This coaching project built on previous REL work to provide teachers and administrators with a rubric for conducting an audit of high school STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses and extracurricular activities to identify what employer-desired entry-level skills schools are explicitly teaching and where gaps exist. In this project, the REL worked with school districts in western Pennsylvania to extend the use of the audit tools with high school teachers and their students and department and school administrators. View the related resource here.

The REL worked with districts in southwestern PA about how to assess the degree to which students are adequately prepared, in need of support, or making progress in developing soft skills. At the conclusion of this work, participating districts had a list of soft skills they are addressing with students, ways they plan to assess those skills, and specific protocols for such assessments. Districts were also prepared to interpret and communicate assessment results with each other, with students, with other educators, and with colleagues responsible for designing and revising soft-skills initiatives.

Research-Based Instruments for Measuring Students' Soft Skills (373 KB)
This fact sheet provides a sample of instruments for assessing soft skills that can help educators identify students' strengths or challenges with different soft skills, such as teamwork or conscientiousness.

This project built and enhanced the capacity of the Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1) in Pennsylvania to 1) understand research on the effectiveness of project-based learning, 2) identify data elements necessary for documenting FabLab's, a project-based learning program, approaches and materials, 3) determine how data could be collected and used to develop descriptions of the FabLab practices likely to contribute to improved learning and behavioral outcomes among students with disabilities, and 4) establish a networked improvement community that aims to identifying promising strategies through an iterative process of continuous improvement.

The REL hosted an interactive workshop at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Personalized Learning Network Conference about how to use the Rapid Cycle Evaluation Coach. This workshop built district capacity to use a tool that promotes using data and evidence at a time when members of the Network are developing their research plans. The workshop’s goal was to help school administrators ensure that students within their districts have access to the most effective programs and educational opportunities.

Pennsylvania requires students to create individualized career plans that connect their interests and skills to potential careers. The REL worked with districts in western Pennsylvania to 1) provide information, resources, and coaching to help them improve their practices around individualized student career plans, including the support they provide students in developing plans; 2) discuss the strategies they use to integrate the plans into students’ educational experiences; 3) discuss the strategies and tools they use to assess the quality of students’ individualized career plans; and 4) discuss the methods they use to track students’ progress implementing their individual plans.

Research-Based Instruments for Measuring Students' Soft Skills (373 KB)
This fact sheet provides a sample of instruments for assessing soft skills that can help educators identify students' strengths or challenges with different soft skills, such as teamwork or conscientiousness.

Student Career Readiness Infographic (606 KB)
Our latest infographic outlines how to prepare students for changing career requirements.

Soft Skills Infographic (245 KB)
REL Mid-Atlantic developed an infographic on the soft skills employers seek in hew hires and why soft skills matter.

This workshop provided participants with an overview about what the research says about curricula that develop and promote in-demand, transferable knowledge and skills required by employers within the targeted fields of energy and biomedical sciences. Participants worked in district teams–in consultation with facilitators–to examine their own curricula and determine whether the curricula are likely to help students develop these career skills.

This workshop briefly reviewed research on career readiness knowledge and skills. Then, cross-sector groups discussed the skills needed to fulfill local industry needs, what is currently offered to help students learn those skills, and gaps between needed skills and learning opportunities to address them.