Educational attainment is largely an outcome of individual talent and hard work and is a term for how much students actually learn. By contrast, educational achievement is the number of years of school completed.

Educational attainment refers to the highest level of education an individual has completed, such as high school, college, or graduate degrees, and is often measured in terms of years of school completed or degrees obtained. Educational achievement, on the other hand, relates to what students have learned or accomplished academically, often measured through grades, test scores, or specific skill acquisition, not just the number of years of school completed.