Non-Academic Skills Are Key Ingredient To Student Success

From WBUR 90.9 FM's Blog
"Learning Lab"
By Peter Balonon-Rosen
December 8, 2015


There’s little doubt that skills that can’t be measured by standardized tests still play a pretty big role in a student’s education.

Skills like self-confidence, the ability to work well with others, attitudes toward learning, and control over one’s emotions. Beyond making day-to-day life easier to navigate, these skills have long term effects in one’s life.

They’re associated with high school and college success, likelihood of future employment, higher earnings, positive health and smaller chances of incarceration. In fact, being proficient in those non-academic skills can result in impacts 40 years down the line, according to a report released Tuesday by Boston-based education nonprofit Transforming Education (TransformEd).

“The skills students need to become successful not just in school, but in their careers and their lives, include, very significantly, a set of skills that are not the focus of schools when [schools] only look at test scores,” said Christopher Gabrieli, TransformEd co-founder and chairman.

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