Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Advances in Artificial Intelligence are changing how we work, participate in civic life, and how we understand human contribution itself. At the same time, there is growing evidence, like this analysis of Anthropic's recent Economic Index report, reminding us that AI does not render reasoning and quantifying obsolete. In fact, it appears to do just the opposite - the ability to write, think and analyze are as important as ever.
Yet the gap between what the economy demands and our schools produce only widens. Employers are clear about what they value: 90 percent of hiring managers say that they are more likely to hire entry-level employees who demonstrate strong critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills. However, surveys from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce show that most hiring managers do not believe high school graduates are prepared for work, and there is increasing evidence the same is true for recent college graduates.
A key takeaway? It is clear students need to build both disciplinary knowledge and essential skills, and to get there we have work to do. Specifically, we need:
- Clear understanding of which durable skills matter most
- Accessible, science-based definitions of the highest leverage skills
- Clarity about how those skills develop over time
- Thoughtful integration of academic and skills standards in classrooms, assessments, curricula and new technologies
This is why I am pleased to start the year by sharing the release of our first set of Skills Progressions, focused on collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Developed in partnership with ETS, these skill definitions are grounded in decades of research and informed by educators, higher education leaders, workforce partners and an expert Technical Advisory Committee. In essence, they describe how essential skills develop over time and how they can be demonstrated in increasingly complex ways.
In the year ahead, we will define the next set of science-based skills standards, work on their validation, as we build a ‘human skill genome’ useful for educators, policy makers and the social and commercial sectors.
Over time, we are convinced that this work will open new pathways to academic success and meaningful participation in civic and professional life for millions of Americans.
Happy New Year!
In partnership,
%20(2).png?upscale=true&width=450&upscale=true&name=CAR%20logo_INTER_Black@4x%20(1)%20(2).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=600&upscale=true&name=CFN_600x400_Feb24_v4%20(2).png)
