Relatively small improvements in students’ educational performance can have large impacts on a nation’s future economic well-being, according to a new international study released today from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The study uses economic modeling to show that even modest and achievable gains in student learning yield large increases in Gross Domestic Product over the long run.

If high school dropouts who currently head households in the U.S. had instead earned diplomas, the U.S. economy would benefit from an additional $74 billion in wealth accumulated by families, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education in its new brief, Hidden Benefits: The Impact of High School Graduation on Household Wealth, funded by MetLife Foundation.

America is spending over $1.4 billion each year to provide community college remediation education for recent high school graduates who did not acquire the basic skills to succeed in college or at work, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education in its new issue brief Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation, funded by MetLife Foundation.