As candidates in the 2012 election debated issues raised by the state of the US economy, unemployment statistics and job creation took center stage. The problems under discussion posed (and continue to pose) a particularly clear and pressing challenge to the nation's graduate schools. While the US enjoys a reputation for having the most dynamic and productive system of graduate education in the world, it currently lacks the information that will be required to sustain this privileged position globally. Put simply, there is a need to know more about what graduates do, how their careers evolve, and how well they are prepared to navigate--and create--the 21st-century global workforce. Making this connection, explicitly and routinely, is critical to the success of both graduate education and the knowledge-based economy. In this article, the author proposes and describes some new approaches to assessing the quality and outcomes of graduate programs. The author argues that looking at a set of “known knowns,” “unknown knowns,” and “known unknowns” (reviving Donald Rumsfeld’s famous categories of knowledge) can help chart a clear course for work in the area of graduate outcomes. On a practical level that means tracking the placement and career outcomes of graduates, sharing that information with students as they consider applying to master's and doctoral programs, developing robust and comprehensive career-advising systems, and using the information generated from tracking to improve programs. (Contains 5 figures and 10 resources.)