 Here's some good news. Data tell us that in the past 15 years, more children than ever have enrolled in primary school. This massive global effort to achieve universal education has been made possible by data. In fact, more than 1,000 internationally comparable indicators produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics have kept governments accountable while measuring progress on a host of education issues. But does this mean our work is done? Not yet. Data show successes and failures. Roughly one-quarter of children who enroll in primary school drop out. Of those who stay, many are not learning at the appropriate grade level. This issue is being addressed by the Sustainable Development Goal for Education. It's an ambitious plan, with governments promising 12 years of quality learning for all. But to meet and measure this goal, we need more data, especially from poor countries, so we can produce different kinds of indicators. But data are messy. Education data come from many sources, each with its own criteria and classifications. This makes it hard to answer even simple questions, such as, how much does education cost? Calculating total education spending must consider money coming from different levels of government, as well as funding from private donors and NGOs, not to mention what parents spend on books, uniforms, and other fees. To get a clearer picture, we're working with governments to develop common standards for all countries and conducting workshops to show statisticians how to find and use data from different sources. By improving the quality of national data, governments can spend smarter, and our job of producing global indicators becomes much easier. Data also point out areas that need more attention. For example, millions of children are still not in school. What's holding them back? We work with partners in countries with high exclusion rates to collect a wide range of data and information. With detailed profiles of out-of-school and at-risk children, governments can address the factors that perpetuate inequality and tailor plans to ensure that every child enjoys the right to education. But that's still not enough. Data tell us that millions of children are leaving school without a basic grasp of reading and mathematics. How can we expect these children to compete in today's rapidly changing job market? Many countries conduct learning assessments, but right now there is no way to compare results on a global scale. So we've begun working with partners to link different assessments and develop global measures of learning, which will enable countries to monitor student progress and strengthen policies to improve learning outcomes. This is no easy task, but if we do it right, every student, teacher, and school will have the chance to excel.