Other Report

This study from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation looked at the relationship between competency-based education (CBE) practices and changes in student learning capacity. In three states, surveys were administered to Grade 9 students, teachers, and administrators in high schools that were identified as schools implementing CBE and a set of comparison high schools identified as not implementing CBE.

As the economy grows dependent on a skilled workforce, the fact that fewer than 40 percent of Americans have a college degree raises an important question: What is being done to improve the educational attainment of our workforce? This report discusses the importance of postsecondary educational attainment, both for individuals and for companies; presents the results of focus groups and interview research; and concludes with a set of recommendations for employers, employees, higher education leaders, and policymakers. 

For more than a decade, Achieve has reported on all 50 states’ policies concerning college and career readiness, such as state standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability systems. However, policies alone do not guarantee that students will graduate prepared for college and careers. This latest report from Achieve looks to examine measures and indicators of college and career readiness from each state, including students’ performance on college and career ready assessments, completion of a rigorous course of study, and earning college credit while in high school.

To succeed in college and the 21st century workforce, students need more than traditional academic skills. Students need skills in communication, collaboration, and problem solving, which are developed through social-emotional learning (SEL). This report from the World Economic Forum provides an overview on the benefits and best practices of SEL and how education technology can foster SEL and 21st century skills. It describes the challenges of using education technology to foster SEL and provides some promising solutions and opportunities for SEL in the future. 

Chugach School District (CSD) first implemented competency education more than 20 years ago, paving the way to develop a system founded on student advancement and demonstrated mastery. This report explores how CSD shifted from a traditional K–12 education system to create an infrastructure that supports a performance-based system, expands learning beyond the classroom, embraces the culture of the community, and develops educator growth—ultimately leading to an increased student achievement. 

Popular conceptions of college and career readiness are growing beyond strictly academic competencies such as literacy and numeracy. New thinking on the many dimensions of preparedness has produced volumes of research and scores of new products, making the process for educators and employers to focus on the readiness paradigms that suit their needs very difficult. This paper attempts to clarify the readiness landscape.

Evidence highlights the importance of social and emotional skills alongside academic skills for success in school and beyond, yet states looking to align early learning standards with those for Grades K–12 often leave out social and emotional skills from the standards for children in elementary, middle, and high school.

With a revamped college and career focus that includes an emphasis on real-world learning, continuous improvement, and strong student-teacher relationships, vocational schools in Massachusetts have been experiencing tremendous success in preparing students for college and the workforce. This brief highlights several vocational schools in Massachusetts, exploring their programs and practices, to provide an inside look at what separates them from other vocational schools in the nation.

This report highlights how the Pennsylvania Department of Education created the Student Interpersonal Skills Standards to help students develop the social and emotional skills they need to be successful at school, home, and college and in their future careers. These standards are written to apply to all grade levels and content areas. The standards are not intended to provide the foundation for a free-standing curriculum, but are to be used by districts as they develop curricula in other content areas.