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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 prove to the naysayers and skeptics.

Having defined 21^st century skills and competencies within P21’s seminal Framework for 21^st Century Learning, P21 applauds the alignment of the 21^st century competencies highlighted in the report with those which P21 and its coalition of education, business, association, state and federal leaders recognize as essential for developing student readiness for college, citizenship, and career. The 4Cs of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking, directly correlate to the three categories of 21^st century competencies outlined by the report, which show “consistent, positive correlations with desirable education and career outcomes.”

P21 also welcomes the report’s recommendations for further research as well as Federal involvement in pursuing the important questions at the heart of the report with regards to interdisciplinary knowledge transfer.

This report represents a strong conceptual shift signaling the continued growth of 21^st century skills movement – and should be regarded as a testament to the hard work being done by states, districts and schools in aligning curriculum and interdisciplinary integration across subject areas, and providing real world interconnections inherent in 21^st century teaching and learning.

For its part, P21 is energized to continue to work with the 17 P21 Leadership States and partners to ensure next steps are taken to support the development of learning environments, 21^st century competencies and skills in making our vision for 21^st century education a reality for all students.  

About P21: P21 is a national organization that advocates for 21^st century readiness for every student. As the United States continues to compete in a global economy that demands innovation, P21 and its members provide tools and resources to help the U.S. education system keep up by fusing the 3Rs and 4Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity and innovation). While leading districts and schools are already doing this, P21 advocates for local, state and federal policies that support this approach for every school.

Learn more at www.P21.org