that metacognitive behavioral skills matter a lot to students’ long-term life success. For example, a long-term analysis of subjects from Walter Mischel’s (2014) famous marshmallow study shows that children with strong self-regulation skills (who were able to resist the temptation of eating a second marshmallow) had greater academic and life success than their less strong-willed peers. Research further suggests that executive functioning and self-regulation are better predictors of school success than intelligence tests. (See Duckworth and Carlson, 2013, for one review of this research.) Education economist David Deming (2015) reveals that skill knowledge mastery and empathy—in this case, the ability to work with others to solve complex problems—are the critical combination for high-value jobs in the workplace. While definitions and tools for monitoring these learning characteristics are still emerging (for example, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [www.casel.org], or CASEL, is working with a consortium of states to define common objectives), we should start incorporating them into our mix of measures now (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2018).
Despite the research indicating the importance of behavioral skills to life, the literature indicates that student readiness is lower than ever. While graduation rates are at an all-time high, ACT (2012) reports that less than 40 percent of students are ready for college. Why might this be? One possible explanation, revealed through an examination of the Lexile levels of texts, shows that while the complexity of text required in college, skilled careers, and the military has steadily increased, the text complexities within K–12 have not similarly increased. Another explanation is that the K–12 curriculum continues to be a mile wide and an inch deep—the curriculum covers a lot of material but doesn’t examine it in depth.
It is my belief, and the belief of other pioneers of behavioral RTI, that a particularly significant explanation is that educators have not sufficiently focused on developing behavioral skills (Boynton & Boynton, 2005; Mullet, 2014; Sprick, Borgmeier, & Nolet, 2002; Sugai, 2001; Sugai & Horner, 2002; Walton & Cohen, 2011; Zimmerman, Bandura, & Martinez-Pons, 1992). We as educators may teach academic skills, but we have not prioritized the development of behavioral, or noncognitive, skills to the same extent. And to be clear, behavioral skills matter.
Several research studies investigating readiness for college and career paths indicate that behavioral preparedness is as important as, if not more so than, academics. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2016) organizes next-generation skills into the following ten categories.
1. Creativity and innovation
2. Critical thinking and problem solving
3. Communication and collaboration
4. Information and media literacy
5. Technological literacy
6. Flexibility and adaptability
7. Initiative and self-direction
8. Social and cross-cultural skills
9. Productivity and accountability
10. Leadership and responsibility
The skills within these categories are all more behavioral (or metacognitive) than academic. However, very few of these are explicitly taught by educators. It seems clear that these skills must be more prioritized within the work of classrooms and schools.
Further, David Conley’s (2014) research investigates college- and career-readiness skills. His research, drawn from analyses of the skills required by colleges and careers, as well as the skills that students leave high schools possessing, led to his development of a framework for necessary 21st century learning. Among his findings are that the skills required for college and skilled careers are no longer distinct; success in either college or a skilled career requires the same competencies. Conley (2014) defines four categories of these skills, which table I.1 summarizes.
A simple analysis of these skills reveals the following: only one of the categories, Know, relates to academic knowledge. The other three categories define self-regulatory skills, metacognitive skills, and executive skills; in other words, the behavioral skills that were defined earlier in this introduction. This review of Conley’s (2014) categories of college and career readiness leads to an undeniable conclusion: success in life is about more than academic knowledge. Behaviors matter, both in college and in the workplace.
TABLE I.1: FOUR CATEGORIES OF COLLEGE- AND CAREER-READINESS SKILLS
| Skill Category | Definition |
| 1. Think | Beyond retaining and applying, students process, manipulate, assemble, reassemble, examine, question, look for patterns, organize, and present.Students develop and employ strategies for problem solving when encountering a challenge. Strategies include:• Problem formulation• Research• Interpretation• Communication• Precision and accuracy |
| 2. Know | Students possess foundational knowledge in core academic subjects and an understanding of:• Connections and structures between and within subjects• The necessity for, and implications of, effort and a growth mindset• The organization of content• Identification of key ideas• The inherent value of learning |
| 3. Act | Students employ skills and techniques to enable them to exercise agency and ownership as they successfully manage their learning.Students gain expertise through the regular and integrated application and practice of key learning skills and techniques. Agency rests on the following:• Goal setting• Persistence• Self-awareness• Motivation• Self-advocacy• Progress monitoring• Self-efficacyStudents develop habits that allow them to succeed in demanding situations:• Time management• Study skills• Test taking and note taking• Memorization• Strategic reading• Collaborative learning• Technological proficiencies |
| 4. Go | Students preparing for a career or additional education develop skills to navigate potential challenges, including:• Contextual—Motivations and options for educational programs after high school• Procedural—The logistics of admissions and application processes• Financial—The costs of further education and financial aid options• Cultural—Differences between cultural norms in school and the workplace or postsecondary settings• Interpersonal—Advocating for oneself in complex situations |
Source: Adapted from Conley, 2014.
The Economist Group and Google’s (Tabary, 2015) survey of business executives to assess the skills workers most need in 21st century workplaces reinforces this reality. The ten skills they identify most are:
1. Problem solving (50 percent)
2. Team working (35 percent)
3. Communication (32 percent)
4. Critical thinking (27 percent)
5. Creativity (21 percent)
6. Leadership (18 percent)
7. Literacy (17 percent)
8. Digital literacy (16 percent)
9. Foreign language ability (15 percent)
10. Emotional intelligence (12 percent)
These skills are critical in all content areas and across all grades. They are not, however, sufficiently present within academic curricula.
Finally, research from the Hamilton Project and the Brookings Institution analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, with cognitive skills measured
