School districts around the country share the goal of preparing their students to succeed in the future, regardless of where these students’ individual journeys take them. As a result, there is a growing awareness of the need to provide students with not only academic skills, but also the skills needed for a variety of potential futures, including college, career, and community involvement. These “21st century” skills may include everything from adaptability, collaboration, and empathy to media and technology literacy, problem solving, and critical thinking.
Districts focused on developing these skills should ask and answer important questions: What skills should schools build and how can these skills be measured? Traditional measures such as course grades, state tests, and industry credentials are often useful, but districts and communities can also identify, teach, and measure skills that are particular to their values and context.
Marzano Research is partnering with the Colorado Rural Education Collaborative (CREC), run by Generation Schools Network, to support rural Colorado districts in answering these key questions and developing a systematic approach to teaching and assessing 21st century skills, which they call the “North Star Skills.” Through the partnership, Marzano Research and CREC have identified four key steps to answering these questions:
Step 1: Identify 21st century skills that are important to the local community and businesses.
Educational experts have identified many skills as critical for future student success. However, it is next to impossible for a district to focus on building all these skills, and not all are appropriate in every educational setting. Instead, districts should focus on identifying skills that are of critical importance to the local community and industries. To do this, districts can convene focus groups that include representatives of a variety of groups, including teachers, counselors, career and technical education teachers, local business and industry, local higher education institutions, public service agencies such as police and mental health agencies, and other interested groups. Districts can use existing frameworks for 21st century skills as a starting point to identify the skills of particular interest to the local community.
For example, educators and business representatives in rural Colorado districts, in collaboration with the Colorado Rural Education Collaborative, identified North Star skills—adaptability, responsibility, leadership, integrity, and communication—from the many possible skills described in the Portrait of a Graduate by Battelle for Kids. They identified the skills as those of most importance in their districts based on local interests, needs and values.
Step 2: Define the 21st century skills.
Once the skills are selected, the next step is to define each skill, identifying the competencies that will be measured. A district can convene a group to define the skill based on personal experience, consult experts and published resources, or dig into the research literature.
To support the work with Colorado districts, including the Santa Fe Trail BOCES Pathways to Prosperity, the I-76 Partnerships for Prosperity and the Front Range Equity Network Partnerships for Prosperity, Marzano Research used a combination of these approaches. We started by conducting an extensive literature review to learn the variety of ways researchers and practitioners have defined each of the North Star skills. We then synthesized the literature findings and shared them with stakeholders, including counselors, administrators, teachers, and business partners for feedback and revision. We used the definitions to identify and define the key competencies for each North Star skill. These competencies also form the foundation of the North Star skills assessment instruments.
Step 3: Map the skills, components, and competencies by grade band.
After defining the core components, districts should determine what the competency looks like at various grade levels by defining learning goals. For the North Star skills project, Marzano Research created a developmental progression map for each key competency. These maps describe the learning goals for each competency at three grade bands: upper elementary, middle school, and high school.
Step 4: Develop sample assessments.
Once districts know what the skills look like across competencies and grade levels, the next step is to identify opportunities to assess these skills in regular instruction and career development activities. The goal should be to find assessment opportunities that are embedded in normal school activities, not to add additional responsibilities to teachers and an already overcrowded school day.
For the Colorado districts, Marzano Research identified examples of how the skills could be assessed in everyday instruction. For example, group processes and leadership skills can be assessed during any group project work and emotional intelligence skills could be assessed through writing prompts responding to grade-level literature. In addition, we identified opportunities for assessment during career development activities, taking advantage of field trips, business visits, internships, afterschool clubs, and other activities focused on career development. Providing these sample assessment activities gives teachers and schools a starting place for integrating the assessment of 21st century skills into regular school activities.
Districts interested in providing students with the skills needed to succeed in the future should start by asking and answering two critical questions: What skills should schools build and how can these skills be measured? The four-step process described above will help districts to answer these questions. Developing a systematic approach to teaching and assessing selected 21st century skills ensures that students are prepared for the future, wherever their future education and career paths may lead.
If you are interested in this type of project, Marzano Research would love to help you out! Contact us
