Education to Workforce Indicator Framework

Advancing educational and economic opportunity for all
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Overview

Why this framework

The E-W Framework recommends essential questions that are critical for education-to-workforce data systems to answer about how students are progressing from early education through their careers — giving leaders and educators access to the data they need to understand what's working, what's not, and how to improve student outcomes.

Developed in partnership with more than 30 national and community organizations and built on a synthesis of 41 existing frameworks, the Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework (E-W Framework) brings together the best thinking on what data matters most across the pre-K-to-workforce continuum.

The E-W Framework is not about reinventing the wheel — it's a cross-sector tool and shortcut to the field's strongest ideas about what data to track and how to use it. Unlike frameworks focused on a single sector, this one spans the full student journey. Whether you're building a new data system, looking for fresh indicators to examine, or seeking to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, the E-W Framework can serve as your hub And it's built to evolve: a field-led advisory board reviews and adjudicates updates every two years, ensuring the framework stays responsive to new evidence and emerging priorities from the field.

E-W Indicator Framework at a glance

Learn E-W Framework

A framework to help learners attain credentials that recognize their skills and provide measurable economic returns.

The E-W Framework is comprised of five components that offer holistic guidance for translating data into action: essential questions, indicators, disaggregates, evidence-based practices, and data equity principles. Explore each one in detail to better understand how it fits into the framework.

Explore the E-W Framework

  • Guidance for ensuring equity across the data lifecycle, including fair and open data access for a diverse set of stakeholders who can help improve student outcomes.

  • Questions essential for E-W data systems to answer about how students are progressing from early education through career—and using the answers to guide action.

  • Student outcomes and milestones and related system conditions associated with economic mobility and security, plus guidance on how to measure them.

    Outcomes and milestones: Key outcomes and milestones along the E-W continuum that are strongly associated with individuals achieving economic mobility and security.

    E-W system conditions: Key institutional or systemic environments, policies, and practices within E-W systems that support positive E-W outcomes.

    Adjacent system conditions: Key experiences, situations, and circumstances outside of E-W systems that support positive E-W outcomes.

  • Key student characteristics that E-W systems should use to disaggregate outcomes and conditions to assess and address inequities and better serve all students.
  • Programs, practices, or policies that have been shown to address disparities affecting underserved groups on key education-to-workforce outcomes and milestones.
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Translating Data into Action

Taken together, the framework components offer comprehensive guidance for translating data into action.
  1. Employ the data equity principles to support ethical data use across the life cycle
  2. Determine the essential questions that matter most in your context
  3. Map the indicators that are most relevant to answering your questions
  4. Ensure data has been sufficiently disaggregated to understand disparities in experiences and outcomes
  5. Identify potential interventions to equitably improve student outcomes
Case Studies

Case studies

Nebraska's Roadmap for Learning and Earning

Nebraska's Statewide Workforce & Educational Reporting System (NSWERS) is a longitudinal data system that links education and workforce data to help policymakers, educators, and families understand which pathways best prepare students for success. Using the E-W Framework to identify key indicators, NSWERS found that 86 percent of Nebraska students who exceeded third grade reading standards later enrolled in college, compared to 53 percent of students who fell below those standards. These findings were cited by state legislators in a letter to the Nebraska Education Commissioner, prompting calls for greater use of evidence-based interventions to strengthen early literacy and improve long-term student outcomes.

From Classroom to Career: DC's Education Through Employment Data System

The District of Columbia used the E-W Framework to guide the design of its new Education Through Employment Data System, a centralized system connecting data across the pre-K-to-workforce continuum. As DC expanded career and technical education offerings — including an Advanced Technical Center with courses in cybersecurity and nursing where students earn both high school and college credit — District leaders needed a clearer picture of how those investments translate into economic opportunity for young people. The E-W Framework helped the team move beyond standard accountability metrics to consider broader indicators, including neighborhood context, system supports, and social services data.

A State Leader's Toolkit for Education-to-Workforce Data

The Education Commission of the States developed a four-part toolkit to help state leaders use the E-W Framework to strengthen their education-to-workforce data systems. The toolkit walks states through using essential questions to guide data collection, identifying gaps in existing indicators, comparing data practices across all 50 states, and finding where states already publish reports that align with E-W Framework metrics. Case studies from Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Washington illustrate how states have put the framework into practice to improve data collection and reporting.

How StriveTogether Is Using the E-W Framework to Surface What Works

StriveTogether used the E-W Framework as the foundation for its Cradle-to-Career Outcomes Playbooks — in-depth guides that translate research and promising practices into actionable tools for community-based organizations. The playbooks help community leaders identify local priorities, track key indicators, and design strategies to move the needle on outcomes from kindergarten through career. Each playbook draws directly from the E-W Framework and includes case studies from communities across the StriveTogether network putting these approaches into practice.

Urban Institute's E-W Framework Data Tool

Understanding how students are progressing from early education through their careers requires access to the right data — and the ability to act on it. The Urban Institute created an interactive data tool, organized around the E-W Framework's 99 indicators, that makes national education-to-workforce data accessible in one place. Users can explore and compare outcomes across geographies and over time, helping policymakers, researchers, community organizations, and families translate data into local action.

Take action with the Framework

Explore a full copy of the E-W Report and Framework
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