‘Soft Skills’ in Big Demand

Interest in teaching students habits of mind for success in life is on the rise.

By Catherine Gewertz

Sacramento, Calif.

Between tasks in Algebra 2, Valari Jacobsen checks her grades in the class. Accessing her personal page on the school’s computer system, she sees she has a 71 percent in course content. She knows she needs to step that up.

But she’s doing really well in collaborating with her peers: Her score is 100 percent. And in oral communication, she has a 135 percent.

Unusual as it may seem, Jacobsen, an 18-year-old senior, is being evaluated on oral communication and on how well she works with other students in her mathematics class at Sacramento New Technology High School . Those interpersonal skills are among 10 “learning outcomes” students here must master as they progress through all their academic subjects. The outcomes are embedded in complex projects designed to build those skills as...