Education systems facing the challenges of technological, organizational and social changes: US and Italy in a comparative perspective

Education systems in developed countries have faced many important changes over the past two decades changing only partially their structure and the way they operate. New educational needs became noticeable because of the variation in the population's composition in almost all countries, due to both natural balance and especially to migration balance.At the same time, the need to consolidate the basic education of the entire youthpopulation, as well as the need to consider new and broader educational needs of adults and elderly is widely recognized.Serious reconsideration is needed for more effective vocational education. A rather important challenge concerns the training of professional technicians and their employability by industry, in consideration of the need to support companies in innovation. How to combine maximum fairness and equal opportunities and the efficient use of resources is the common issue of many reform measures, especially in pre-primary, primary and general secondary education system. The focus on Us and Italy shades light on the main issues facing education policy in the two countries.