Developing Essential Skills for College and Career Readiness: Are Your Students Ready for Their Next Steps?

Presented by Doris Zahner, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer, Council for Aid to Education; Leighann Lenti, Chief of Partnership, University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education; and Matt Montaño, Superintendent, Bernalillo Public Schools (NM)

Sponsored by Council for Aid to Education, Inc.

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation. Get a CE Certificate for this edWebinar Learn more.

There is no question that we need to teach young people reading, math, science, and history, but content knowledge is only part of what students need to know and be able to do. Skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication are the foundation on which content knowledge can be mastered, integrated, and applied. These skills are essential to young people’s success in secondary and higher education, as well as in the workforce. In fact, they are the skills hiring managers are looking for most.

Teaching these essential skills often gets overlooked as educators use limited instructional time to prepare students to meet content-based standards. Many educators also assume that activities to build these skills are incorporated into content-based curricula. But leaving the development of these skills to chance is not beneficial to our students as we prepare them to navigate a rapidly changing and demanding world.

As with any skill development, identifying students’ current proficiency and areas for growth is the first step. In this recorded edWebinar, expert presenters share:

• The importance of screening and progress monitoring in developing students’ essential skills
• How to determine your students’ mastery of essential skills
• How performance-based assessments deliver accurate and actionable insights into students’ skills
• How educators can use assessment data to guide instruction and professional development

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to teachers, school and district leaders, and school counselors of the middle school, high school, and higher education levels.

About the Presenters

Dr. Doris Zahner is the chief academic officer at Council for Aid to Education where she provides thought leadership and oversees all research and development studies pertaining to CAE’s performance-based assessments. Dr. Zahner holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an MS in applied statistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to her responsibilities at CAE, Dr. Zahner is an adjunct associate professor at Barnard College and Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as New York University, where she teaches statistics courses to undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences and public policy.

Leighann Lenti serves as Chief of Partnership for the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education—a transformative and tailored leadership program for school and district transformation. Leighann has over 18 years of education policy experience at the state and federal levels. This includes as the deputy secretary of education at the New Mexico Public Education Department, where she oversaw college and career readiness, school accountability and transformation, teacher evaluation and the standards and assessment system.

Matt Montaño grew up in the district he now serves and has worn many hats in the Bernalillo community as an educator, policymaker, and parent. His successful tenure, which has become a model for the state, began as a teacher and transformed into administration-level roles, and later, state positions including being nationally recognized for his work as the director of educator quality and a deputy secretary for teaching and learning position. He holds a B.A. in history and religion from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. in special education from the College of Santa Fe, with an emphasis on ED/BD students. He is a member of Chiefs for Change’s Future Chief program and works to ensure culturally responsive and sustaining practices are a focal point of engaging students, families, and stakeholders.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Since 2002, educators have relied on CAE’s performance-based assessments to provide them with accurate, actionable insights into their students’ mastery of the skills essential to academic success in secondary school and college, and the skills most in-demand by employers—problem solving, critical thinking, and written communication.