The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mark a welcome shift in global discussion of education, because now we are talking not only about getting children into school, but also about making sure that they are learning. At the same time, the SDGs introduce a new layer of complexity, because we need to define what quality education means in a way that is meaningful across international contexts. This short paper describes how the development of global learning progressions provides an innovative solution, to balance the need for flexibility and consistency in global monitoring of learning.