In the fall of 2016, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Middle East Bureau requested that RTI International produce an internal analysis and annotated bibliography on the educational situation in Syria. The report was developed through an analysis of key references and secondary sources as well as interviews with key informants at international agencies and organizations involved in education delivery in the opposition controlled areas (OCAs) of Syria. Analysis and review of the literature included a special focus on Dara’a, Aleppo, and Idlib regions. This brief is a summary of the report and of the key emerging issues that were identified as part of the effort. A blog post related to this brief can be found here: https://medium.com/@RTI_INTL_DEV/the-state-of-education-in-syria-dd50ccce15a0