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COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS

A Comprehensive Guide to 21st Century Skills

Jenna Buckle

Jenna Buckle

A Comprehensive Guide to 21st Century Skills

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The concept of "21st century skills" isn't new—skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and problem
solving have been taught in classrooms for decades.

Yet, as the demands of our changing economy rise, many school districts are now including 21st century
skills in strategic plans to better prepare students for college, career, and life.

What are 21st century skills, why do they matter, and how can your district implement 21st century
learning strategies into curriculum, assessment, and instruction? This guide shares information,
research, and examples to bring you up to speed.

Build organizational structures to improve students' life skills with Panorama's Guide to Graduating
College, Career, and Life-Ready Students

1. What Are 21st Century Skills?

2. The Importance of 21st Century Skills

3. Frameworks and Examples of 21st Century Skills

4. 21st Century Learning Strategies and Implementation

5. Additional Resources

What Are 21st Century Skills?

21st century skills refer to the knowledge, life skills, career skills, habits, and traits that are critically
important to student success in today’s world, particularly as students move on to college, the
workforce, and adult life.

Districts, schools, and organizations prioritize different 21st century skills depending on what is most
important to their respective communities. Generally, however, educators agree that schools must
weave these skills into learning experiences and common core instruction. Here is a non-exhaustive list
of the most commonly cited 21st century skills.

Critical thinking

Communication skills

Creativity

Problem solving

Perseverance

Collaboration

Information literacy
Technology skills and digital literacy

Media literacy

Global awareness

Self-direction

Social skills

Literacy skills

Civic literacy

Social responsibility

Innovation skills

Thinking skills

The Importance of 21st Century Skills

While the bar used to be high school graduation, the bar for today's students is now college, career, and
real-world success. Let’s take a look at why 21st century skills matter.

Higher-education and business leaders cite soft skills as being the most important driver of success in
higher-level courses and in the workplace.

In today’s world, our schools are preparing students for jobs that might not yet exist. Career readiness
means equipping students with a nuanced set of skills that can prepare them for the unknown.

Social media has changed human interaction and created new challenges in navigating social situations.

The age of the Internet has dramatically increased access to knowledge. Students need to learn how to
process and analyze large amounts of information.

Content knowledge from core subjects can only go so far; students need to be taught how to apply facts
and ideas towards complex problems.

We've reviewed the definition of 21st century skills and why they're important in a changing world.
Now, let's review a few frameworks and how school districts are putting 21st century learning into
practice.
Frameworks for 21st Century Skills

The Framework for 21st Century Learning

This popular framework was designed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). Describing the
skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life, the framework
combines content knowledge, specific skills, expertise, and literacies. P21 believes that the "base" of
21st century learning is the acquisition of key academic subject knowledge, and that schools must build
on that base with additional skills including Learning Skills, Life Skills, and Literacy Skills.

Learning Skills: Also known as the "four Cs" of 21st century learning, these include critical thinking,
communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Life Skills: Flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, leadership

Literacy Skills: Information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies the fundamental life skills as decision-making and
problem solving, creative thinking and critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, self-
awareness and empathy, and coping with emotions and stress. The WHO focuses on broad psychosocial
skills that can be improved over time with conscious effort.

Redefining Ready! Initiative

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Redefining Ready! initiative offers a
framework that many districts use to define college, career, and life readiness. AASA provides readiness
indicators to capture the educational landscape of the 21st century. Metrics include Advanced
Placement courses, standardized testing, college credits, industry credentials, attendance, community
service, and more.

On the topic of life readiness, AASA argues:

"Being life ready means students leave high school with the grit and perseverance to tackle and achieve
their goals by demonstrating personal actualization skills of self-awareness, self-management, social-
awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. Students who are life ready possess the
growth mindset that empowers them to approach their future with confidence, to dream big and to
achieve big."

School District Frameworks

21st century skills take hold in various ways for school districts. A "Portrait of a Graduate" is one
common strategy for communicating what it means for students to be college, career, and future ready.

To develop a profile of a graduate, districts often adapt existing 21st century skill frameworks to fit their
needs. Input from stakeholders—such as the district board, teachers, parents, partner organizations,
and students—ensures that the final "portrait" is authentic to their community. Here are some Portrait
of a Graduate examples.

everett-21st-century-skillsvia Everett Public Schools

Everett Public Schools in Everett, Washington defines 21st century skills as citizenship, collaboration,
communication, creativity, critical thinking, and growth mindset. The district believes that graduates are
college, career, and life ready when they have the academic knowledge, attitudes, and skills to transition
to college level coursework, workforce training, and/or employment.

Profile of a Graduate - Gresham-Barlow School Districtvia Gresham-Barlow School District

Gresham-Barlow School District (GBSD) in Gresham, Oregon has a mission to develop culturally
responsive graduates who will thrive in an ever-changing global community. The district’s Portrait of a
Graduate represents the GBSD community's collective vision of what their graduates should look like.
The portrait consists of six learner profiles: Independent Lifelong Learner, Adaptable Collaborator,
Compassionate Communicator, Responsible Creator, Open-Minded Critical Thinker, and Globally Aware
Community Member.

schertz cibolo traits of a graduatevia Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District (SCUC ISD) in Schertz, Texas has a strategic
goal around graduating college and/or career and/or military ready students. Within this vision, SCUC
ISD has outlined five Traits of a Graduate: Dynamic Leader, Self-Motivated, Skilled Communicator,
Service Oriented, and Future Ready.

council bluffs graduatevia Council Bluffs Community School District

Council Bluffs Community School District in Council Bluffs, Iowa, developed a Profile of a FutureReady
Graduate that encompasses both academic and social-emotional indicators of success. The district’s
social-emotional indicators—aligned to the CASEL framework—include Self-Management, Self
Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making.

North Kansas City Schools’ Portrait of a Graduate

North Kansas City Schools just north of Kansas City, Missouri, identified seven competencies that span
time, space, jobs, and occupations, ensuring that students' life skills are highly transferable. The district's
competencies—developed with input from students, community and business leaders, teachers, and
administrators—include Adaptability, Communication, Collaboration, Empathy, Integrity, Learner's
Mindset, and Problem Solving.

Download our guide to developing your district's own vision for college, career, and life readiness.
21st Century Learning Strategies & Implementation

Having a strong vision for 21st century learning is just the first step. Without an intentionally designed
plan for implementation, it's unlikely that your students will acquire the skills outlined in your district's
vision. Here are some best practices from Panorama's partner districts to set you up for success.

1. Build staff capacity to demonstrate 21st century skills in support of student learning.

It all starts with the adults in your building. Teachers and staff need to deeply understand and model the
skills that you want your students to develop. Integrate 21st century skills into staff professional
development as a precursor to growing these competencies in students.

Download our Adult SEL Toolkit for ideas, worksheets, and activities to build adult SEL.

2. Develop strategies to support teachers with implementation of 21st century skills.

It can be helpful to create a playbook of recommended strategies and approaches that span across
content areas. For instance, you might encourage teachers to add comments to report cards about
students' 21st century skills.

3. Assess students’ 21st century learning skills.

What gets measured matters. Regularly collect data on how students are progressing in this area,
whether the data is anecdotal, qualitative, or quantitative. For example, you might administer a
biannual survey in which students reflect on their development of 21st century, social-emotional skills.
Keep in mind that the data you gather should be formative rather than evaluative. Be transparent about
the purpose.

4. Equip educators with data to proactively identify and support students who are off track.

Once you have data on students' 21st century skills, you'll want to ensure that the data is actionable for
educators. Many districts opt to implement an early warning system with indicators across academics,
attendance, behavior, and social-emotional learning/21st century skills. This helps educators make data-
driven decisions about the best way to keep each student on track.

Additional Resources

Looking for more information on 21st century skills? Here are some other articles and resources to
explore:

"Why Social and Emotional Learning and Employability Skills Should Be Prioritized in Education" via
CASEL and Committee for Children

"Teaching 21st Century Skills For 21st Century Success Requires An Ecosystem Approach" via Forbes

"Bringing 21st Century Skill Development to the Forefront of K-12 Education" via Hanover Research

"How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?" via Education Week

"21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead" via ASCD Educational Leadership

Conclusion

Honing in on 21st century skills is essential to ensuring that students are prepared for college, career,
and civic life. While there is no one "right" way to approach this work, we hope that the information in
this guide inspires you to explore what 21st century learning could look like in your district!

Develop students' 21st century skills with Panorama's Guide to Graduating College, Career, and Life-
Ready Students