Fostering and measuring skills: improving cognitive and non-cognitive skills to promote lifetime success

IQ tests and achievement tests do not capture non-cognitive skills - personality traits, goals, character and motivations that are valued in the labour market, in school and elsewhere. For many outcomes, their predictive power rivals or exceeds that of cognitive skills. Skills are stable across situations with different incentives. Skills are not immutable over the life cycle. While they have a genetic basis they are also shaped by environments, including families, schools and peers. Skill development is a dynamic process. The early years are important in shaping all skills and in laying the foundations for successful investment and intervention in the later years. During the early years, both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are highly malleable. During the adolescent years, non-cognitive skills are more malleable than cognitive skills. The differential plasticity of different skills by age has important implications for the design of effective policies. This paper reviews a variety of interventions across different stages of the life cycle. [The authors] interpret these studies using an economic model of skill development. Many effective programs work because they foster non-cognitive skills. Some have annual rates of return that are comparable to those from investments in the stock market. Parental involvement is an important component of successful early interventions just as successful adolescent mentoring is an age-appropriate version of parental involvement. Building an early base of skills that promote later-life learning and engagement in school and society is often a better strategy than waiting for problems to occur.

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