Education in Alberta is provided through funding from the provincial government. The earliest form of formal education in Alberta is usually preschool which is not mandatory and is then followed by the partially-mandatory kindergarten to Grade 12 (or twelfth grade). This is managed by Alberta Education (also known as the Ministry of Education) which has divided the province into 379 school authorities. Higher education in the province is guided by Alberta Advanced Education.
Alberta has a well developed educational system and is known for having one the best educational systems in Canada, and the world. It has also historically performed well on international ranking tests however recently scores have been declining in some areas causing concerns for alarm.