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The Skills-First Program (P. Gerard draft) INTRODUCTION I came to teaching late, after careers in agriculture and conservation. During the first 20 years of my working life I kept interacting with the world of education, and those exchanges always intrigued me. Employees needed training; a hobby of wilderness travel brought me to the Outward Bound School and its need for itinerant instructors; high school students working on farm crews needed schooling. Then there were the years of teaching assistantships in biology and microbiology while in graduate school. Years later, almost by default, I became a classroom teacher when my town's high school needed a short-term, part-time biology teacher. That was followed by an evening job as an adjunct biology professor at a local community college. Then in my late 40's, in what became a deep-end plunge into mainstream teaching and learning, I became involved with a group of people dedicated to creating a new high school from the ground up. In 2003 I was hired by that group to be the founding director of the Watershed School, an independent high school now in its 10th year. In retrospect, my limited background in education made me uniquely unqualified for the role. However, as an outsider my perspective may have provided an unusual opportunity to question and re-imagine everything: the structure, content and context of how we school 14-18 year olds. The experience provided me with ten years of intensive focus on the inner workings of high school education – five years as the school’s founding director and five more years teaching in the classroom and working to enhance the school’s academic program. Although I had some skills in non-profit and business management I found myself in a position that also demanded skills associated with: curriculum development; finding, hiring, and supporting effective teachers; regulatory compliance; interacting with parents; establishing guidelines for teachers and students; instituting evaluation systems; coaching new teachers; managing emotionally charged interactions; and among other details, building a unique, cohesive, and effective program. I expected challenge and complexity, but some aspects of the challenge took me by surprise. A few examples:

• I learned that schools are essentially self-replicating organisms. We all spend a large portion of our lives in school -- for example a 65 year-old college graduate will have spent 25% of her life in a school setting. Fomal schooling occurs during significant developmental stages of our lives. As a result of standardization and common history Americans have, deep in their psyches, a surprisingly uniform vision of academic teaching and learning. People who become teachers usually were "good at" and enjoyed school as students. Because the structure worked well for them they tend to replicate similar structures, albeit adapted by whatever is the current theme in educational practice. Even the rare teachers who hated their school experience, or did poorly there, often seem to create a classroom environment in response to their experience; an environment that simply mirrors in reverse the contours of the mainstream paradigm. Because the culture of schooling is so deeply ingrained in each of us, it can be surprisingly difficult to imagine significant change, even when changes are clearly called for and obviously beneficial.

• I've learned that the education of our young is an incredibly complex challenge, so complex and

ingrained that even the most well-intentioned reformers find it difficult to stray very far from the archetypal school format. Education reformers labor under a creative paradox - it's extremely difficult to redesign unless you work from what you know. And what you know -- the schooling we experienced -- constrains your creativity.

• I was surprised to discover some conflicting undercurrents: an anti-intellectualism or outright disdain for genuine academic accomplishment among many families (worse yet among some

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teachers); that parents' sudden 11th grade focus on getting their children into the best college (read: prestigious) can limit a school's opportunities to provide a practical, beneficial education; and a focus on extracurricular interests that, though intended to enrich students lives, sometimes hindered intellectual development or even well-being.

• It was particularly startling to learn that the skills and knowledge college teachers, employers, or

the students themselves actually desire can be at odds with state standards and college entrance requirements.

• Educators and school administrators (myself included) are as susceptible to snake oil salesmen,

cultural pressures and fads as any professional.

High school has a special function in the United States: it serves as a public sanctioned rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. It's supposed to be the last few years of nurturing in the shallows before swimming out into the big river. Are schools doing what’s necessary so that students graduate with the abilities necessary to thrive in the turbulence of adult life? How well prepared are students to step into the wider world ready to be productive, resilient contributors and learners? Numerous studies indicate that a substantial percentage of our students, even from high ranking schools, are not well-prepared. This article is a response to both the disconnect between what schools desire and what they actually produce in their graduates, and the fact that preparation for the wider world is too often inadequate. My purpose is to suggest a simple, foundational approach to improving the outcomes of the high school experience. Steering the way The short list of the challenges I experienced as a novice and admittedly un-qualified school director reflect only a part of the complexity inherent in modern education. Given all of the social, political, practical, financial and logistical issues it can be bewildering to set a straightforward course to improvement. Watershed, the school I helped establish, is a small private school unrestricted by many of the cultural or regulatory constraints that may inhibit other schools. We were therefore relatively free to design and adapt many aspects of our program. It was a surprise to me that, even with the freedoms associated with private school education in the U.S., many of the challenges I listed in fact did limit our ability to innovate. Make no mistake though… no one who visits Watershed would come away thinking that they'd visited an ordinary school! Many aspects of Watershed's program are unique: our all school meeting where students democratically assist in school management; our project- or problem-based approach to learning; first-name collegiality among students and staff; active student leadership; written evaluations rather than grades. One of Watershed’s founding principles, “the context of an education is as important as its content” has been particularly important. We invested a tremendous amount of attention to creating a school community where students and teachers would be inspired to learn. Ten years of refining the educational context of Watershed, where we offer a full, conventional academic program, have also clarified something fundamental about how we teach the content of our courses. I came to realize that a skills-first approach to teaching and learning -- a focus on academic, interactive, and personal skills rather than on academic content -- has the potential in itself to completely reshape the landscape of high school education. Though this approach might seem obvious or commonplace, in reality it's far from ordinary. Large ships sometimes have a little mini rudder at the trailing edge of their very large rudder, called a trim tab. The easy-to-turn trim tab, by changing the water pressure on one side or the other of the rudder makes it possible to turn, for example, a supertanker's 200-ton rudder. The phrase “trim tab” has been

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used as a metaphor implying that small, strategically placed interventions can lead to large-scale transformations. It suggests that small changes occasionally can alter the course of large, entrenched institutions. My contention is that a skills-first curriculum can be a trim tab for transforming the experience and outcome of the high school education. A skills-first curriculum is based on the premise that the primary purpose of a high school program should be to practice and master fundamental intellectual and interactive skills. The focus is not on what students know from their coursework, but rather on what graduates can do: their working capabilities as thinkers, doers, and community members. If you're an experienced educator reading this you may be thinking, "Oh brother, what's new?” School districts have been wrangling with this idea for years. Most people would agree that fundamental academic and social skills training are vital aspects of educational practice. What we haven't been able to agree on is how to create an effective program that reliably results in both comprehensive course content knowledge and comprehensive competence in most graduates. It's an issue that's rarely resolved in many schools. In fact, a skills-focus can function as a trim tab precisely because it’s familiar territory, it's already there on the trailing edge of the rudder, but it's never been effectively actuated. If the primary focus of the school, and therefore most student/teacher time, is centered around practicing essential academic and interaction skills, it's my contention that the school's fundamental direction shifts. And with that new direction some of the more entrenched and problematic aspects of schooling are exposed to be examined and resolved one by one. Currently, teachers and students have a basic conflict: it takes regular focus and lots of practice to master skills…but it also takes a great deal of time to cover all of the content high school students are expected to master. Simply put, if we increase the breadth of the content we expect students to master, there is less time and less emphasis on skill development. In most high schools this results in ongoing, often unresolved, tension between gaining knowledge and gaining skills. The source of this tension may, ironically, be our national preoccupation with getting all of our students to attend college. Content Versus Skill Development – some background During their first 80 years public high schools were intended to be the final school experience for most students. In 1918, the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education (U.S. Department of Education, 2004) explained that for the majority of students, the curricular focus was largely based on “health, citizenship and worthy home-membership and, only secondarily, command of fundamental processes” (Kliebard, 1986 p. 50). By the end of the 20th century nearly all US high schools structured themselves, for the most part, as college preparatory institutions (U.S. Department of Education, 2004) (Mazzeo, Aug. 2010). This meant that a sequential progression through a set roster of courses would fit a state-mandated standard for college “readiness.” State standards generally stipulate that high school students should master the content of courses in the fields of history, social studies, science, English, and math while often also encouraging the arts, foreign languages and health or physical education during each of their four years of school. The 80’s and 90’s also saw a drive to increase access to (theoretically) college-level advanced placement courses in dozens of disciplines. This often meant increasing access to prerequisite content in earlier grades. Perhaps the conversion, from high school as the final school experience - to high school as preparation for college, led to our current inability to reconcile the value of content knowledge in relation to the value of skill acquisition. Regardless of its history, the reality is that for many high school teachers there is a substantial conflict between our effort to develop fundamental skills and our effort to increase knowledge in particular fields. On the surface it seems wonderful to expect that most students will be exposed to a challenging academic program. But what abilities do these student graduate with as a result of their four years of content-heavy learning?

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The key word here is ability. In other words, as a result of this standardized curriculum, what can the majority of graduates DO? I don't mean to diminish the importance of what they KNOW: the times tables, the sequence of events leading up to the War of Independence, the name of the characters in Huck Finn. Knowledge and ability are always overlapping realms in our quest to prepare students. However, although we gain abilities in reading, writing, analysis, and group interaction through academic content, it's my contention (and there is a great deal of evidence to support that contention) that our focus on knowing -- four years of varying subjects, often 20 or more distinct courses in six different disciplines -- has crippled our efforts to graduate competent "doers." Many students graduate with a set of (often rapidly fading) facts and ideas but with inadequate skills necessary to continue to learn effectively, develop intellectually, and contribute positively within a community. This is like testing future auto mechanics on the contents of service manuals, and then sending them out into the world with only a few tools and limited experience using those tools. OK, but isn't taking a full load of courses in a variety of disciplines effective in developing academic skills? And isn’t content knowledge essential for success in college and life? Aren’t most high school graduates ready for college or at least ready for entry-level unskilled positions? Let's look at a few examples of surveys related to those questions. Measures of Readiness. ACT is best known as a non-profit testing service that, along with the SAT, offers a nationally recognized college admissions exam. ACT also has a major educational research branch that carries out regular national surveys and analyses. Every three to five years ACT conducts a comprehensive survey of college professors to help develop testing standards for college readiness, defined as "the level of achievement a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed—without remediation—in credit-bearing first-year post-secondary courses." ACT also states that their research indicates that "… workplace readiness demands the same level of knowledge and skills as college readiness." (ACT, 2008) ACT surveys thousands of high schools and colleges across the U.S. and millions of ACT student scores. A survey, summarized in their Spring 2007 newsletter (ACT, 2007), had this to say regarding state standards and the abilities of high school graduates as perceived by college professors:

65 percent overall say their state standards prepare students “poorly” or “very poorly” for college-level work in their subject areas. By contrast, most high school teachers report their state standards prepare students “well” or “very well.”

Differences between what high schools are teaching, and what colleges want incoming students to know, exist across the curriculum:

• In math, high school teachers tend to give advanced content greater importance than do college instructors. College instructors rate a rigorous understanding of fundamentals as being more important than exposure to advanced content.

• In science, high school teachers consistently rate knowledge of content (specific facts and information) as more important than an understanding of science process and inquiry skills. College instructors, in contrast, take a different view—science process skills are more important than knowledge of specific content.

• In English and writing, college instructors place more importance on basic grammar and usage skills than do high school teachers. Many college instructors express frustration that their students often can’t write a complete sentence. They have to re-teach these basic skills before they can turn their efforts to teaching higher-level skills.

• In reading, high school and college instructors tend to agree on the relative importance

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of specific skills. However, instruction in reading skills decreases dramatically in high school after 10th grade, suggesting the skills students learn in middle school/junior high are not being built upon in later years.

Cynthia Schmeiser, president of ACT education states that “State learning standards are often too wide and not deep enough.” “They are trying to cover too much ground—more ground than colleges deem necessary—in the limited time they have with students. As a result, key academic skills needed for success in college get short shrift. This is a serious problem that states must address to better prepare our young people for success after high school (ACT, 2007).” The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment administered to a nationally representative sample of more than 165,000 eighth- and twelfth-graders from public and private schools indicated that among 12th graders only 24% had achieved proficiency in their writing skills (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2008). In a 2006 survey of 400 major businesses conducted collaboratively by a diverse coalition of corporate and education reform groups, businesses were asked to rate the work-force readiness of new hires, based on education levels (The Conference Board, Inc., the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management, 2006). The survey indicated (p.11) that:

"High school graduates are: " • “Deficient” in the basic knowledge and skills of Writing in English, Mathematics, and Reading

Comprehension, • “Deficient” in Written Communications and Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, both of which

may be dependent on basic knowledge and skills, • “Deficient” in Professionalism/Work Ethic, and • “Adequate” in three “very important” applied skills: Information Technology Application,

Diversity, and Teamwork/Collaboration. According to a 2006 paper by the Washington DC based Alliance for Excellent Education 42 percent of community college freshmen, and 20 percent of freshmen in four-year institutions, enroll in at least one remedial course. Although many adults are enrolled in community colleges and may be considered "freshmen," the majority of students who take remedial courses in college do so to gain the skills and knowledge they should have gotten in high school and which are necessary for them to succeed in “regular” college classes (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006). Once again, I'm not implying that content -- the intertwined plots of Dickens, the conservation of mass and energy, the story of the Battle of the Somme, the workings of the three branches of government -- has no value. We learn skills by doing, and what we do is framed by the content within each academic discipline. Content provides the medium in which we learn to write and speak effectively, the grist for learning to analyze observations scientifically, the controversies through which we learn to effectively deliberate and develop responses to issues. Content also delivers essential basic ideas, facts, and concepts most people should internalize by the time they leave high school. Again, what I am implying is that, at the high school level, content should be considered primarily as a medium for gaining skills but should be considered secondary in importance, at least until students have demonstrated that they have acquired basic skills. The ability gaps described by ACT and other studies of graduate readiness will not go away until we clearly demonstrate that our primary role as educators is to help students practice and develop skills essential to effective communication, reading, problem solving, retrieval of information, quantitative analysis, and human interaction.

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Effective high school teachers have always tried to mix skill training -- for example how to take notes, how to write a clear essay or analysis, how to design and carry out an experiment, how to effectively lead a meeting, or make an oral presentation -- with learning the content of progressively complex disciplines. However, based on experience and research into high school curriculae and state standards documents, the college preparatory programs at most high schools are focused mostly on content, the result being inadequate exposure, practice and coaching in fundamental skills. Ongoing Responses to the Problem Watershed is by no means the first or only organization responding to these problems. There are a number of major efforts underway attempting to narrow the gaps described by ACT and other surveys. The method I’ve been developing at Watershed contrasts with other approaches in its (relatively) straightforward methodology. Several educational reform organizations are promoting what are called 21st Century Skills (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2011) (Center for 21st Century Skills, 2012) (ATC21S, 2012). The Partnership for 21st Century Skills seeks to “help the U.S. education system keep up by fusing the 3R’s and 4C’s” This implies combining reading, writing and math instruction with critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation.” (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2011) These organizations all promote an education that includes life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and information media, and technology skills. They recommend a schooling focused on communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. In a report to the National Academies Board on Science Education (Bybee, 2009) adaptability, complex communication/social skills, non-routine problem solving, self management/self development, and systems thinking are listed as skills necessary for success in the 21st century. Unfortunately these excellent initiatives are complicated by the fact that they are to be layered on to a system where mastery of all the standard content is also expected. It’s difficult for me to understand how these “21st century abilities” are fundamentally different from those that many schools have aspired to over the past 40 years. However, there is one exceptional difference between now and the latter half of the 20th century. A mind-bogglingly large and comprehensive pool of information is now available to most people, at home, or in their pocket, via the internet. Although this represents a transformation in humans' ability to externalize information and to further minimize the value of raw memory, the internet emphasizes, in facts renders even more important the need for skills in analytical thinking, communication, and collaboration. (to what extent does this also require a basic level of content knowledge? How much does lack of content understanding limit real access to this trove of externalized information? For example if, as a biology teacher, I refer a student to the Wikipedia entry on gene duplication in cancer, would they find it impossible to gain any understanding with limited knowledge of DNA and basic genetics – or would they track that down?) In addition to “21st Century” initiatives there are ongoing efforts to develop standards for skill and knowledge development. For example the Common Core Standards Initiative is an effort to establish state standards based on a common set of knowledge and skills. The effort hopes to establish “consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012)” The 21st century skills movement and Common Core Standards are laudable in their increased focus on skills. They remain burdened however, with the complexity of an extensive multi-tiered approach; a

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reformation requiring process flow-charts reminding me of those developed by the Apollo space mission. However schools are not staffed by skilled engineers, nor is there a single command and control center designing and managing the process. Yet the comprehensive nature of these proposals requires a complete renovation of the conventional high school paradigm. Similar large scale rehabilitations have been advocated in the past with limited results. Can the paradigm of the high school education be completely overhauled course by course, topic by topic, teacher by teacher while each high school is underway? My experience leads me to believe that unless we start with straightforward basic practices the course of the high school education cannot substantially change. We need a trim tab and the trimtab is a skills checklist. Fuzzy thinking often starts at the top: The School Mission Statement Mission or goal statements ideally contain the purpose, aspirations and direction of an organization. Our hopes for what school will provide for our children are summarized in the school’s goal statements. These goal or mission statements are now easily accessible on school web sites – they’re worth looking at with a critical eye. Here’s one example from the web (with the school’s name removed):

****** High School shall be committed to fostering an educational program which meets the unique intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs of the early adolescent learner within a safe and technologically advancing educational environment. Our Goals Include: • Providing a program which is age-appropriate, including core academic classes, exploratory experiences, and extra-curricular activities. • Promoting personal achievement and self-esteem. • Developing individuals who respect themselves and others. • Promoting skills for responsible decision-making. • Encouraging life-long learning and good citizenship. • Developing a sense of involvement whereby parents and community are involved and committed to participating in the education of our children.

Goal statements are intended to provide a fundamental target for the actions of a school. It’s the translation of goals into actions that sets the course of an organization. Unfortunately, the breadth, generality, and subjectivity of many goal statements make their accomplishment unlikely, particularly when action towards those goals remain either undefined or unrealizable. In the worst case this lack of definition leads to daily practices completely unaligned with the goals of the school. Even in the best of cases a lack of substantive clarity can lead to a superficial or misleading approach and results. Overly-general, vague or fragmented educational goals can’t articulate objective intellectual standards or highlight the necessary skills common to all disciplines. They do not define essential intellectual traits that, when acquired, direct an effective, productive use of the mind. Instead, they lead to instruction with an emphasis on training, indoctrination, or socialization rather than on preparing the individual as an independent learner and competent innovator. They can produce “imitations” of educated persons because they ignore essential abilities, standards, and traits in the teaching process. Even in my relatively brief 15 years as an educator I’ve noticed how, based on the latest new ideas, school goal statements have changed. Example key-words (out of chronological order) include: multiple intelligences, collaboration, life-long learning, excellence, 21st century skills, multiculturalism, critical thinking, authentic assessment, etc. ( more comprehensive lists of what are often derisively called “educational fads” may easily be found online). Many of these innovative ideas might have a positive influence on teaching and learning. Rational ideas to improve teaching and learning could ideed enhance instruction if they are integrated into a substantive educational process. They fail when imposed through a

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non-substantive, fragmented conception of education, which, in my admittedly skeptical point of view, is typically the case in schools today. Regarding missions statements and popular educational ideas, Mark Pendleton, reading specialist, author and 30-year teacher wrote: “What’s new is questioned, until certain key players buy in. At that point, many teachers become

no-holds-barred converts. We teachers are especially vulnerable to new ideas labeled as “research-based,” “best practices,” or “standards-based.” We could all do with an occasional reminder that one of our primary duties as teachers should be to act as informed “crap detectors” (Pendleton, 2009).

Going beyond the mission statement: The Skills Checklist Atul Gawande, a surgeon and staff writer for the New Yorker magazine has written extensively about the necessity of checklists in complex environments. The enormous amount of information, options, and uncertainty at play in the 21st century have made many professions too complex for people to perform effectively without guidelines. He suggests that botching up a job is often less the result of ignorance or not knowing what to do, as the result of ineptitude or not applying what we know would work. Gawande provides many examples of professions -- medicine, the construction industry, food service, large-sale retail management -- where effective checklists saves lives or makes consistent, high quality service possible. Interestingly he also describes how the right checklists can actually increase autonomy and creativity by clarifying where creativeness and independence are necessary (Gawande, 2009). In an effort to avoid the various traps associated with fuzzy language I have been working with Watershed to translate our goals for graduates into an unambiguously clear checklist of skills as part of a Skills First program. The checklist allows teachers to be creative in their approach to their subject matter while providing school-wide consistency in the practice and acquisition of these skills. In turn, consistent modeling, teaching, practice and acquisition of essential skills leads to and supports deep change in how we teach and learn. An effective high school skills check-list must have the following attributes. The skills check list must be:

1. limited to skills associated with "doing" rather than "knowing" 2. inclusive of vital non-academic as well as academic skills 3. determined to be essential/indispensable by faculty consensus 4. brief and explicit regarding levels of competence 5. comprised of skills that can be objectively demonstrated 6. reviewed and adapted based on evidence 7. always evident to students parents and all school staff

On the following pages I’ll describe each of these checklist attributes. Check-list attribute #1: Limited to skills associated with doing rather than knowing Most high schools base their educational program on a long list of standards -- developed within every discipline -- involving content knowledge/understanding (the knowing skills) as well as subject-related skills. In contrast the focus of the essential skills program is on acquiring a smaller set of somewhat generic "doing" skills - and developing them to a high standard. Rather than "what do you know," our first question as teachers is "what can you do with what you know, and how well can you do it?" There are too many things to track and cultivate in a high school education. Absent a list of skills, and focus on those skills, students abilities at graduation will continue to be more uncertain than is necessary.

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Check-list attribute #2: Inclusive of non-academic as well as academic skills People generally recognize that schools were established to develop academic skills. Yet a great deal of research indicates that particular non-academic skills are essential for a person’s post high school success. Whether we call them “non-cognitive skills” (Heckman & Rubinstein, 2001), “social mindsets” or “non-cognitive factors” (Farrington, 2012) or “social and emotional learning” (CASEL, 2011) these names all refer to habits or behaviors that allow for effective learning, social interaction, democratic participation, and accomplishment in general. At Watershed I’ve called these Resilience and Social Interaction skills. It is our experience as educators that we can not adequately prepare students for life after high school until we define, model, teach, and practice these non-academic skills. Some of these abilities or mindsets are learned outside of school, but in our experience, many aren’t. The challenge is that, as opposed to the academic skills we foster, it can be very difficult to objectively evaluate the acquisition of these skills (see number 5 of this list!). Yet because of their importance they remain on the Skills First list. In this case it’s up to the school, rather than the individual student, to document training and practice of these skills! We provide time and we structure our school environment to support the development of these skills. This results in regularly held workshops and school meetings to assist students in recognizing, practicing and acquiring these skills. Attention to these personal and social interaction skills informs and allows constructive dialogue among teachers, students, and administrators. In fact the coaching of these skills requires a thoughtful and purposeful focus on the context of our entire educational program: we can’t model these skills unless the school itself embodies them. Check-list attribute #3: Determined to be essential/indispensable by faculty consensus If the skills are really essential, they should be indispensable for effectively approaching many problems, academic or otherwise! It's paramount that most of the skills on the list can be practiced across the curriculum. Teachers need to buy in and adopt the list of skills because they will either be teaching them directly in " skills-focus courses" (more on this distinction later) or maintaining their practice within more advanced "content-focused courses." Check-list attribute #4: Brief and explicit regarding levels of competence Educators I've worked with all seem to agree that it takes a great deal of time to acquire academic skills at a high standard. We consistently underestimate how much time is necessary for students to gain skills. Almost everyone bemoans the lack of time available, often blaming the need to cover content on an inability to adequately “cover” skills. By accepting that teachers should focus on skills, rather than content, we gain more time for practice. More time but never enough! Gaining any level of mastery, sophistication or finesse is difficult. If we want our students to graduate at a high level of competence the list of competencies must be short. The list must be explicit in describing expected levels of competence. Students must learn to read and write, for example, but at what level of proficiency? Teachers will need to describe the components (of quality) expected as evidence indicating that a student has acquired a particular skill at a particular level of competence. These components, or rubrics, don’t simply clarify the target. Through the process of defining steps along the way they also help analyze shortcomings and strengths. This helps students and teachers identify areas needing more practice, a fundamental characteristic of effective coaching. There will be variation in how quickly students gain these skills. Some students are very quick at gaining these skills, others will require more time. Some will not be mature enough: they will not have the requisite cognitive capacity until they're older. Regardless of this reality the skills must be attainable in two to four years by any (non-special needs) student. The skills list and competence level must be adapted so that, with effort, including summertime practice for some students, nearly all students will acquire these skills at the defined levels by the time they graduate.

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Check-list attribute #5: Comprised of skills that can be demonstrated Abilities that don’t result in tangible evidence are problematic, both to coach and to assess with any measure of objectivity. Teachers will help students gain skills by asking them to practice them. Eventually students will be expected to submit a product of some kind – a paper, a video of a presentation, data analysis, an assessment geared to a a particular skill – that represents an exemplar of that skill. The exception is with the so called non-academic skills where it becomes the responsibility of the school to document training and practice of those skills. Check-list attribute #6: Reviewed and adapted based on evidence The skills-list should be a working document that is adapted based on experience. It’s not intended as an inspirational document. After several years of practice, the list should outline the competencies most students actually have at graduation. If the school can’t develop all of the listed skills then adaptations need to be made or the list should be shortened. If more abilities are desired, then a plan to add to the skills list will need to be developed, accepted by staff and reality tested over several years Check-list attribute #7: Always evident to students, parents, and school staff The skills-list should be one of the more obvious documents at the school. People often feel that posting documents is a way to make them part of school life. Posters, like wall paint, usually become invisible to students fairly quickly. What makes a skills-based program unmistakable is a continuous student/teacher focus on the importance of skills practice and acquisition. AN EXAMPLE CHECKLIST Every school should go through their own process to create their own skills list. It’s a document that represents the aspirations and realities of the community being served and the capabilities of the faculty and administration. Here is a draft of a document we’re currently developing for Watershed:

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WATERSHED SCHOOL Skills First Checklist

1. READING a) Adjusts approach to reading based on purpose and text b) Forms a comprehensive summary of information gained from reading c) Takes effective reading notes 2. WRITING a) Competence in expository and narrative writing at the level of the:

• word (word choice, spelling, precision, tone); • sentence (grammar/punctuation, clarity, rhetorical technique); • paragraph (thesis development, summarizing, sequence, role of paragraph) • writing form (audience, topic choice, citations, form-specific conventions)

b) Able to plan, scope, collect information, draft, respond to edits, rewrite to completion the following written modes or forms (as defined by instructors)

• narrative, expository, descriptive, persuasive • papers associated with historical or social science research • science-related writing

3. NUMERACY (refers to the ability to relate mathematical ways of reasoning -- and apply mathematical and statistical methods -- to real world issues and situations.) The numerate student is able to:

• choose and apply basic mathematical/statistical methods • interpret graphs • find or check relations among physical quantities using dimensional analysis • make use of measurement tools incorporating significant figures • apply basic mathematical concepts: multiplication, exponents, orders of magnitude, percentage,

relationships, proportions,… to physical and social phenomena 4. DISCOURSE a) Public Speaking

• Planning : determine purpose; choose and scope topic; provide effective visuals, word choice, transitions

• Delivery: clear articulation, varied delivery; language appropriate to audience; visuals employed effectively; effective non-verbal behavior

b) Debate/Deliberation • recognizes and employs question types: leading-, open- and close-ended questions • summarizes and restates statements and current understandings • evaluates/weighs evidence • understands opposing viewpoints • recognizes faulty logic

5. SCIENTIFIC PRACTICES/EMPIRICISM (from National Academy of Sciences’ “Framework..”) Empirical skills include:

• observing qualities and measuring quantities, sorting and classifying • asking questions and defining problems • inferring, predicting, establishing hypotheses • investigation/ experimentation • analyzing data using mathematical or computational methods • communicating findings using argument from evidence

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6. VISUAL REPRESENTATION Ability to render ideas in 2 and 3 dimensions employing basic drawing skills -- representation, perspective, layout, emphasis, measurement -- and basic three dimensional modeling skills. 7- DESIGN PROCESS This skill refers to the activities required to go from idea to manifestation of that idea. This includes process tools such as flow charts, concept development visuals, drafting plans, modeling or prototype construction, testing, redesign etc. 8- INFORMATION GATHERING + ANALYSIS a) Question formulation b) Information research using variety of internet or library sources: primary sources, databases, maps, journals c) Able to plan and carry out effective informational interviews d) Evaluating relative value/importance of different kinds of information e) Ability to employ critical strategies for recognizing pseudoscience, misleading quantitative information, and bias within information resources. 9- DIGITAL TOOL USE AND LITERACY Effectively find, use, summarize, evaluate, create, and communicate information using computer hardware, software, the Internet, and hand-held devices.

• spread sheets • graphing • cloud-based documents, group editing • visual, video and sound editing

10- TOOL USE Basic tool use: fastening, cutting, boring, squaring, plumbing, leveling, disassembly/reassembly.. 11- SOCIAL INTERACTION Collaboration (Effective team-work, group decision-making) Governance Community Development Social media issues 12- PERSONAL STRENGTH AND RESILIENCE Study/life skills (organization, Cornell notes, time management, planning and setting goals) Persistence Attitude Basic social skills Listening and providing feedback Ethical decision-making Stress management Generic skills of the valued employee

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A brief list of opportunities provided by a skills-first program 1- A skills-first approach provides teachers with a common purpose for collaboration between departments, regardless of discipline. 2- A skills-first approach dramatically improves the process and value of assessment. Ask any accomplished teacher about grades. They will tell you that conventional grading is a time-consuming process that is inherently uneven, that vascillates between scoring behavior, aptitude, attitude, scholarship, native intelligence and ethics, and can be a source of unnecessary stress in the classroom. No two teachers score students the same way. And student motivations for learning likewise varies. However, most students seem to be motivated by by gaining skills and by being acknowledged at becoming proficient. A skills- based program should clarify how teachers assess student growth and make the evaluation process less subjective. Skills-first assessments simply state whether the student can demonstrate a skill, and which aspects of the skill are strong or weak. In the context of a skills based program conventional grading schemes become, for the most part, unecessary. 2- A skills-first approach provides a consistent, refined target for teachers, contributing focus to professional development, in-service training efforts, faculty meetings, and collaboration within and between departments. 3- A skills list allows students to know exactly what they need to practice to become competent adults, and with the help of their teachers to effectively practice, accurately assess, revise, and eventually improve their skills. The responsibility clearly rests with the student to practice and develop those skills. 4- Regular review and refinement of the skills-list maintains the utility, in the larger world, of the skills being developed. 6- Focusing on skill acquisition increases the potential for flexibility in a student's academic program. There are often many different pathways to developing these fundamental skills. In addition, when all of the skills have been checked off, students’ opportunities broaden and can more easily include early college, internships, foreign exchange, etc. 7- The practice, acquisition and acknowledgment of useful skills seems to increase students’motivation, engagement, satisfaction and recognition of relevance. The reasons for learning are more apparent and compelling.