Carnegie Foundation and ETS Release Skills Progressions for Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking

The new research-based framework establishes clear definitions for essential skills needed for success in school, work and life.

STANFORD, Calif. and PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and ETS today jointly released the three Skills Progressions—focused on Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking. This work is part of Carnegie Foundation's multiyear effort to transform the American high school and define a coherent set of science-based skills standards to complement and improve academic standards, ensuring learning is increasingly rigorous, engaging and career-aligned. 

The gap between what young people need to thrive and what high school currently delivers has never been more apparent. As Artificial Intelligence reshapes work and civic life, the capabilities that distinguish human contribution—collaboration, clear communication and critical thinking— have become essential, not optional. Yet our education systems still struggle to define, develop and credential these skills with the same rigor that we apply to academic subjects.

States have started to respond. Across the country, more than half of the states have adopted Portraits of a Graduate that articulate an expanded vision for what students should know and be able to do by commencement. At their best, these portraits establish a vision that encompasses both the development of disciplinary knowledge and the durable skills that research indicates long-term success. But articulating a vision is only a first step. To ensure skill development is effectively integrated into core academic subjects, and skills translate into meaningful credentials that postsecondary education institutions and employers recognize and value, we need shared, science-based definitions: What do these skills look like as they develop? What conditions support their growth? How do we know when a student has reached proficiency? 

That is the purpose of these Progressions.

This set of Skills Progressions offers research-backed definitions of three capabilities essential for success in school and career. 

• Collaboration explores how students move from basic participation in group work toward the ability to integrate diverse perspectives, navigate conflict constructively, and build the trust that allows teams to accomplish more than individuals can alone.
• Communication traces growth from foundational message-making toward more sophisticated adaptation across audiences, contexts and modalities, including the active listening and comprehension that make genuine exchange possible.
• Critical Thinking maps the development of students' capacity to seek and evaluate information, construct evidence-based arguments, reason logically and reach well-founded conclusions even in the face of complexity or ambiguity.

"Students need to develop both academic and essential skills for success in life. Carnegie is working with scientists and cross-sector partners to build useful, valid definitions for the most important, highly predictive skills," said Dr. Timothy F.C. Knowles, President of the Carnegie Foundation. "In some ways, we are building a 'human skills genome,' carefully defining the key skills that allow us to reason, connect, create and contribute. Without common, tested definitions of skills standards that are freely available and refined over time, it is hard to imagine how we improve opportunity for millions of Americans."

Carnegie and ETS, with input from a Technical Advisory Committee of leading assessment experts, developed Skills Progressions that are grounded in decades of research from the physical, developmental and social sciences. The Progressions articulate how skills become more sophisticated over time, identify indicators of increasingly complex performance, and reflect the reality that skills are often demonstrated together rather than in isolation. The Progressions benefit from extensive feedback from educators, higher education leaders and workforce stakeholders to ensure that they are relevant, credible and usable across settings.

"Too often, the skills we say we value remain invisible in the educational process," said Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS. "These Skills Progressions are designed to bring legibility and coherence to research, practice and policy. Ultimately, this work, through our joint Skills for the Future initiative, will be infused throughout the educational sector—in student transcripts, learner records, curricula, assessments and educational technology tools— and will help millions more Americans achieve academic and professional success, and participate constructively in civil society."

To advance the next chapter of work, the Carnegie Foundation has convened a group of Senior Fellows to define the next set of skills that students need to succeed in a rapidly changing world. The Senior Fellows are cross-disciplinary experts spanning education, workforce, cognitive science, technology and related fields. They will contribute research expertise, practical insight, and participate in a rigorous review process to ensure that subsequent Progressions are empirically grounded, relevant and responsive to emerging demands in rapidly shifting learning environments, workplaces and civic contexts.

Additional Progressions will follow, with the next set of Progressions to be released later this year. 

About Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education. Today, the Foundation is dedicated to the transformation of the American high school and making the postsecondary sector a more vital engine for economic mobility. Learn more at www.carnegiefoundation.org.

About ETS

ETS is a global education and talent solutions organization enabling lifelong learners to be future ready. Our mission – advancing the science of measurement to power human progress – ensures our focus to enable everyone, everywhere, to demonstrate their skills and chart their path to future readiness for life. We are committed to readying 100M+ people for the next generation of jobs by 2035. We deliver on this commitment through trusted assessments and skills solutions – including TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, Praxis and Futurenav – and groundbreaking initiatives powered by our Research Institute. With a robust global footprint, including subsidiaries (PSI), offices and operations in more than 200 countries and territories, we help over 50 million individuals each year measure their proficiency and unlock new opportunities. Discover how we expand our worldwide impact: www.ets.org.

Correction: Changes have been made throughout the news release.

SOURCE Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; ETS