Parents, voters, and employers overwhelmingly agree: durable skills are critical for personal and professional success.
In October, America Succeeds partnered with EdChoice to include a set of durable skills-focused questions in their monthly Public Opinion Tracker poll. For years, our Durable Skills Initiative has documented what employers value most in job candidates, competencies like communication, critical thinking, collaboration, responsibility, and leadership. Our groundbreaking research with Lightcast shows that in 2024, eight of the top ten most requested skills on over 75 million job postings are durable skills; up from seven of the top ten in 2020. But one crucial question remained unanswered: Do parents and the general public value these skills as much as employers do? This month, we finally have the answer.
In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice developed a nationally representative survey of both Americans (N=2,253) and current school parents (N=1,334).The survey was in the field from October 10-12, 2025. These surveys, as part of EdChoice’s Public Opinion Tracker, are fielded on a monthly basis. The Public Opinion Tracker surveys set out to learn about the experiences and perspectives of both the general public and current school parents on many key issues around K-12 education. Some topics include school choice policies, school funding, safety, technology in K-12 education, and much more.
In the new questions related to durable skills, we asked for opinions on:
- How important is it for policy makers and school leaders to prioritize the development of specific durable skills (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, character, leadership)?
- How important is it for schools to prioritize durable skills development broadly?
- How do parents rate their oldest and youngest children’s schools at developing durable skills?
- Who should be most responsible for teaching durable skills?
The results are unequivocal: whether you are a Fortune 500 business owner, a parent of a tenth grader, or a citizen concerned about the future of our workforce, Americans believe durable skills are essential for individual learners and the entire labor market.
When asked “How important is it that your child’s/children’s school prioritizes developing students’ durable skills (such as communication, critical thinking, teamwork, adaptability, and responsibility)?” 85 percent of school parents said it was very important (34%) or extremely important (51%). Parents see what employers see: their children’s future opportunities hinge on their development of skills that transfer across occupations and industries.
When asked the same question about individual durable skills (communication, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, leadership, and character), parents ranked critical thinking and communication as the highest priorities. While all the skills received comparable importance scores, employers echo this sentiment. In 2023-2024 alone, critical thinking and communication skills showed up on 62,955,425 job postings (Durable by Design).
In the context of America’s contentious partisan climate, one of the most striking findings is how strongly durable skills transcend partisan divides. 88 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans indicated that it is very important or extremely important for schools to prioritize durable skills development. Even their evaluations of school performance are similar: 65 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans perceive that their oldest child’s school is either very good or excellent at teaching these competencies. Durable skills are immune from the polarization that has engulfed our country because their value is omnipresent across states, industries, belief systems, and walks of life.
While demographic and political differences did not significantly impact respondents’ perceptions of durable skills broadly, they did materialize more prominently in responses to the question “who do you think should be most responsible for teaching durable skills?” Among 2,253 total respondents in the general population survey, 1,334 of which were school parents, 43 percent said it should be a shared responsibility, 26 percent said it should be the parents’ responsibility, 16 percent said it should be schools’ responsibility, while community organizations, employers, and not sure received small shares that comprised the remaining 15 percent of the vote. Republicans were 9 percent more likely to say that it should be parents’ responsibility, while Democrats were 6 percent more likely to say it should be a shared responsibility. Interestingly, 18 percent of both groups responded that it should be schools’ responsibility. These patterns reflect familiar ideological differences about the role of families versus institutions in education, but they also highlight a broad recognition that durable skills require collaboration across home, school, and community.
The partnership between America Succeeds and EdChoice is shining light on the perceptions of durable skills from the input side of education: families. These findings reinforce what America Succeeds has long observed from the employer side of the equation: demand for durable skills is both broad and deep. But now we can say with confidence that this demand isn’t limited to hiring managers; it’s shared by parents, voters, and communities across the country. Durable skills are not a niche workforce concern; they are a mainstream expectation for what education systems should deliver.
As America Succeeds advances the Pathsmith™ Durable Skills Framework, partners with organizations to bring durable skills to life, expands our research into real-world education practices, and supports states and districts in implementing Portrait of a Graduate visions, this new data offers a powerful mandate. Families want these skills taught, employers need them, and states must increasingly design systems to make them central to the student experience.
America Succeeds will continue to champion partnerships, programs, and policies that help learners develop these competencies, ensuring every student is equipped not just for their first job, but for everything that comes next.
This post was written in partnership with Colyn Ritter from EdChoice.
