As used by Achieving the Dream (ATD), refers to the collective well-being and prosperity of a community that is achieved through equitable access to education, economic opportunities, and social mobility. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of individual success and community development, aiming for a holistic improvement in quality of life across various societal measures.

See: Community Vibrancy Framework — Achieving the Dream (ATD) | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Refers to an integrated approach to improving the skills and employment opportunities for workers across a state. Systems align the efforts of various stakeholders (e.g., government agencies, educational institutions, employers, community organizations) to meet the workforce needs of individuals and businesses. The goal is to create a pipeline of skilled workers who can fill in-demand jobs and provide pathways for workers to advance in their careers.

A statewide workforce development system usually has a legal framework grounded in both federal legislation such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and state-specific legislation or executive actions. WIOA provides the primary federal funding mechanism for workforce development, giving states the flexibility to design programs that address local economic needs while meeting performance metrics.

Key agencies in systems include the Departments of labor, economic development, and education, and these agencies usually oversee the system at the state level, often in collaboration with regional/local workforce boards. Workforce development systems are generally measured based on employment outcomes, retention rates, wage growth, and employer satisfaction with the workforce.

Key roles of the system:

1. Coordination Integration: Collaboration among state and local agencies, educational institutions (K-12, community colleges, universities), workforce boards, nonprofits, and employers includes centralizing resources such as training programs, career counseling, and job placement services.
2. Education/Training:  Access to upskilling, career/vocational training, apprenticeships, and continuing education to prepare individuals for entry-level jobs and advanced career opportunities.
3. Employer Partnerships: Collaborating with industries to identify current and future workforce needs and tailoring training programs to meet needs. Employers often provide internships, apprenticeships, and other work-based learning opportunities.
4. Workforce Boards: Local and state workforce boards (under Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act – WIOA) oversee and coordinate training programs, career services, and employment initiatives.
5. Technology/Data Integration: Using data to track labor market trends, analyze workforce needs, and match workers with opportunities. This includes online platforms for job searches, training enrollment, and skills assessments.
6. Access/Equity: Ensuring underserved populations (e.g., veterans, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, people of color) have access to training and employment opportunities, with special focus on overcoming barriers to employment.

 Trends and innovations in systems include:

• Sector-based strategies: Focus on specific industries critical to the state’s economy (e.g., IT, healthcare, manufacturing).
• Apprenticeships and Earn-and-Learn Programs: Enable workers to gain experience while earning wages, addressing skill gaps in real-time.
• Credentialing and Industry Certifications: Emphasize industry-recognized credentials valued by employers and that provide career mobility to workers.
• Digital Access and Virtual Training: Expansion of online resources and virtual training programs.

Examples of state systems include:

• California: The California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) coordinates with local boards and partners to meet the diverse needs of the state’s workforce. The CWDB is known for its sector-based strategies, focusing on in-demand industries like technology, healthcare, and manufacturing. California has specific initiatives like the High Road Training Partnerships (HRTP) that promote job quality, wage increases, and career mobility in key sectors.
• Michigan: Michigan Works connects job seekers with career opportunities and employers with talent. Michigan focuses on regional partnerships and integrated service delivery through its Going PRO Talent Fund, which supports employers in training and developing skilled workers.
• North Carolina: NCWorks aligns education, economic development, and workforce services. It operates with a regional focus but integrates services statewide, ensuring access to career counseling, job training, and placement services. The MyFutureNC initiative is a statewide goal to align the workforce with educational outcomes, targeting postsecondary attainment to ensure that residents are prepared for high-quality jobs.
• Ohio: The OhioMeansJobs system connects employers and job seekers statewide and offers workforce services through local centers. The TechCred program which helps businesses train employees in technology-related skills, emphasizing upskilling and industry certification.
• Texas: Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) partners with community colleges, technical schools, and local workforce development boards to provide training aligned with the needs of industries like energy, healthcare, and technology. TWC emphasizes dual credit programs in high schools, where students can earn college credits and credentials, as well as strong employer partnerships.
• Washington: Washington’s Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board brings together various stakeholders to develop statewide strategies and programs. The Career Connect Washington initiative links K-12 education, technical training, and employers to help students move into high-demand careers.

A program in the United States that allows international students on F-1 visas to work off-campus while completing their studies. CPT is designed for students whose academic programs require an internship, practicum, or other experiential learning opportunities as part of their curriculum. CPT allows students to gain practical work experience that is directly related to their field of study.

Regulations for CPT:

• Required Component: CPT must be a necessary part of the student’s degree program— it is not additional training but an integral component of the curriculum.
• Internships and Experiential Learning: CPT typically involves internships, co-ops (co-operative education), practicums, or other experiential learning opportunities.
• Off-Campus Work: CPT allows students to work off-campus while maintaining their student status.
• Academic Credit: Students may earn academic credit for their CPT experience, depending on their university’s policies.
• Authorization: CPT requires authorization from the student’s Designated School Official (DSO) and the institution’s International Student Office.
• Job Offer Required: Students must have a job offer before applying for CPT authorization.
• Fulltime Enrollment: Students must maintain fulltime enrollment at the university while on CPT.
• Ineligibility for OPT: Students who have worked more than 12 months of fulltime CPT are generally ineligible for the program, Optional Practical Training (OPT).

 See: F-1 Visa & Optional Practical Training (OPT) | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Refers to an immigration designation historically used in the United States that allows certain temporary visa holders—particularly international students and exchange visitors—to remain in the country for the period of time required to complete an authorized educational, training, or exchange program, rather than being admitted until a specific fixed date.

Duration of Status has been commonly associated with F-1 international students and J-1 exchange visitors. Under this approach, an individual’s lawful status is tied to continued participation in and compliance with the requirements of an approved program. Educational institutions and program sponsors document enrollment, program changes, transfers, extensions, and other status-related information through federal systems such as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

The concept recognizes that the length of education and training programs may not always be predictable when an individual begins a program. Students may require additional time because of the structure of a degree program, research and dissertation requirements, changes in academic pathways, transfers between institutions, or progression from one level of education to another.

Duration of Status is particularly relevant to higher education because program duration and actual time to degree are not necessarily the same. Although a bachelor’s degree is commonly described as a four-year degree, many students take longer than four years to complete one. Graduate and professional education can take considerably longer; doctoral programs, for example, frequently require five, six, or more years. Policies that establish a fixed period of authorized stay may therefore require extension processes for students whose normal academic progress extends beyond that period. This distinction is important when considering how immigration policy, institutional practices, and the realities of degree completion intersect for international students.

Refers to companies that encompass event planning, show production, logistics, venue management, and technology. Examples of industry organizations in this sector include:

• Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA)
• Exhibition Services & Contractors Association (ESCA)
• Experiential Designers & Producers Association (EDPA)
• International Association of Exhibitions & Events (IAEE)
• International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM)
• Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO)

In 2024, the Exhibitions Industry Collective was created to nurture talent, promote workforce development, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the exhibitions and events industry.

See:  Exhibitions Industry Collective + Workforce Development Initiative | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

An F-1 Visa is a type of visa in the United States that allows international students to come to the U.S. to study fulltime at an accredited college, university, high school, language school, or other approved academic institution. To qualify for an F-1 visa, a student must:

• Be accepted by a U.S. school that is authorized to enroll international students.
• Prove they have enough money to pay for their education and living expenses while in the U.S.
• Show that they plan to return to their home country after finishing their studies.

The F-1 visa is the most common visa for international students. It opens doors for students around the world to access U.S. education and, in many cases, gain practical work experience through programs like Optional Practical Training (OPT).

Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a program in the U.S. that allows international students who are studying at U.S. colleges or universities on an F-1 visa to work in jobs related to their field of study for up to 12 months during or after finishing their degree. Students in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields may be eligible for a 24-month extension, for a total of up to 36 months of work authorization.

Benefits of OPT are fourfold:

1. Gives international students the chance to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to jobs in the U.S., helping them build valuable skills and increase their chances of future employment—whether in the U.S. or their home country.
2. Offers U.S. employers access to a highly skilled, diverse, and motivated talent pool.
3. From a workforce development perspective, OPT can contributes to innovation and economic growth by filling skill gaps in key industries, especially in STEM fields.
4. OPT offers the opportunity to strengthen ties between higher education and employers, showing how international education can support labor market needs.

OPT has existed since the early 1990s in its current form but has roots in earlier immigration policy that allowed student employment under certain conditions. The original purpose was to provide a bridge from study to work without requiring students to immediately change their visa status. The 24-month STEM extension was introduced in 2008 and revised in 2016 to expand access and strengthen oversight.

In recent years, OPT has faced political and legal scrutiny. Some critics argue it takes jobs from U.S. workers, while supporters emphasize its role in attracting global talent and maintaining U.S. competitiveness. Proposals to change or limit the program have surfaced periodically, but major changes have not yet occurred. However, the future of OPT is uncertain, and it continues to be a subject of debate in immigration and workforce policy.

See:  Curricular Practical Training (CPT) | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Refers broadly to the worldwide system through which workers, employers, jobs, skills, and workforce demand operate across nations and geographic regions. Advances in globalization, digital technologies, workforce platforms, migration, remote work, and international supply chains have increased the visibility and movement of talent across countries and industries.

The global labor market continues to be shaped by national and regional laws, immigration systems, workforce policies, credential recognition practices, economic conditions, language, technological change, and employer hiring strategies. Artificial intelligence (AI), automation, digital workforce platforms, and remote work are increasingly influencing how employers identify, recruit, manage, and develop talent across industries and geographic regions. As a result, labor market participation and workforce mobility vary significantly across nations, industries, occupations, and organizations.

Growing global economic integration and advances in workforce analytics have increased attention to research on global labor market trends. International organizations, workforce analytics firms, employer surveys, and labor market intelligence platforms increasingly monitor hiring patterns, skills demand, workforce shortages, talent mobility, and changing employment trends across regions and industries.

Global labor market dynamics are particularly visible in sectors such as healthcare, cybersecurity, engineering, advanced manufacturing, logistics and supply chains, agriculture, climate and environmental industries, and technology.

The concept is frequently discussed in workforce development, labor economics, migration studies, higher education, human capital strategy, and future-of-work research.

See Topic Brief: Global Labor Market Trends | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

The H-1B visa is a U.S. nonimmigrant work visa that allows employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in “specialty occupations”—roles that typically require at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent expertise in a specific field. The visa is employer-sponsored, subject to annual numerical caps and a selection process, and granted for a limited duration (generally up to six years, with some exceptions). Historically, when applications exceeded the annual cap, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) used a random lottery system to allocate available visas.

The H-1B visa category was established under the Immigration Act of 1990 and has become a central mechanism for connecting U.S. employers to global high-skill talent. It is used most extensively in technology-related fields, along with healthcare, engineering, finance, and higher education. The majority of H-1B visa holders originate from India, followed by China and a smaller number of other countries.

Within the learn-and-work ecosystem, the H-1B visa functions as a key policy instrument shaping global talent mobility and employer access to specialized skills. While the statutory cap on H-1B visas has remained stable (generally 85,000 new visas annually), recent policy changes have reshaped how visas are allocated. Beginning with the FY 2027 cap season, the selection process is shifting from a random lottery to a wage-weighted system, in which applicants associated with higher wage levels receive greater likelihood of selection. These changes place increased emphasis on wages, raise application and compliance requirements, and tighten selection criteria.

The shift has the effect of prioritizing higher-paid and more experienced workers, while potentially reducing access for entry-level roles and lower-wage sectors. It also introduces a stronger connection between employer compensation strategies and immigration outcomes, making workforce planning, wage-setting, and immigration sponsorship more closely aligned.

While sometimes described informally as a “credential,” the H-1B visa is not a credential. It does not validate skills or competencies, but rather provides legal authorization to work in a qualifying occupation. However, because eligibility is tied to specialized knowledge and degree-level preparation, it is often associated with credentialed or highly skilled workers.

See:  International Students | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See: Wage-Weighted H-1B Selection System | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Refers to the financial well-being of generations as well as the broader societal implications including race/ethnicity gaps, social and economic mobility, geographical disparities, and the well-being of future generations. Examining the conditions experienced by the generations within society typically include studying economic wealth, educational and employment opportunities, and outcomes across generations. Studies of Intergenerational Economic Mobility typically compare parents’ income and their children’s income in the next generation. Studies of Intergenerational Equity examine the fair distribution of economic, social, and environmental well-being among generations, with a focus on racial gaps in upward mobility. Studies of Geographical Disparities examine mobility impacts based on where children grow up in America.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an IDP is a person who has been forced to flee their home but never cross an international border. IDPs include people displaced by internal strife and natural disasters. These individuals seek safety wherever they can—in nearby towns, schools, settlements, internal camps, forests and fields. Unlike refugees, IDPs are not protected by international law or eligible to receive many types of aid because they are legally under the protection of their own government.

Related terms: Refugee, stateless person, asylum seeker

An international classification system developed and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization.  ICS are used to catalog and classify standards,  often for use in databases and libraries.  ICS currently includes 40 fields. Standards are organized according to:

• sectors of the economy (e.g., agriculture, mining construction, packaging industry)
• technologies (e.g., telecommunications, food processing)
• activities (e.g., environmental protection , safety assurance and protection of public health)
• fields of science (e.g., mathematics, astronomy)

The latest editions of the ICS are downloadable free of charge from the ISO website. Anyone may propose revisions or additions to the ICS.

An international nongovernmental organization founded in 1947 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It works in 168 countries (as of 2023). Official languages are English, French and Russian. Membership is open to only national standards institutes or similar organizations that represent standardization in their country (one member per country). Individuals or businesses cannot join ISO.

Comprised of various national standards bodies, ISO develops and publishes proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards.  The ISO standards are internationally agreed upon by experts in the relevant fields, and describe the best way of doing something. Examples of ISO Standards:

• calibration of thermometers
• food safety regulations
• manufacturing of wine glasses
• shoe sizes
• security management
• environmental management.

In addition to producing standards, ISO also publishes technical reports, frameworks, guidelines, and various types of specifications. It has published more than 24,500 international standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing. It has more than 800 Technical committees and subcommittees working on standards development.

The ISO helps to facilitate international trade by providing common standards among different countries.

ISO is not an acronym; it derives from the ancient Greek word ísos, meaning equal or equivalent. Because the organization would have different acronyms in different languages, the founders of the organization decided to call it by the short form ISO.

A related organization is European Committee for Standardization (CEN/CENELEC), which publishes some standards in parallel with ISO. Standards with the designation EN are mandatory for CEN members. An agreement is in place (Vienna Agreement) between ISO and CEN to share information, attend each other’s meetings, and collaborate on standards at international and European levels.

Refers to individuals who come to the United States from other countries to pursue higher education at American colleges and universities. These students typically hold non-immigrant visas, such as F-1 visas for academic studies, and contribute to the cultural and intellectual diversity of U.S. campuses. International students comprise more than 5% of all students in higher education, and about 20% of students at the graduate level.  Enrollment of international students has decreased in recent years, in part as a result of federal administrative policy changes that make it more difficult for international students to come to the U.S.; and as universities in other nations attract more international students.

Related Term: Foreign Nationals, defined by ed.gov as “citizens of countries other than those in which they reside”

Refers to both the system-level and individual-level ability to move learning and learners seamlessly across educational, training, and work contexts.

• Learning mobility focuses on the systems, policies, practices, programs, and initiatives designed around the needs and best interests of the learner of today and the future at every stage of their journey. Learning mobility enables the recognition, validation, and transfer of learning—such as credit mobility, prior learning assessment, and interoperable records of achievement.
• Learner mobility centers on the individual’s experience navigating these systems, moving across institutions, geographies, or career pathways while building on previously acquired knowledge and skills.

Together, learning mobility and learner mobility represent a learner-centered approach in which education and workforce systems are designed around the needs and best interests of learners, supporting equitable access and continuous progress along often nonlinear learning and work journeys.

Alternate terms: credit mobility, transfer, prior learning assessment

Learning (learner) mobility is a key objective in education in Europe. The term refers to the process of enabling learners throughout their lifetime to access their right to education founded on the belief that education is a public good, which includes the experience of learning mobility also as a public good. It is addressed in policy through the European Union (EU) Strategic Framework for Cooperation 2021-2030, which includes lifelong learning and learning mobility as priorities.

The Lifelong Learning Platform is an umbrella that gathers 44 European organizations from education, training and youth, representing more than 50 000 educational institutions and associations covering all sectors of formal, non-formal and informal learning. Members work together on education and training to harmonize their work over the next decade.  No benchmark has been established to measure the EU’s progress in “making learning mobility a reality for all” though learner mobility is a key objective of the Framework and the European Education Area, and one of the main requests by citizens through the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). This topic is critical because a key target of the previous strategy – 20% of mobile higher education graduates – was not reached. The current Lifelong Learning Platform presents recommendations from its members to address shortcomings and to widen access to learning mobilities across the EU.

See: LEARNING MOBILITY FOR ALL: A LIFELONG LEARNING APPROACH TO TARGETS, PROCESS AND MONITORING – Lifelong Learning Platform | LLLP (lllplatform.eu)

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), defines learning mobility as ensuring equitable and accessible programs and opportunities that prepare all learners for the workforce and beyond. In December 2021, AACRAO, the American Council on Education (ACE), and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) issued a Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award of Credit directed to college and universities about the award of academic credit for learning acquired elsewhere. The statement recognizes that in a rapidly evolving higher education landscape and increase in student mobility and extra-institutional learning, it is critical that higher education institutions support credit award policies based on equity-minded practice and principles. Institutions are encouraged to conduct an audit of their credit award policies and practices, including surveying transfer students to learn about their experiences navigating policies at their institutions; then use that information and a framework outlined in the Statement to help learners who increasingly rely on nonlinear paths to earn a college credential.

An AACRAO 2023 study found that a majority of the higher education institutions in their membership consider innovative credentialing of some type and learning mobility as priorities. This confirms AACRAO’s focus on facilitating seamless evaluation and documentation of learning, since AACRAO members play a key role in implementing policies and practices aimed at alleviating issues related to transfer, credit mobility, and the recognition of learning – the main indicators of learning mobility.

See:

• https://www.aacrao.org/signature-initiatives/learning-mobility
• https://www.aacrao.org/docs/default-source/statements-and-letters/2021-joint-statement-award-of-credit0c480d4a6f724decbf3433f190b42ee8.pdf?sfvrsn=dccf29d8_1

A term coined by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) in 2021 referring to a wholesale reimagining of higher education and how it functions with and within a larger regional system to improve social mobility and equity for all its citizens. IFTF interviewed a cross-section of California learners at different stages of their learning journeys to explore the successes and challenges learners encounter in pursuing a higher education degree. The key findings determined to positively or negatively directly impact higher education in the future: 1) expected increase in demand for degrees, 2) ongoing seismic reorganization of work, and 3) widening inequality and racial wealth gap. The study determined a new model is needed: a place-based higher education system (A New Multiversity) to serve as an engine of community wealth-building and socio-economic mobility.

Refers to economic mobility for learners who start their education and career journeys in noncredit programs. Noncredit programs are typically shorter-term training opportunities that enable learners to gain specific workforce skills and qualifications; however, they usually do not count toward Associate or Bachelor’s degree requirements and this raises concern about the economic mobility learners experience who have completed noncredit programs. Factors often studied in determining noncredit mobility are (1) access to family-wage jobs and (2) access to further educational opportunities, especially noncredit to credit pathways.

Occupational mobility (also known as occupational labor mobility) refers to the ability of workers to switch career fields to find gainful employment or to meet the needs of industry. Governments (federal, state) often play a role in providing occupational retraining to help workers acquire the necessary skills to expedite occupational mobility.

A related term is geographical labor mobility which refers to the level of flexibility and freedom that laborers have to physically move from one location to another to find gainful employment in their field.

Offshoring refers to the relocation or assignment of business activities, tasks, or jobs from one country to another. This may involve moving entire positions or operational functions overseas; shifting specific tasks or components of work to foreign affiliates or contractors; or expanding employment in international locations in ways that substitute for, or reduce, domestic hiring. Offshoring can occur at the job level (visible relocation of positions) or at the task level, where discrete functions—such as software development, accounting services, customer support, or data processing—are performed abroad even if the core job remains domestically based.

International business expansion differs from offshoring. Companies may grow internationally by opening new markets, adding foreign operations, or increasing overseas employment—without reducing their domestic employment. In such cases, global growth complements rather than substitutes for domestic hiring.

Measurement note: Because modern work is increasingly organized around tasks rather than fixed job roles, offshoring is often difficult to measure directly. Policymakers typically rely on indirect indicators such as multinational employment trends, trade in services data, foreign affiliate activity, or industry-level employment patterns.

These terms should not be confused with:

• Outsourcing, which refers to contracting work to an external entity and may occur either domestically or internationally.
• Globalization or international expansion more broadly, which does not necessarily involve substituting foreign labor for domestic labor.

Refers to higher education institutions that demonstrate a commitment to supporting military students and their families.

The Florida Collegiate Purple Star Campus Program was established by the Florida Legislature in 2023 to highlight institutions that provide priority course registration, a designated military liaison, professional development and training opportunities, student-led transition programs and resources for military students and families. The following institutions have received the designation (good for a three-year period):  Florida State University, Florida A & M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida, the University of North Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of West Florida.

To support active-duty members and their families, the system has initiatives in place that include the Free Seat Program, where veterans and service members can enroll in online bachelor’s degree programs with a tuition waiver for their program’s first term. The university system also waives out-of-state fees for honorably discharged veterans who live in Florida and for active-duty members who reside or are stationed out of the state.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, a refugee is a person forced to flee their country because of war, violence, or persecution. Persecution is founded in fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.

The 1951 Geneva Convention is the main international instrument of refugee law. The Convention defines who a refugee is and the types of legal protection and other assistance and social rights they should receive from the countries who have signed the document. The Convention was limited to protecting mainly European refugees in the aftermath of World War II, but a newer document, the 1967 Protocol, expanded the scope as the problem of displacement spread around the world.

Related terms: Internally displaced person, stateless person, asylum seeker

As used by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Cleveland in the “Occupational Mobility Explorer tool,” the share of online job postings for a given occupation requesting a given skill relative to the number of online job postings requesting at least one skill. Online job postings that specify no skills are excluded from their calculation of skill intensity.

As used by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Cleveland in the “Occupational Mobility Explorer tool,” pairs of occupations can be classified as having a high, medium, or low-skill similarity based on the similarity score of the 25 most requested skills in online job postings for each occupation. Occupations without at least 25 skills are dropped from the tool. The high category includes pairs with a similarity score of at least 0.75; the medium category includes pairs with a score of at least 0.50 but less than 0.75; and the low category includes pairs with a score below 0.50.

Refers to an assessment administered and scored in a standard manner. All test takers answer the same questions, or selection of questions that come from a common bank of questions, in a consistent manner. Tests are administered and scored following predetermined guidelines to ensure uniformity across test takers. Tests are commonly administered to large populations and often graded by machines or blind reviewers to minimize subjectivity.

There are many uses for standardized testing, such as entry to any branch of the U.S. military; the knowledge portion of states’ driver’s license examinations; professional certifications; psychological testing; language proficiency; graduate and professional school readiness; undergraduate education readiness; secondary schools; IQ tests; and Achievement tests.

In elementary level education, standardized testing has been part of American education since the mid-1800s. Use increased after the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, which mandated annual testing for K-12 students in all 50 states. In K-12 education, tests are also used to determine readiness for kindergarten, identifying students who need special-education services or specialized academic supports, placing students in different academic programs or course levels, and awarding high school diplomas.

International-comparison tests are administered periodically to representative samples of K-12 students in a number of countries, including the U.S. to compare educational performance by countries. Key tests include the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Results from standardized tests in education are used in many ways, such as (1) holding schools and educators accountable for educational results and student performance; (2) evaluating whether students have learned what they are expected to learn (meeting state learning standards); (3) identifying gaps in student learning and academic among various student groups, including students of color, students who are not proficient in English, students from low-income households, and students with physical or learning disabilities; and (4) determining if educational policies (investments) are working as intended.

Workers in STEM occupations (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) are critically important. They drive economic growth and competitiveness through innovations that addresses global challenges and create additional jobs.

According to Britannica, a working group of representatives from U.S. government agencies and offices identified 96 STEM occupations and divided them into two domains with two sub-domains each.

• First domain: Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Information Technology.
  • Sub-domains: Life and Physical Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Information Technology Occupations; and Social Science Occupations.
• Second domain: Science- and Engineering-Related.
  • Sub-domains: Architecture Occupations and Health Occupations.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) list of STEM occupations included relevant education fields and social science as STEM careers.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, officials in developed countries have focused on improving science, mathematics, and technology instruction – to increase literacy in those content areas and expand existing workforces of scientists and engineers. The importance placed on the role of educational programs in preparing students to participate in the workforce and compete in the global economy has been signaled by the continued participation in the early 21st century of dozens of countries in the periodic international comparisons (TIMSS and PISA) of student knowledge and skills.  An Australian study on global STEM policies and practices revealed in 2013 that countries worldwide were working to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., women/girls) in STEM studies and careers. Efforts were also being made to increase general awareness of STEM careers and provide a deeper understanding of STEM content through application and problem-solving activities.

In K-12 education, refers to any time a student changes schools for reasons other than grade promotion, to include students changing schools during a school year voluntarily (to participate in a new program) or involuntary (being expelled or escaping from bullying). Student mobility is often related to residential mobility, when a family becomes homeless or moves due to changes in a parent’s job.

Alternative Terms

• Churn
• Transience

Refers to types of technology that support student transfer and credit mobility. Many aim to automate and speed credit evaluation and verification processes for learners and reduce biases introduced by evaluators:

• Transfer portals that provide students one-stop baseline transfer information (e.g., credit equivalencies and information on programs, admissions, cost, financial aid, academic advising)
• Sharing machine-readable electronic transcripts by postsecondary, K-12, employers, and community organizations
• Course equivalency and automated credit evaluation tools
• Degree audit and planning tools that allow students and academic and career advisors to map evaluated credits to credentials of interest.
• Dynamic credit mobility+ portals that access transcripts to combine credit evaluation and identification of optimal degree pathways with determination of time and estimated costs to completion; career supports and labor market alignment; credit for prior learning; eligibility for Pell grants, military aid, and scholarships
• Comprehensive learning and employment records in electronic wallets that students carry with them and that document learning from a variety of academic and non-academic settings
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning advances that automate course equivalencies through algorithms rather than applying a limited set of transfer rules

As defined by the Urban Institute, upward mobility has three interconnected dimensions:

1. Dignity and belonging—people feel respect, dignity, and belonging that come from contributing to their family, work, and community and are valued for those contributions.
2. Economic success —people have adequate income and assets to support their and their family’s material well-being.
3. Power and autonomy—people have control over their lives, can make choices, and exert influence over larger policies and actions that affect their future.

Racial equity acts as the thread to connect these components because many of the barriers that block people’s economic success, power and autonomy, and dignity and belonging result from longstanding ongoing racism that is built into policies, processes, institutions, and culture.

There are five interconnected pillars of support essential to mobility:

1. Rewarding work — pays living wage, provides dignified work conditions, offers economic security.
2. High-quality education—from preschool through postsecondary—provides a crucial avenue to economic and social mobility.
3. Opportunity-rich and inclusive neighborhoods —play a central role in supporting families’ stability and well-being, access to social and economic opportunities, and children’s chances to thrive and succeed.
4. Healthy environment and access to good health care — help people of all ages to surmount life’s challenges, excel in school and at work, ensure their families’ well-being, and fully participate in their communities.
5. Responsive and just governance —engages residents in decision-making and serves needs of all community members with restraint and fairness.