Teaching and Testing the Skills That Matter Most

Commentary Education Week November 12, 2008

By Tony Wagner

commission composed of some of the countrys leading collegeadmissions officers is recommending that universities shift from a
reliance on SAT and ACT scores and instead use entrance exams that
test the academic content taught in high schools. ("Panel Urges Reduced Use
of College-Admission Exams," Oct. 1, 2008.)
The commission members are right to urge colleges to stop using tests that
tell us little about students real abilities, but their solution would only serve
to make more universal the practice of teaching high school students to
memorize more and more factsthe places, names, dates, definitions, and so
on that are the meat and potatoes of our obsolete high school curriculum
and the use of multiple-choice tests to assess how much students have
memorized.
Even in Americas most highly regarded secondary schools, we are not
teaching or testing the skills that matter most for college, careers, and
citizenship in the 21st century. Before we can change the admissions criteria
for college, we need to be clear about the skills that all high school students
need today.
Through reviews of the research and scores of interviews with college
teachers, students, and executive officers from Apple to Unilever to the U.S.
Army, Ive discovered that there are seven survival skills that all students
must master to getand keepa good job in todays global knowledge
economy, succeed in college, and be leaders in our communities. Briefly, they
are skills that encompass the following:

Critical thinking and problem-solving. For companies to compete in the

new global economy, they need every worker to think about how to
continuously improve the companies products, processes, or services.
The ability to think critically and apply what you know to new
problems is also an essential skill for success in college.

Collaboration across networks and leading by influence. Most work in

this country is done in teams. Yet students learn more about teamwork
and leadership in their extracurricular activities than they do in their
high school classes, where they spent much of the day listening to
teachers
lecture
and
filling
out
worksheets.

Copyright Tony Wagner

www.SchoolChange.org

Teaching and Testing the Skills That Matter Most

Page 2

Agility and adaptability. Clay Parker, an engineer by training and the

former chief executive officer at BOC Edwards, told me that anyone
who works for him has to think, be flexible, change and be adaptive,
and use a variety of tools to solve new problems. He added: I can
guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in
the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more
important
than
technical
skills.

Initiative and entrepreneurialism. Mark Chandler, the senior vice

president and general counsel at Cisco Systems Inc., tells his
employees: If you try five things and get all five of them right, you
may be failing. If you try 10 things, and get eight of them right, youre
a hero. If you set stretch goals, youll never be blamed for failing to
reach a stretch goal, but you will be blamed for not trying. Our
challenge is how to create an entrepreneurial culture in a larger
organization.

Effective oral and written communication. Annmarie Neal, the vice

president for talent management at Cisco, has said that the biggest
skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and
oral presentations. College teachers report that poor writing skills are
one of their major concerns
about incoming students.

Accessing and analyzing information. Mike Summers, the vice

president for global talent management at Dell Inc., told me, There is
so much information available that it is almost too much, and if people
arent prepared to process the information effectively, it almost freezes
them in their steps. Yet few high school graduates know how to do an
effective Internet search and determine which information is most
important.

Curiosity and imagination. Engineer and former CEO Clay Parker

stressed the importance of the employees he hires being more than just
smart. I want people who can thinktheyre not just bright, theyre
also inquisitive. Are they engaged, are they interested in the world?
College teachers agree: The questions that students ask matter far
more for learning than the answers they have memorized.

There are U.S. schools, such as High Tech High School in San Diego, where
all students learn to communicate effectively and apply information to the
solution of new problems or the creation of real products. And there are tests
that assess many of the competencies outlined here, such as the College and
Work Readiness Assessment. But such schools and tests are the exception,
rather than the rule.

Copyright Tony Wagner

www.SchoolChange.org

Teaching and Testing the Skills That Matter Most

Page 3

If the country is to remain competitive in the global economy, high school

students must master 21st-century skills. College-admissions officers can
play a critical role by insisting that the skills that matter most for careers,
college, and citizenship are tested and taught in our high schools.
______________
Tony Wagner, a former high school teacher, is the co-director of the Change
Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most
recent book is The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools
Dont Teach the New Survival SkillsAnd What We Can Do About It,
published in August by Basic Books. He can be reached through his Web site,
www.schoolchange.org.

Copyright Tony Wagner

www.SchoolChange.org