Skills for the Future Initiative
Since 1906, the Carnegie Unit or “credit hour” has served as the bedrock currency of the educational economy. It defines what “counts” as learning, shapes the nature of what is and is not assessed, and determines the basic organization of secondary and postsecondary education.
It is increasingly clear that the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to succeed in the 21st century are not singularly demonstrated through time; yet we are currently stuck in a system that conflates time with learning—particularly in school— and ignores the myriad of other ways students can gain valuable skills.
Skills for the Future (SFF) is a joint endeavor between ETS and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, established to drive a radical shift in education from time-based to competency-based learning. We aim to build an assessment system to capture evidence of the set of essential and durable skills—in tandem with disciplinary knowledge—most important for success in high school, postsecondary education, and jobs in the 21st-century economy.
Skills for the Future: Designing for the Future of Success
We need to fundamentally rethink education—
expanding our understanding of what learners need,
innovating on how skills and knowledge are measured, and generating insights about the development and acquisition of these skills and how they can be communicated.
A New Vision for Skills-Based Assessment
Modern education has been plagued by assessment systems focusing on a limited set of cognitive skills that are easy to measure, misaligned with nonlinear educational pathways, and that miss opportunities to offer insights that are valuable for learners, educators, and policymakers.
Laura Slover, ETS
Managing Director, Skills for the Future Initiative
Laura Slover is Managing Director of Skills for the Future, a joint initiative of ETS and Carnegie Foundation to transform education and measure what matters most.
Previously, she was the founder and CEO of CenterPoint Education Solutions. Laura started her career as a high school English teacher in Colorado. She was the Senior Vice President at Achieve, Inc. and then was the founding CEO of the Partnership for Assessment of College and Careers (PARCC), a consortium of states advancing college- and career-readiness through quality assessments. She lives in Washington, DC, where she served eight years on the Board of Education.
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