Join the conversation

Editor’s Note: Our guest blogger today is Tim Magner, Executive Director of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21).

Despite many education experts, business leaders, and higher education professionals joining the bandwagon to implement and highlight 21^st century skills and helping define the now 10-year old 21^st century skills movement, there’s been an important missing element: Research in the arena of 21^st century skills to date has been scarce. With the release of the National Research Council's report Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, we now have additional confirmation to support both the abundant opinion research and anecdotal evidence we have used over the years to advocate the importance and value of an education that includes both knowledge and skills. 

P21 commends the National Research Council (NRC) and the sponsors of the report for producing the most comprehensive research-based articulation of the case for 21st Century skills to date. The caliber and breadth of the research community brought together on this effort speaks to not only its importance in the future of our education system, but to the impact these findings will have across the K-12 education spectrum.  This report represents a historic validation of what the 21^st century skills education community has worked hard to ...