This publication is being issued at the close of three years of the Regional Education Indicators Project (PRIE) in order to report on progress in the hemisphere in achieving the education goals outlined at the Summit of the Americas and to reflect on the need of such progress in terms of the profound impact that education has on the lives of people, families, and communities.

PRIE began at the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile in 1998. At that time, participating Chiefs of State identified education as the first priority of the region. The PRIE project focused on the construction of comparable education indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean in order to contribute to the definition of more effective education policies.

This effort closes the cycle initiated by the volume Education Panorama of the Americas, an effort to view education in the hemisphere from a comparative perspective and which demonstrated that progress in education had taken place unequally, with wide gaps between and within countries.

Achieving Education Goals seeks to contribute new elements to the work of ministries of education of the hemisphere as well as to all of those interested in the challenges to education and to the development of the countries of the region.