The Global Literacy Framework maps the full set of competencies students need to navigate, interpret, create, and contribute across every domain of human experience — from PreK through graduation.
Or just scroll — this page gives you the full overview.
Students who score well on reading comprehension can't tell the difference between a peer-reviewed study and a blog post. Teenagers who crush algebra fall for basic statistical manipulation. Young adults graduate with honors and then struggle to manage a project, work on a team, or recover from failure.
The skills aren't missing because teachers don't care. They're missing because our frameworks don't name them, our standards don't organize them, and our systems don't track them.
Twenty years ago, you could be "literate" and succeed with a relatively narrow skill set. Read well, write clearly, do your math — and most careers had a place for you. The world was organized in lanes, and so were our schools.
That world is gone.
Today a nurse needs data literacy to interpret patient dashboards and cultural competence to serve diverse communities. A software engineer needs communication skills to collaborate across global teams and ethical reasoning to think through the implications of what they build. A small business owner needs scientific literacy to evaluate supply chain claims, financial reasoning to manage cash flow, and iterative thinking to pivot when the market shifts.
The jobs that exist now — and the ones that don't exist yet — don't respect the old silos. They demand people who can think across domains, blend skills that used to live in separate departments, and adapt when the ground moves beneath them.
That's why the Global Literacy Framework doesn't treat domains in isolation. It maps how they connect, how they build on each other, and how a single classroom moment can develop communication, critical thinking, and cultural awareness simultaneously. Because that's how the real world actually works.
The framework organizes competencies into three categories based on a simple question: Where is this competency directed? Explore full domain descriptions →
Executive function, metacognition, self-management, growth mindset — the skills that make all other learning possible.
Comprehension, vocabulary, language systems, and the ability to process, evaluate, and use information critically.
Inquiry, critical thinking, design thinking, and evaluation — the meta-skill of learning how to learn and improve.
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, and nonverbal communication — the foundation of human connection.
Geography, history, government, cultural engagement, and finding your voice within and across communities.
Character, ethics, citizenship, belonging, and understanding multiple perspectives in a complex world.
Economics, business thinking, collaboration, and the creative confidence to turn ideas into action.
Art, design principles, media arts, and visual composition — making meaning through creative expression.
Phonological awareness, vocabulary, and grammar fundamentals for engaging across linguistic boundaries.
Each of the 281 elements in the framework has a complete learning progression — not just thirteen versions of the same goal getting slightly harder, but a carefully engineered developmental thread where each year's work makes the next year's work possible.
The cognitive progression follows Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, advancing through six levels of thinking. Here's what that looks like for a single skill:
That's not six disconnected goals — it's one continuous developmental thread. And this same architecture repeats across all 281 elements. Every goal also names its explicit prerequisite, so when a student struggles, you can trace backward to find exactly where the gap is.
Search All 3,505 Learning Goals →
See the Portrait of a Graduate — What This Looks Like at Each Stage →
Plenty of frameworks exist. Here's what this one does that others don't.
Different people need different things from a framework. Here's what it offers depending on where you sit:
You finally have a clear answer to "what should I be teaching beyond my content area?" The framework gives you specific, grade-level goals across all 11 literacy domains — with pacing guides, checklists, and family report templates ready to use.
Think of it this way: every lesson has primary drivers (the domains you're explicitly teaching) and embedded connections (domains that develop naturally through how you designed the activity). The framework helps you be intentional about both — so nothing important gets left to chance.
When a student is struggling, you can trace backward through the prerequisite chain to find exactly where the gap is. No more guessing. No more hoping the skills develop on their own.
The framework gives you a shared language to use with every teacher you support — across all grade levels and content areas. It connects the work happening in one classroom to the developmental arc stretching across the whole school.
The professional development course is built for you to facilitate, and the vertical alignment references make it easy to support teachers in understanding how their grade-level work fits the bigger picture.
You get a single, coherent framework that replaces the patchwork of disconnected standards documents. One system that covers academics, SEL, technology, physical development, and civic engagement — all aligned and trackable.
The curriculum audit tools let you see exactly where your current programming has gaps, and the implementation guides give you a realistic path forward.
This is a comprehensive K-12 vertical alignment system that ensures coherence from one building to the next. It aligns to 9+ national standards simultaneously — meaning you can meet compliance requirements while actually teaching the whole child.
The platform integration pathway means this can scale from a planning tool to a fully trackable, data-driven instructional system across your district.