3- to 4-year-olds fell 13 percentage points (from 54 to 40 percent).
Greater percentages of high school graduates in 2019 than in 2009 had completed algebra II (85 vs. 80 percent), precalculus/mathematical analysis (40 vs. 36 percent), and earned credits in all three subjects of biology, chemistry, and physics (35 vs. 30 percent). However, the percentage of graduates who had completed calculus was lower in 2019 than in 2009 (16 vs. 18 percent).
The NAEP Long-Term Trend shows improvement in reading and mathematics achievement at ages 9 and 13 between the 1970s and 2020. However, average scores for 9-year-olds were not measurably different for either subject in 2020 compared with the previous assessment in 2012. For 13-year-olds, the average scores were lower in 2020 than in 2012 for both subjects, marking the first time reading or mathematics scores for this age group declined between assessments.
Total undergraduate enrollment decreased by 9 percent from fall 2009 to fall 2020 (from 17.5 million to 15.9 million students). For male and female students, enrollment patterns exhibited similar trends from 2009 to 2019 (both decreasing by 5 percent). However, from 2019 to 2020, female enrollment fell 2 percent, while male enrollment fell 7 percent.
Compared with 2010, employment rates were higher in 2021 for those with a bachelor’s or higher degree (84 vs 86 percent). For those who had completed high school and those with some college, employment rates increased from 2010 to 2019, but these gains were reversed during the coronavirus pandemic (to rates of 68 and 75 percent, respectively).

Readers can browse the Condition of Education Indicator System online and download PDFs of individual indicators. In addition to the online indicator system, a synthesized overview of findings across topics is presented in the Report on the Condition of Education.

To view the Condition of Education, please visit https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe.

The Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation’s leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, statistics, and assessment.