We all want children to grow up to be successful, thriving adults. Parents, educators, and policymakers advise kids to go to school, get good grades, and graduate. That good advice is not enough. We need to know which PK–12 skills and competencies boost students’ long-term success and how the contexts students exist in, such as the school system or their neighborhood, affect those outcomes.

With 7 in 10 kids born into poverty never making it to the middle class, it’s time to do something different. We believe schools can better support students’ lifelong success if they have a more complete picture of what drives it.

Our mission is to support students’ economic mobility by establishing a set of skills and competencies in PK–12 education—across academic achievement, “noncognitive” factors, health and well-being, social capital, and career preparation—that educators and policymakers can use to shape practices, programs, interventions, and broader systems change.

Given the limited evidence base, the field has a long way to go. The Student Upward Mobility Initiative will accelerate progress and increase opportunities for school-to-economic-mobility research by funding innovative projects that develop, identify, and validate measures of skills and competencies in PK–12 education that drive students’ economic mobility and improve researchers’ access to the data assets needed for this work.