This noncomprehensive list highlights the mobility drivers SUMI is prioritizing in its second RFP. The list was informed by multiple inputs: (1) what educators, communities, and employers say are the skills and competencies that drive long-term success and upward mobility; (2) the subset of those skills and competencies that are generally within the control of PK–12 schools; (3) the gaps in the literature validating those skills and competencies as drivers (including emerging work from our first cohort of grantees); and (4) the gaps in what we know about how to measure those drivers, particularly informed by the emerging and evolving indicators from the Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework.

Our current priority drivers are refined and updated versions of our original skills and competencies (PDF) from established leading frameworks—and adds some from our own listening and learning (PDF)—about how PK–12 education can drive economic mobility. We drew from three leading frameworks: the Education-to-Workforce Framework, StriveTogether’s Racial and Ethnic Equity Systems Indicators (PDF), and the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Framework. Each presents a valuable perspective on how a person achieves mobility across the life course, including during their school years. We encourage applicants and others to peruse each framework as we build an education-to-economic-mobility body of work.