For thirteen weeks, you’ve followed stories of transformation. Students overcoming anxiety to present with confidence. Young people discovering career clarity through authentic professional experience. Teenagers developing agency to direct their own learning and futures.
You’ve seen the three-part framework in action: making skills explicit, creating authentic experiences, and integrating skill development into everything. You’ve explored how schools develop each of the ten durable skills: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Leadership, Metacognition, Character, Growth Mindset, Mindfulness, and Fortitude.
Last week, we explored why these skills matter so much—for the workforce, yes, but also for navigating life itself. The research consensus from the World Economic Forum, McKinsey, and others is clear: durable skills are essential, and students who develop them early gain advantages that compound over time.
Now comes the question we’ve heard most often: How do I actually do this in my context?
Today, we’re announcing the complete resource library emerging from our 16-month research study: comprehensive materials designed to help you begin this work wherever you’re starting, whatever constraints you’re facing, whatever role you play in education.
All resources will be available in early 2026 on the America Succeeds Path Forward page, with announcements via our social media channels.
Here’s what’s coming.
The Full Research Report: How Schools Deliberately Develop Durable Skills
What it is:
The comprehensive documentation of everything we learned from 16 months studying 12 innovative high schools across America.
What you’ll find inside:
The report provides the complete evidence base showing how schools (from rural Indiana to urban Philadelphia, from 200-student alternative programs to comprehensive high schools serving over 1,000 students) systematically develop the durable skills students need for success in college, career, and life. Our findings align with what leading workforce research organizations—including the World Economic Forum, McKinsey Global Institute, and the OECD—have documented about the growing importance of these capabilities.
You’ll discover the three core principles that every successful school implemented, regardless of their specific model, student population, or available resources:
- making skills explicit and visible so students can see, track, and direct their own development;
- creating authentic experiences where skills genuinely matter—real audiences, real problems, real stakes; and,
- fully integrating skill development so it organizes all learning rather than supplementing it.
You’ll understand the four amplifiers that deepen transformation when present:
- progressive complexity that scaffolds challenge across years;
- sustained relationships enabling trust, honest feedback, and calibrated support;
- structured reflection that transforms experience into transferable learning; and,
- attention to context that builds on students’ assets rather than focusing only on deficits.
And you’ll see the three outcomes that emerge when principles and amplifiers work together—outcomes that research by economist James Heckman and others shows produce long-term returns in both career and life:
- agency: students who believe they can direct their own learning and futures;
- professional identity: students who see themselves as capable professionals, not just learners; and,
- informed future vision: students who make choices grounded in authentic experience.
Throughout the report, you’ll meet the students whose transformations illustrate these principles: Sydney overcoming perfectionism to conduct graduate-level research, Brooklyn designing medical equipment that exceeded professional expectations, Javeon transforming from trauma survivor to confident artist, Libby moving from social anxiety to teaching competence. These stories show what becomes possible when schools create conditions that unlock the potential every student already possesses.
Who it’s for:
School and district leaders planning transformation initiatives, researchers and policymakers seeking evidence, anyone wanting the complete picture of what we learned and how we learned it.
The Practice Guide: From Evidence to Action
What it is:
A comprehensive implementation resource translating research insights into strategies you can begin using immediately.
What you’ll find inside:
The Practice Guide is organized around the three principles and four amplifiers, with specific guidance for three distinct audiences:
- Classroom Teachers: Practical strategies you can implement in your own classroom without waiting for school-wide change. How to make one skill explicit in your instruction. How to add authentic audiences to existing assignments. How to implement reflection protocols that transform experience into learning. Entry points that don’t require permission, resources, or systemic support—just your commitment to trying something different.
- School Leaders: Building-level strategies for creating conditions where skill development becomes systematic. How to facilitate community conversations developing shared frameworks. How to build partnership infrastructure enabling authentic experiences. How to redesign advisory structures supporting sustained relationships. How to create assessment systems that value capabilities alongside content.
- District Leaders: System-level approaches for enabling and scaling transformation. Policy frameworks supporting competency-based approaches. Resource allocation strategies prioritizing authentic learning. Professional development models building teacher capacity. Accountability approaches that incentivize skill development rather than just test performance.
Each section includes diagnostic tools helping you assess your current state, implementation pathways showing where to begin, and templates and protocols you can adapt to your context.
Who it’s for:
Practitioners at every level who want actionable guidance, not just inspiration. Whether you’re a teacher wanting to try one new approach Monday morning or a superintendent planning a multi-year transformation, you’ll find strategies designed for your role and context.
Individual School Profiles: Models You Can Learn From
What they are:
Detailed case studies of each school in our research, showing how principles manifest in specific contexts.
What you’ll find inside:
Each profile provides a deep dive into one school’s approach:
- the school’s context: who they serve, their community, their constraints and assets;
- their framework: how they make skills explicit using their own language and structures;
- their core practices: detailed examination of the specific approaches that develop skills;
- student stories: named students with transformation arcs showing what development actually looks like;
- their outcomes: both quantitative results and qualitative evidence of student growth; and,
- transferable lessons: what other schools can learn from this model regardless of context differences.
The schools profiled include:
- Gibson Ek High School (Issaquah, WA): Personalized pathways, student-directed internships, four-year advisory relationships
- STEM School Chattanooga (Chattanooga, TN): Three-tenet framework, four-year progressive complexity, industry partnerships
- High School for Recording Arts (St. Paul, MN): Hip-hop culture as educational framework, wraparound support, asset-based philosophy
- Building 21 (Philadelphia, PA): Competency-based progression, studio curriculum, universal internships
- One Stone (Boise, ID): Radical student agency, student-run creative agency, board governance
- GO CAPS Monett (Monett, MO): Rural profession-based learning, embedded classrooms, seven-district consortium
- Cedar Falls CAPS (Cedar Falls, IA): Intensive 18-week model, multiple rotations, five performance standards
- Da Vinci Schools (El Segundo, CA): Design thinking integration, presentations of learning, real-world partnerships
- Batesville High School (Batesville, IN): Portrait of a Graduate, four-year progression, community engagement
- NAF Career Academies (Multiple locations): Career theme integration, business partnerships, network support
Who they’re for:
Leaders studying specific models, practitioners looking for approaches that match their context, anyone who learns best from detailed examples rather than abstract principles.
Webinar Series: Learn Directly from the Schools
What it is:
A series of webinars featuring educators, leaders, and students from the schools in our study, sharing their approaches and answering your questions directly.
What you’ll experience:
Each webinar will focus on specific aspects of durable skills development, featuring practitioners who’ve implemented these approaches successfully. You’ll hear directly from the educators whose work appears in our research, learn implementation details that don’t fit in written reports, and have opportunities to ask questions about challenges you’re facing.
Details on the webinar schedule, registration, and topics will be announced in early 2026 alongside the resource release.
Who it’s for:
Anyone who wants to learn directly from practitioners, ask questions about implementation, and connect with educators doing this work.
What Happens Next
In early 2026:
All resources will be available on the America Succeeds Path Forward page. Follow us on social media for the official announcement and direct links to each resource.
Right now:
You don’t have to wait to begin. Review the blog posts in this series—each one provides actionable insights you can apply immediately. Share this series with colleagues who might benefit. Start conversations in your school about what durable skills matter for your students.
When resources release:
Choose your entry point based on your role and context. If you’re a classroom teacher, start with the Practice Guide’s teacher section. If you’re studying models, explore the school profiles. If you want the complete picture, read the full report.
The Invitation Stands
For thirteen weeks, we’ve shown you what’s possible when schools design for intentional skill development rather than hoping it happens accidentally: students developing confidence, capability, and agency; schools creating conditions that unlock the potential every student already possesses; educators refusing to accept that content knowledge alone prepares students for work and life.
Brooklyn, Sydney, Javeon, Libby, Marion, Maci, Connor: they didn’t succeed because they were exceptional. They succeeded because their schools created the conditions for their potential to flourish. Your students possess that same potential. The question is whether you’ll create those conditions.
The resources are coming. The community is welcoming. The path forward is clear.
January brings the complete resource library. Until then, the invitation remains: join the movement preparing students with the durable skills they need to thrive, at work and in life.
Your students are waiting. Let’s give them the advantage they deserve.
For updates on resource availability, follow America Succeeds on LinkedIn and visit the Path Forward page. To discuss any aspect of this work, please contact Michael Crawford at mcrawford@americasucceeds.org.
