Why Durable SkillsPredict Outcomes
Two decades of research converge on one finding: durable skills are roughly twice as predictive of adult outcomes as cognitive metrics. This is the evidence behind everything we measure.
What Actually Predicts
How Students Turn Out
Tap or hover each bar for the research behind it. The metrics schools optimize for tell only half the story of who thrives after graduation.
Not One Study.
Eighteen Meta-Analyses.
These findings don't rest on a single paper. They're the conclusion of nearly two decades of synthesized research across hundreds of thousands of students.
The Scholars
Behind The Science
The predictive power of durable skills is one of the most replicated findings in developmental science, built by researchers across psychology, economics, and education.
Her landmark 2007 study in Science showed that grit predicts achievement beyond IQ and SAT scores — from cadet retention at West Point to finalists at the National Spelling Bee to student outcomes at KIPP schools.
Duckworth's work established that perseverance and passion for long-term goals carry predictive weight that cognitive measures alone cannot capture.
Demonstrated the economic returns of non-cognitive skill development, showing these capabilities drive earnings and life outcomes.
Longitudinal research linking childhood self-control to adult health, wealth, and wellbeing across decades of follow-up.
Leads Harvard's Making Caring Common Project, studying how schools cultivate caring, ethical, and capable young people.
Pioneered growth mindset research — how students' beliefs about their own capability shape persistence and achievement.
Synthesized the character-development research for a national audience, reframing how educators think about how children succeed.
Research on curiosity — the "hungry mind" — as a core driver of academic performance alongside intelligence and effort.
From Evidence
To Measurement
The research says durable skills matter most. The next question is whether they can be measured well. That's where our work begins.