The Skills for Success Program supports Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and their partners in implementing, evaluating, and refining tools and approaches for developing the non-cognitive skills of middle-grades students in order to increase student success. Grants provide funding for the implementation, evaluation, and refinement of existing tools and approaches (e.g., digital games, growth mindset classroom activities, experiential learning opportunities) that integrate the development of students’ non-cognitive skills into classroom-level activities and existing strategies designed to improve schools. As grantees implement their projects, the Department of Education expects them to collect, analyze, and use data to improve their tools and strategies throughout the project period. Ultimately, the Department expects grantees to identify and validate scalable tools and approaches that can be used by educators of high-need middle-grades students across the country. In addition, the Department expects that these grants will help build the capacity of LEAs and their partners to conduct research and apply that research to school- and district-level practices. This program also encourages sustainable partnerships that can continue the use of effective tools and approaches beyond the grant period.
The FY15 competition includes two absolute priorities. Applicants must address both absolute priorities:
Absolute Priority 1: Developing Non-Cognitive Skills in Middle-Grades Students - Under this priority, funding is provided for projects that implement, refine, and evaluate existing tools and approaches that encourage the development of non-cognitive skills for students in grades 5–8. Such tools and approaches may be designed to encourage the development of growth mindsets, resilience, and self-control, among other attributes. Applicants must demonstrate how their proposed approach would develop students’ non-cognitive skills and fit into existing school- or district-level improvement strategies. Projects will share their learnings with other LEAs.
Absolute Priority 2: Supporting High-Need Students - Under this priority, funding is provided for projects that are designed to improve academic outcomes, learning environments, or both, for High-need Students.
An emerging body of research indicates that interventions that focus on enhancing student attributes, such as growth mindsets, resilience, self-control, and other social and behavioral skills, such as self- efficacy, can have a significant and lasting impact on student achievement and behavior. This research suggests that non-cognitive factors may play an important role in students’ academic, career, and life outcomes. For example, teaching students that their minds can grow and develop through routine and focused practice, as compared to referring to intelligence as a fixed trait like eye color, can increase students’ academic success. This competition is designed to build on that research by expanding our knowledge and understanding about the tools and approaches for promoting non-cognitive skills or how educators can improve their students’ non-cognitive skills as part of their broader efforts to enhance student educational outcomes, including efforts to improve academic achievement and attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism and exclusionary discipline.