Future-Proofing Their School Success—Now and After Graduation
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Dear Colleagues,
I am currently serving as an Expert Witness in a Federal Court case involving a middle school student with a disability who has basically “given up” and is no longer paying attention in class, participating in group assignments, or completing her homework.
As a practicing psychologist and school psychologist for over 40 years, I have “seen this movie” countless times before.
And since the pandemic ended—now almost four years ago—I hear the same concerns from teachers and other educators about many similar students nationwide. . . and, especially, many who are “typical” learners.
Indeed, a nationally-representative survey of 1,268 teachers, principals, and district leaders by the Education Week Research Center last month indicated that:
· 82% of the teachers said students have become less independent than students from a decade ago—with 68% of the surveyed school leaders, and 55% of the district leaders agreeing; and
· Students’
declining ability to direct their own learning and advocate for themselves is hurting
their academic achievement and could hurt their future employability.
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As usual. . . without looking at the many root causes underlying students’ disengagement or lack of motivation—for example, missing independence or self-efficacy skills, digital technology or social media-dependence, learned helplessness or negative expectations, helicopter or similarly disengaged parents, and the like. . .
. . . everyone seems to have a recommendation on what to do.
And yet, many of these suggestions are too global.
They are focusing on big-picture systemic, curricular, and teacher-instructional changes, and not on the incisive changes that are really needed. . . those directly involving the students, how they are trained, and how they are held accountable (and self-accountable).
Metaphorically, schools are using hacksaws when they need to be using scalpels.
More critically, few schools are asking the
students themselves what is going on, and what they need to become more
responsible, responsive, and self-reliant.
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Today’s Blog
My last Blog discussed the “Essential Strategies for School Leaders during Uncertain Times.”
[CLICK HERE to REVIEW this Blog]
[CLICK HERE to LISTEN to the Podcast Version]
In this Blog, we will discuss the future-proofing “Skill Sets” that middle and high school students need to be successful academically and socially “during uncertain times.”
Critically, these Skill Sets will not focus on academic skills. Instead, we will describe the underlying “meta-skills” that facilitate students’ learning and mastery of their academic skills.
And while these Skill Sets are important at the middle and high school levels, students necessarily begin to learn them during their elementary school years. . . both in school and at home.
Finally. . . the “uncertain times” addressed in this Blog are less prompted by the state of education in our country right now, and more by the fact that the path through middle and high school to graduation is an “uncertain” one for most students given their curvilinear “journey” through adolescence.
As such, the Skill Sets below help students
navigate the curves—preparing them both for today’s and tomorrow’s successes.
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Students’ middle and high school years present unique opportunities and challenges as they pass through increasingly complex academic and social demands while experiencing significant physical, cognitive, and emotional changes.
Long-standing and contemporary research shows that integrating cognitive and metacognitive, organizational and self-management, social and interpersonal, health and mental health, and self-awareness and self-efficacy skill sets create a comprehensive infrastructure that supports adolescent development and students’ academic and social success.
These findings are particularly robust across diverse student populations. Thus, they provide an important starting point for all schools.
The five research-to-practice Skill Sets described below are:
· Skill Set #1. Goal-Setting, Active Learning, and Metacognition Skills
· Skill Set #2. Time Management, Organization, and Study Skills
· Skill Set #3. Interpersonal, Communication, Networking, and Collaborative Learning Skills
· Skill Set #4. Stress Management, Self-Care, and Emotional Resilience Skills
· Skill Set #5. Self-Awareness, Self-Evaluation, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Accountability Skills
These five Skill Sets are most successfully
taught and best applied when integrated systematically across the curricula and
culture in a school, when used consistently by all educators and students, and
when supported by students’ different peer groups and their parents.
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Skill Set #1. Goal-Setting, Active Learning, and Metacognition Skills
Goal-Setting. Research highlights the importance of goal-setting in education. Studies show that students who know how to set realistic and attainable short- and long-term goals demonstrate more ownership and agency over their learning, higher levels of motivation and self-management, and more successful academic and social successes.
But goal-setting is a learned skill that requires ongoing instruction, modeling, practice, feedback, and application across time, settings, and the wide variety of academic and extra-curricular situations in a school.
One popular and frequently used approach to goal-setting involves the use of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals.
When students learn, write out, and use SMART academic and social, emotional, and behavioral goals, they have an explicit plan that identifies their desired outcomes, the steps and behaviors needed to attain them, and the ways to evaluate their success. Because the plan identifies the skills and interactions needed to attain their goals, it enhances students’ confidence and motivation, maximizing their probability for success.
Active Learning. Successful students don't just passively absorb information—they need to actively engage it. Using their SMART goals, successful students recognize that learning is about trying new things, making and correcting “mistakes,” and not worrying about immediate success or perfection.
These attributes need to be continuously reinforced by teachers during all instruction and learning processes. And they need to be a conscious part of how student learning is formatively and summatively evaluated.
In the end, students learn best when they have positively practiced their skills to a level of automaticity. This involves their active participation. . . something that cannot be circumvented or faked. Practice opportunities need to be built-into all learning activities, and students need to be accountable for their active engagement and involvement.
Metacognitive Skills. Metacognitive strategies help students understand how they learn best, how to take control of their own learning, and how to monitor their own progress.
Students benefit from regularly asking themselves questions like: "What do I already know about this topic?" "What am I still confused about?" and "How can I approach this problem differently?"
These self-reflection and self-quizzing practices—when used over time—build deeper understanding and longer-lasting retention of new or complex material while also fostering independence.
Other metacognitive techniques—like creating concept maps and teaching material to someone else—are far more effective than passively highlighting or re-reading text(s).
When students learn to evaluate their own understanding, they develop the self-awareness needed for long-term academic success. In fact, recent research has demonstrated that explicit metacognitive prompts used during problem-solving significantly improved secondary students' performance, particularly for those who initially struggled with the material.
Many metacognitive strategies are embedded in the Five Skills Sets described in this Blog. Here are a few more examples:
·
Planning and
Time Management
Setting clear
goals before starting a task (e.g., "What do I want to accomplish?").
Previewing
material or outlining key points before diving into a lesson or reading.
Breaking down
tasks into smaller, manageable chunks.
Allocating
specific time for study sessions and sticking to it.
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·
Prior
Knowledge Activation and Self-Questioning
Reflecting on
what they already know and connecting it with new information.
Asking
questions like "What do I already know about this topic?" and
"What do I still need to learn?"
Actively
asking "why," "how," and "what if" questions to
deepen understanding.
Participating
in discussions to clarify concepts.
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·
Organizing
Information and Monitoring
Using tools
like graphic organizers, concept maps, or outlines.
Highlighting
or annotating key points while reading.
Asking
themselves questions while learning (e.g., "Does this make sense?").
Checking
their own understanding and adjusting strategies if needed.
Using
self-testing or quizzes to gauge retention.
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·
Summarization
and Adopting Multiple Perspectives
Summarizing
lessons or readings in their own words to solidify understanding.
Considering
different approaches to solve a problem or alternate interpretations of
material.
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·
Error Analysis
and Using Mnemonics
Identifying
patterns in their mistakes (e.g., "Do I always miscalculate
fractions?") and strategizing ways to address them.
Employing
memory aids like acronyms, rhymes, or visualization techniques to remember
information.
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·
Utilizing
Feedback and Evaluation
Actively
seeking out and applying constructive feedback to improve performance
Reflecting on
what worked well and what didn’t after completing a task.
Reviewing
mistakes and analyzing how to avoid them in the future.
Keeping a
journal to track progress over time.
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·
Goal
Adjustment
Revising
goals if they prove too easy or too challenging to ensure optimal growth and
engagement.
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·
Teaching
Others
Explaining
concepts to a peer or family member to reinforce their understanding.
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Skill Set #2. Time Management, Organization, and Study Skills
Time Management and Organization. As students’ coursework increases in depth, breadth, and complexity, strong time management and organizational skills become critical. Students need systematic approaches to manage homework, projects, and exams across multiple subjects. Indeed, teaching students to prioritize tasks and realistically estimate time and work requirements gives them greater control over their success.
More specifically, digital or paper planners, structured study schedules, and breaking large assignments into manageable tasks help all students avoid last-minute cramming—reducing their anxiety, and increasing the quality of their learning.
Regular weekly planning sessions where students review upcoming deadlines and set specific goals have also been shown to significantly reduce their stress levels while improving their academic outcomes.
Study Skills. As above, structured study routines and effective study skills are the cornerstones to middle and high school students’ academic success.
Students need to learn and use—independently over time—techniques such as time-blocking, active reading, note-taking, and mnemonic and rehearsal strategies. Providing students with periodic workshops or classroom training sessions on these skills can empower them to take ownership of their academic responsibilities—encouraging them to study on a consistent schedule in distraction-free spaces.
All of these strategies are backed by research that has demonstrated that:
·
Goal-setting
interventions incorporating specific implementation plans and progress
monitoring lead to significant improvements in GPA and course completion rates
among secondary students.
·
Digital planning
tools combined with self-monitoring protocols improve both academic performance
and self-efficacy among high school students, with particularly strong effects
for students with executive functioning challenges.
·
Early adolescents
who develop strong time management skills and structured homework routines show
better academic outcomes and lower school-related stress and procrastination.
·
Organization and
time management skills more strongly predict adolescent students’ academic
performance than their IQ.
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Skill Set #3. Interpersonal, Communication, Networking, and Collaborative Learning Skills
Adult and peer relationships become increasingly complex for middle and high school students. Explicit instruction in social, interpersonal, and collaboration skills like active listening, following directions, asking for help, accepting constructive feedback, and respectful disagreement prepares students to work successfully in project-based workgroups and to engage competently in other, non-academic social interactions.
Systematically teaching students how to collaborate in dyads and small groups—where they learn to communicate, participate, make decisions, and take on specific academic and group process roles—builds students’ confidence, self-efficacy, and academic proficiency. This instruction includes explicitly teaching prosocial scripts and behaviors, providing role-playing exercises and opportunities, and participating in alternative-perspective-taking discussions and conflict resolution simulations.
Research in this area shows significantly positive effects when students learn structured collaborative and cooperative learning approaches, along with social skill and peer-assisted learning strategies. These effects include increases in academic engagement and achievement, social competence and psychological health, positive peer relationships and classroom discipline, and higher graduation rates.
Communication Skills. Communication skills are integral to student success. Research demonstrates that students with strong communication skills—including active listening, understanding nonverbal cues, and expressing ideas clearly—are better equipped to build relationships and advocate for themselves.
This, once again, involves explicit skill instruction, and creating opportunities for students to practice their skills in structured group discussions, presentations, and collaborative project reports. Ultimately, these skills contribute to higher levels of student engagement, confidence, motivation, and leadership in academic and other school settings.
In the end, collaborative learning
environments and positive teacher-student and student-peer relationships create
a sense of belonging for students, and establish positive classroom and school
climates. This results in higher attendance, classroom engagement, student
learning, grades, and school satisfaction.
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Skill Set #4. Stress Management, Self-Care, and Emotional Resilience Skills
Adolescents face unprecedented pressures that can impact both their mental health and academic performance. Teaching practical stress management techniques that address emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills/resilience—including deep breathing, relaxation, and positive self-talk—give students the tools to regulate their emotions during challenging situations.
Complementing this skill instruction should be discussions that help students understand the connections between health, mental health, wellness, and self-care—specifically, sleep, nutrition, exercise, drugs and alcohol, risky behaviors, burnout, peer pressure, and controlling the screentime on their smart phones and computers.
Establishing regular check-in routines where
students assess their current stress levels and identify specific self-care
actions promotes their emotional awareness, the prevention of emotional
challenges “down the road,” and the use of proactive coping strategies.
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Skill Set #5. Self-Awareness, Self-Evaluation, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Accountability Skills
A middle or high school student’s belief that (a) skills and proficiencies can be developed through dedication and hard work, and that (b) she or he is willing and able to invest that time and effort is particularly important during adolescence. Similarly, students’ ability to view “mistakes” as learning opportunities that can be corrected through self-evaluation, revisiting the task, and persistence are likely to develop resilience and self-efficacy.
All of these characteristics and attributes develop over time through mentoring, peer support, self-awareness, self-talk, and a belief in oneself and one’s capacity for growth.
Adolescents develop this self-efficacy through a combination of experiences, support systems, and personal reflections.
Some of key pathways that lead to this outcome include:
· Mastery Experiences: Success in tasks, whether academic, athletic, or creative, builds a sense of competence. Overcoming challenges reinforces the belief that effort leads to achievement.
· Social Modeling: Observing peers, mentors, or role models who succeed in similar tasks inspires adolescents to believe they can succeed too. Role models who overcome adversity are particularly impactful.
· Social Persuasion: Encouragement and positive reinforcement from parents, teachers, friends, and coaches boost self-confidence. Constructive feedback helps adolescents learn to trust their abilities.
· Emotional Self-Management: Managing stress and emotions plays a big role. When adolescents learn techniques to stay calm and focused during challenges, they build resilience and self-efficacy.
· Opportunity to Make Choices: Encouraging autonomy and decision-making fosters a sense of control, which strengthens self-efficacy.
· Exposure to Varied Experiences: Trying new activities or taking risks (in safe environments) helps adolescents explore their capabilities and expand their confidence.
In the end, adolescents’ positive attributions regarding their skills and success are an essential ingredient within this Skill Set. These cognitive-behavioral attributions include their attitudes, beliefs, expectations, interpretations, self-statements, and conclusions regarding their performance in different situations.
Critically—as with many of the skills and behaviors discussed throughout these five Skill Sets—these self-perspectives and self-statements can be learned.
All of this weighs into students’
self-efficacy, and their decision to hold themselves accountable for both their
successes and their missteps.
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Summary
In this Blog, we discussed the future-proofing “Skill Sets” that middle and high school students need to be successful academically and socially during uncertain times. The Skill Sets focused on the “meta-skills” that facilitate students’ learning and mastery of their academic skills. And the “uncertain times” reflect the fact that the path through middle and high school to graduation is often uncertain and unpredictable for many adolescents.
Five research-to-practice Skill Sets were described:
· Skill Set #1. Goal-Setting, Active Learning, and Metacognition Skills
· Skill Set #2. Time Management, Organization, and Study Skills
· Skill Set #3. Interpersonal, Communication, Networking, and Collaborative Learning Skills
· Skill Set #4. Stress Management, Self-Care, and Emotional Resilience Skills
· Skill Set #5. Self-Awareness, Self-Evaluation, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Accountability Skills
The behaviors and interactions within these five Skill Sets are best attained when they are systematically taught and applied across the curriculum, and when they are consistently used and supported by all educators and students.
Students’ middle and high school years present unique opportunities and challenges as they pass through increasingly complex academic and social demands while experiencing significant physical, cognitive, and emotional changes.
Long-standing and contemporary research
shows that integrating cognitive and metacognitive, organizational and
self-management, social and interpersonal, health and mental health, and
self-awareness and self-efficacy skill sets create the infrastructure that
supports adolescents through their middle and high school years as related to
their academic and social success.
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The “Improving Education Today” Podcast: A New Professional Development Resource Complementing this Blog
This past January, we announced a new partnership and resource for you.
The partnership is with popular AI Educators, Davey Johnson and Angela Jones. . . and the resource is their Podcast:
Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive
For each published bimonthly Blog, Davey and Angela summarize and analyze the Blog in their free-wheeling and “no-holds-barred” Podcast. . . addressing the topic’s importance to “education today,” and discussing their recommendations on how to apply the information so that all students, staff, and schools benefit.
You can find the Podcast that accompanies this Blog message at the following link:
Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive | Podcast on Spotify
Davey and Angela have also created a Podcast Archive consisting of all of this year’s Blog (Volume 3), as well as those from 2024 (Volume 2), and 2023 (Volume 1).
The Podcasts are posted on Spotify, and you can “Follow” the Podcast Series so that you will be automatically notified whenever a new Podcast is posted.
Many districts and schools are using the Podcasts in their Leadership Teams and/or PLCs to keep everyone abreast of new issues and research in education, and to stimulate important discussions and decisions regarding the best ways to enhance student, staff, and school outcomes.
If you would like to follow a Podcast up with a free one-hour consultation with me, just contact me and we will get it on our schedules.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best,
Howie
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[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]
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[To listen to a synopsis and analysis of this Blog on the “Improving
Education Today: The Deep Dive” podcast on Spotify: CLICK
HERE]
