One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling. Such policies hinge on reliable information on how well education systems prepare students for life. Most countries monitor students' learning and the performance of schools. But in a global economy, the yardstick for success is no longer improvement by national standards alone, but how education systems perform internationally. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has taken up that challenge by developing PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment, which evaluates the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems in some 70 countries that, together, make up nine-tenths of the world economy. PISA represents a commitment by governments to monitor the outcomes of education systems regularly within an internationally agreed framework and it provides a basis for international collaboration in defining and implementing educational policies. The results from the PISA 2009 assessment reveal wide differences in educational outcomes, both within and across countries. This volume examines how human, financial and material resources, and education policies and practices shape learning outcomes. Individual chapters contain notes. (Contains 6 boxes, 37 figures and 101 tables.) [For related reports, see Executive Summary (ED518016), Volume I (ED518013), Volume II (ED518015), Volume III (ED518014), and Volume V (ED518018).]