Since the 80s of last century，the developed countries had put forward the concept of core literacy. With the continuous fermentation of related research and the involvement of more and more international organizations，countries and regions，core literacy had become an important cornerstone of international education reform. In this study，frameworks of core literacy for the 21st century from five representative international organizations and twenty-four economies were analyzed. And three categories a total of ten driving forces and two dimensions a total of 18 elements of the core literacy for the 21st century were drawn out. Comparisons on the degree of concerns of the different driving forces and elements，and on the differences among economies of different income levels were made. This study also presented the experience of education practice of core literacy for the 21st century from three aspects：curriculum，learning and teaching，and evaluation. The supporting system of the core literacy education for the 21st century including support of government policy，reinforcement of autonomy，and utilization of social resources and strengthening of teachers’ training was analyzed.