Over the last five years, significant efforts emerged around the importance of durable or transferable skills. These durable skills (also called transferable skills or competencies) balance out the skills triangle (with core skills – reading, writing, math, and technical skills – skills particular to an industry or field comprise the other two sides of the triangle). Whether in school, district, or state efforts around Portraits of a Graduate or the increasing importance of these skills across higher education and the workplace, these skills are proving to be of high value for learners. National organizations have built durable skills and competency frameworks to help support and accelerate these efforts (XQ Competencies by XQ Institute, Future9 Competencies by ReDesign, America Success Durable Skills Advantage).
Yet, despite these efforts, evaluation of these skills is elusive and difficult. At the classroom level, schools with high-quality implementation of durable skills have skilled educators who can embed performance assessments across learning experiences. Ideally, the results of these assessments roll up into a signal for higher education or future employment in the form of a transcript (ex. Mastery Transcript) or credential stored in a digital wallet. However, typical Learning Management Systems built on legacy models are challenged by the assessment and roll-up of durable skills evaluation across multiple courses.
External evaluation of durable skills becomes a possible tool to address the complexity of internal evaluation. The landscape for performance assessments on these skills is sparse in the K-12 sector given the more recent emergence of competency-based approaches focused on transferable skills. Most broad-scale solutions focus on performance assessments to replace traditional standardized assessments, while others are focused on a set of organizationally defined competencies. The fastest growth is observed in the AI/VR-driven workplace upskilling sector. And this might be the most efficient way to build and evaluate these durable skills. As emphasized in Tim Dasey’s book Wisdom Factories, we can use simulation and games as a way to increase the practice repetitions for individuals to develop durable skills – especially when it is difficult to design and implement real-world experiences at high frequency.
Broad-Scale Public Initiatives
Early efforts in evaluating skills include public initiatives that pioneered this shift towards performance assessments (critical elements to the evaluation of durable skills). While these efforts primarily addressed standards, they emphasized the need for more authentic assessment.
New York Performance Standards Consortium (NYPAC): The NYPAC is a comprehensive and long-standing Performance Assessment Consortium. Teacher and learner-directed learning experiences, professional development, performance assessment tasks, and external/internal validation via rubrics across all discipline areas.
California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC): This California initiative convenes educators, policymakers, and researchers to develop authentic assessments that support student learning. CPAC uses performance assessments, such as projects and portfolios, to measure applied knowledge and 21st-century skills.
Performance Assessment of Competency-based Education (PACE): New Hampshire’s PACE focuses on deeper learning through a competency-based approach. It blends local, common, and state-level assessments to promote critical knowledge and skills.
Performance Assessment Resource Bank: Hosted by Envision Learning Partners, the resource bank is a database of performance assessment examples built through a collaboration of the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE), the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), Envision Schools, Summit Public Schools, and others.
Transferable Skills Performance Assessment Initiatives (K-16)
A number of organizations focus on assessing specific durable skills as discrete measures separate from the learning experiences of the student.
NAFTrack Certification: Measures student performance through a multi-method approach, including work-based learning activities. Students must demonstrate mastery of Future Ready Skills validated by internship supervisors.
Education Design Lab: Uses the predetermined algorithms in a virtual reality online learning platform (VSBL) to assess a set of durable skills, including critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problem-solving. It involves co-designing and validating micro-credentials with input from institutions and employers.
America Succeeds Durable Skills Advantage Framework: America Succeeds scanned millions of job descriptions to produce a comprehensive list of durable skills. A subsequent effort validated these skills and created performance criteria around them with future efforts aimed at evaluation.
ACT WorkKeys: Provides assessments that measure both technical and durable skills, reflecting actual workplace demands. This approach extends beyond reading and writing competencies to evaluate a broader range of relevant skills.
Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN: The Center for Skills by C-BEN promotes efforts to build tools for skills validation, assessment, and verification. The Center brings together leaders from education, workforce, and employer hiring systems to guide the field in developing quality talent assessments.
CAE: The Council for Aid to Education offers printable resources submitted online and externally evaluated focused on data literacy, critical reading/evaluation, critiquing an argument, writing effectiveness, and writing mechanics.
ETS/Carnegie: A new partnership between ETS and Carnegie emerged in 2023 to redesign competency-based performance assessment around the ETS Skills for the Future Taxonomy.
Junior Achievement Career Ready Credential: Junior Achievement credentials are shared with employers or colleges and demonstrate that a learner is proficient across durable skills. The JA resources include learning modules and skills tests to help earn microcredentials.
Council for Aid to Education (CAE): CAE developed the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA+) over the last 30 years as early efforts to evaluate durable skills.
Workplace Initiatives
Employers seek candidates who not only possess technical skills but also exhibit transferable skills critical to job performance. However, they often lack the time to thoroughly evaluate these skills, underscoring the need for straightforward and reliable assessment systems. While many agree on what these skills are, the language and explanations must remain accessible. SHRM’s toolkit offers insights into a skills-first approach to hiring. This skills-based hiring and upskilling sector is robust, growing, and beyond the scope of this particular blog. However, driven by the needs of companies and their human resource departments to find and develop the best talent possible, K-16 solutions should pay attention to possible collaborations, insights, and learnings from these solutions.
Mursion: Uses immersive training simulations with human-powered avatars, allowing learners to practice difficult conversations and build impactful skills safely.
BodySwaps: Offers an immersive training platform that focuses on durable skills development and is accessible via VR, PC, and mobile devices.
AstrumU: Uses AI and machine learning to create validated skills profiles by compiling data from a learner’s education, credentials, and employment history. This skills extraction concept provides an alternative to the direct assessment of durable skills (or technical and core skills).
Global Skills X-Change: Provides credentialing services for the workplace, emphasizing skills-based assessments and multiple tools for evaluating employee skills.
Other Initiatives
In completing this review, a few other interesting initiatives emerged that seek to develop innovative ways to evaluate durable skills.
NWEA/Roblox: In November 2023, NWEA, which publishes MAP Growth tests, unveiled a 3D digital assessment on the popular Roblox gaming platform that tests how well middle-schoolers have learned Newton’s Second Law of Motion. The new exam appears as Roblox, the popular gaming platform, moves further into schools. Another Roblox effort by AVID’s Creator Planet links virtual Roblox games with America Succeeds Durable Skill).
OECD: As the administrator of PISA, the OECD assessed creative thinking for 15-year-old students in more than 60 countries (but not in the United States) in 2022 via the PISA Creative Thinking assessment, which included interactive items that allow students to submit drawings with a digital tool. Comprehensive results help uncover how large-scale evaluations of durable skills might produce useful insights for educators.
The move towards competency-based assessment represents a significant shift in education and workforce development. The growing emphasis on durable and transferable skills, alongside innovative assessment methods, points to a future where students and workers are evaluated on a more holistic set of capabilities.
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