Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success
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Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success Tim Kautz, James J. Heckman, Ron Diris, Bas ter Weel, Lex Borghans Directorate for Education and Skills Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) Education and Social Progress www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/educationandsocialprogress.htm FOSTERING AND MEASURING SKILLS: IMPROVING COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE SKILLS TO PROMOTE LIFETIME SUCCESS This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Photo credits: © Shutterstock You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was commissioned by the OECD through its project on Education and Social Progress. We thank Linor Kiknadze and Edward Sung for valuable research assistance. We received helpful comments from Richard Boyle, Zidi Chen, Maryclare Griffin, Robert Lerman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Dan Moran, Maria Rosales, and Indra Wechsberg. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Discarding Obsolete Notions and Embracing the Findings of Recent Research ....................................... 11 The Organisation of the Rest of the Paper ................................................................................................. 12 MEASURES OF COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE SKILLS ............................................................ 13 Cognitive Skills .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Measuring Non-cognitive Skills ................................................................................................................ 13 A Task-Based Framework for Identifying and Measuring Skills .............................................................. 16 Reference Bias ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Measuring Skills Using Behaviours ........................................................................................................... 20 Are Non-Cognitive Skills Stable? .............................................................................................................. 21 THE PREDICTIVE POWER OF NON-COGNITIVE SKILLS ................................................................... 23 Correlational Evidence............................................................................................................................... 23 Evidence from the General Educational Development (GED) Programme .............................................. 25 THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR SUCCESS IN THE LABOUR MARKET .................................................... 29 A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING INTERVENTIONS ............................................................. 31 SUMMARY OF EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THE EFFICACY OF INTERVENTIONS ...................... 33 EARLY-LIFE INTERVENTIONS THAT BEGIN BEFORE FORMAL SCHOOLING ............................. 35 Infant Programmes and Model Preschools ................................................................................................ 38 Nurse-Family Partnership ...................................................................................................................... 38 Jamaican Study ....................................................................................................................................... 40 Perry Preschool Programme ................................................................................................................... 40 Abecedarian Programme ........................................................................................................................ 42 Large-Scale Infant and Young Child Programmes .................................................................................... 43 Head Start ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Chicago Child–Parent Center (CPC) ...................................................................................................... 44 EDUCATION AND INTERVENTIONS IN KINDERGARTEN AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ........ 45 Targeted Non-Cognitive Skill Interventions .............................................................................................. 45 The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) ................................................................................... 45 The Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study (MLES) ..................................................................... 47 Cambridge-Somerville Program ............................................................................................................. 48 Project STAR ......................................................................................................................................... 48 EDUCATION AND INTERVENTIONS TARGETED TOWARD ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 Adolescent Mentorship Programmes ......................................................................................................... 49 5 Quantum Opportunity Program .............................................................................................................. 49 Becoming a Man .................................................................................................................................... 50 Pathways to Education Programme ........................................................................................................ 50 Big Brothers Big Sisters ......................................................................................................................... 51 Empresários Pela Inclusão Social (EPIS) Program ................................................................................ 51 H&R Block FAFSA experiment ............................................................................................................ 51 Dartmouth College Coaching Program .................................................................................................. 52 Residential-Based Programmes ................................................................................................................. 52 Job Corps ................................................................................................................................................ 52 National Guard ChalleNGe .................................................................................................................... 52 Workplace-Based Adolescent Intervention Programmes .......................................................................... 53 Career Academies .................................................................................................................................. 54 Year-Up Programme .............................................................................................................................. 55 Self-Sufficiency Project ......................................................................................................................... 56 Apprenticeship Programmes .................................................................................................................. 56 OTHER CURRICULA THAT HAVE BEEN APPLIED TO MULTIPLE AGE GROUPS ........................ 59 Tools of the Mind ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Studies that Teach the Incremental Theory of Intelligence ....................................................................... 59 Prevention vs. Remediation ....................................................................................................................... 60 THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION AND PARENTAL INVESTMENT ON COGNITIVE AND NON- COGNITIVE SKILL ..................................................................................................................................... 61 SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................