Building Cognitive Skills for Academic Success — A New Report Tells Us Why and How

The New America Foundation recently released a report, Skills for Success, that lays out the reasons why developing cognitive skills, habits, and mindsets form a strong basis for academic success. What are these skills for success or SFS? The authors, Melissa Tooley and Laura Bornfreund tell us: “Self-regulation. Planning and goal setting. Collaboration and communication. These skills—and others like them, such as persistence, flexibility, and initiative—are critical to academic and social success in school and later in life.”

Tooley and Bornfreund also note that, “At the same time, there are still outstanding questions as to:

1) what the most effective and efficient approaches are;
2) how to ensure that educators and parents understand the value of such approaches;
3) how to best prepare and train educators to maintain their strong focus on developing academic knowledge, while cultivating SFS as well.

One thing is clear: school and classroom climate can either help promote or deter the development of skills for success (SFS). Thus, failing to address a negative or unsupportive educational climate could prevent potential long-term benefits of other SFS efforts from being realized.”

The report makes four recommendations for federal and state policymakers that will help build SFS for all students.

You can read more about the report and Skills for Success – download it here: