'Skill-Based' & 'Data-Driven': Education Buzz Words No Longer

2/6/2022

by Nick Truxal

Recently, I took a break from my years as an educator to get new training on better leading and applying evidence: specifically, data driven evidence. The focus of my program is the corporate world, and as such, I am having a number of revelations.

The one that I want to focus on today is that the corporate world is transforming in many of the same ways that we have been doing in education. There is an enormous focus on skills: building new skills in employees, breaking jobs down by associated skills, understanding the skills needed to perform well in teams, as well as assessing and reporting based on skills.

Since our inception, Third Eye Education has been speaking about skill-based reporting. Just a few examples:

This podcast episode with Myron Dueck: "Airport Stories: Piloting Students Beyond Silos" (February 2021)
This article inspired by the work of Dessa: "Inspiration for Transdisciplinarity Innovation and Application" (March 2021)
These podcast episodes "A Hip Hop Education" with Ian P. Levy (May 2021) and "A Rich Process of Creation" with Lazerbeak and Ilan (August 2021)
This article inspired by the work of Sarah Zerwin: "Focusing on Feedback: Reassessing Letter Grades" (June 2021)

I personally love feedback only, skill-based instruction and reporting. The remarkable thing is that the entire world seems to be making a pivot in this direction as well. There are a few key reasons driving this transformation, and a few key takeaways for educators.

What's driving this transformation?

These reasons may sound familiar, but the slant on them I find unique:

There seems to be universal agreement that employee evaluations have been poor
There has increasingly been a need to make assessments and evaluations more valuable
The options most organizations explored were (and I love these):
- Become skill-based in their assessments
- Create an algorithm that takes into account the performance of those surrounding the person being evaluated, the culture they are a part of, the audience they are working with, etc.
- There was an understanding that staying with the current system was simply not an option (though, of course, not everyone has the resources to pivot)

What may educators pull from this?

I see these as being parallel to the conversations we’ve been having in education. Of course, each can be applied to how we, as teachers, are assessed as well as how we assess our students. I do wish that I had considered the third bullet point above, which is offering options to better our practices, before jumping into the work, myself.

Ultimately, this means a few things for educators:

The concern that we are shifting the conversation to skills when colleges and workplaces are not is a misplaced concern. Colleges are, again, as I can attest by being in a masters program at the moment. Moreover, those programs that are not will certainly be under pressure to become more skill focused as resumes become more skill focused (again, as I can attest - I had to update my resume for my internship, and was advised to move from work experience to skill based). As employers hire based on skills demonstrated through the resume, the employee portfolio (again, becoming more important), and the placement assessments being taken.
These efforts can teach us how to better implement skill based feedback in our educator evaluation systems as well as in classrooms. We can learn from efforts to break down discrete skills and competencies. We can see new technologies that can help us to do so, to track skills, and to help students understand the root skills needed for employment they may ultimately find attractive.
As we are making a shift as a society towards skills rather than experiences, this should be something we see at all ages, not simply the end of high school. When kindergartners are on a nature hike, the experience is fantastic. What skill are we hoping they take from that experience? There are certainly a plethora of options, from critical observation skills to rudimentary understanding of biological systems. Knowing our purpose before planning our experiences can help ground our practices.

A small disclaimer as I conclude: I’ve always hated the idea that education should take anything from business. We are not a business. We are here to help young people to grow. I’ve often found it difficult to accept the best practices emerging in the workplace. I think I found it easier this time because it so closely mimics what we’ve been working on for a long while.

Further, it does show a fundamental shift in the way our society is thinking, and having advanced knowledge of such a shift can indeed help us better prepare our young people to grow.

Nick Truxal is currently a student in NYU's HCAT program and the bass player for a number of Minnesota-based bands