Translating 21st-Century Trends into Action

By elevating skills over content, schools can ensure today’s students cope as independent, capable adults

Every school district is unique, but one reality is the same for all: Today’s students are vastly different from those our 20th-century schools were designed to serve. The late futurist Gary Marx (who spent two decades as AASA’s associate executive director of communications) often warned that if we fail to adapt, school systems risk being labeled as “out of touch” with the reality that awaits students thanks to technological advancements.

At Successful Practices Network, we are fortunate to collaborate with leaders of diverse school districts around the country as they strive to adopt future-focused cultures and strategies. These leaders keep a clear, forward-thinking vision for their schools while simultaneously navigating daily pressures, along with traditions, expectations, regulations and contractual obligations. Future-driven leaders do this by identifying and addressing key emerging trends that shape K-12 education today.

In Youngstown, Ohio, a community undergoing rapid demographic and economic changes, education leaders are infusing their schools with future-focused instructional strategies such as project-based learning to provide multiple pathways of success for all learners.

In the affluent suburbs of Douglas County, Colo., the central administration is collaborating with the board of education to proactively revamp their district’s strategic plan and ensure it adapts to the future’s unpredictability. And in the rural community of Hermiston, Ore., educators are responding to an increase in non-English-speaking families by building diverse community partnerships that reinforce their future-focused portrait of a graduate.

Leaders in each of these school systems are focused on the emerging trends defining education today. They are, according to Marx, author of the popular book Twenty-One Trends for the 21st Century: Out of the Trenches and Into the Future, “[interpreting] society to our schools [and] serving both the needs of our students and the needs of our society.”

The most impactful trends and strategies that these school leaders are focusing on are the seven that follow.

Teaching future-focused skills.

The skills students now need to succeed differ significantly from what schools have traditionally centered on. Extensive research from global think tanks, such as McKinsey & Company, Deloitte and the World Economic Forum, reveals that business leaders nationwide are increasingly frustrated with a labor market deficient in future-focused skills. Specifically, these studies identify a critical need for students to graduate with higher cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership and digital skills. These competencies transcend traditional academic knowledge, emphasizing problem solving, decision making, creativity, communication, teamwork and adaptability.

In education, our challenges in finding paraprofessionals, bus drivers, special education teachers and other essential staff are part of a broader labor shortage affecting nearly every industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over the last three years, the number of people seeking employment was less than the number of job openings, with only 0.73 people available for each job.

This labor shortage is not a temporary issue — it’s a long-term demographic challenge expected to worsen as the American population ages. In 1960, 39 percent of the population was under 19 years old, and only 13 percent was over 65 years old. But by 2034, projections indicate we will have more people over 65 years old (24 percent) than under 19 years old (23 percent). This creates a contracted workforce, and businesses will increasingly depend on technology to address their needs.

Some states and school districts have taken proactive measures to address this challenge. North Carolina launched the myFutureNC initiative, uniting education and business leaders to ensure the state has two million qualified workers by 2030. This initiative inspired the Surry County schools in Dobson, N.C. to partner with the manufacturing company Yadkin-Works. Together, they created Surry-Yadkin Works, an experiential learning program that empowers students to apply their classroom learning to hands-on manufacturing experiences in Yadkin-Works’ on-site, custom classroom.

A foundation of Surry-Yadkin Works is problem-based learning, which integrates academic disciplines and requires students to collaborate on comprehensive projects, preparing them for real-world challenges. The Surry-Yadkin Works partnership is an exciting example of districts investing students with the transferable, future-focused skills they need for their future careers.

Understanding how today’s students are different.

Students now grow up in a screen-based environment, which shapes their experiences and brain development differently from previous generations. While they are the most digitally connected generation, they often lack face-to-face interpersonal connections that strengthen their sense of belonging and collaboration. Consequently, behavioral changes are evident in how students delay reaching traditional milestones, such as obtaining driver’s licenses, taking part-time jobs and dating.

These shifts mean many students miss out on opportunities to develop the skills identified in the research by McKinsey, Deloitte and the World Economic Forum.

In Caldwell County, N.C., a diverse community where a significant portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, school leaders recognized these differences and adapted their instructional programs to create opportunities for students to develop their digital and interpersonal skills.

Simultaneously, Caldwell’s leaders offered professional learning opportunities for teachers to understand the impact that screen-based environments have on brain development and on the instructional strategies required to enhance technology’s positives and mitigate its negatives.

For Caldwell County, balancing the ubiquity of technology against the need for students to develop higher-level cognitive, interpersonal and self-leadership skills isn’t a mutually exclusive exercise. Indeed, Don Phipps, the district’s superintendent, says it has been incumbent to change instructional practices “now that we understand technology’s impact on brain development.”

Shifting content from the primary objective to an enabling objective.

The No Child Left Behind Act increased the focus on standards and state testing, emphasizing content knowledge, especially in middle and high school. Content became the primary objective in many classrooms, and standardized tests measured how well students mastered that content.

However, with the rapid rise of AI’s ability to not only access and use content faster than any human, but also to synthesize it into new understandings, content knowledge alone is no longer sufficient for our students.

While content remains necessary, it should serve as an enabling tool that supports the development of higher-order skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. Consequently, districts in Naperville, Ill.; Baldwin, N.Y.; Parkway, Mo.; and Mason City, Ohio, have shifted their focus to transforming instructional practices. They emphasize that skills — not just content — are crucial for preparing students to become independent adults. These districts recognize that students still need content knowledge to craft prompts or be proficient editors when working with AI tools. This shift allows schools to prepare students for the realities of the modern world.

The Naperville Community School District, a Chicago suburb, provided its staff with a clear understanding of the impact AI is having on the skills and knowledge students need to be successful in a workplace increasingly dominated by technology.

Naperville’s superintendent, Dan Bridges, says he believes “content knowledge is essential but no longer adequate to prepare students for the world beyond school. They need higher-order cognitive skills and the ability to work in a team.”

Consequently, the school district created AI teams to learn about the technology, recommend policy and instructional strategies to use it positively and shared their recommendations with schools districtwide.

Personalizing instruction with artificial intelligence.

AI is creating game-changing opportunities to tackle some of education’s toughest challenges. Generative AI’s first stage launched when Google, Siri and Alexa could provide quick access to information. Stage 2 arrived with the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, which could generate new content based on user prompts. We are now in Stage 3, in which AI can personalize instruction to meet the needs of every student.

Stage 3 also ushers the launch of Apple Intelligence, which allows interaction through text, audio, video and imaging on iPhones. It offers a personalized, conversational experience that feels like interacting with another human. This leap forward means students can now tap into AI to grasp complex concepts in ways that match their own learning levels, interests and unique skills — all on their personal devices.

Districts in Davie County, N.C., and Douglas County, Colo., have embraced AI, using it to assist in developing students’ individual education plans, writing lesson plans, creating assessments and communicating with parents. This use of AI frees teachers from time-consuming tasks, allowing them to focus more on personalizing learning experiences for their students.

Introducing AI in manageable steps helps teachers see it as a tool that enhances their role rather than as one that threatens their work. As a result, educators become more willing to integrate AI into their instructional practices, to facilitate personalized learning and to make education more responsive to each student’s needs.

Empowering teachers to drive transformation.

In recognizing that today’s students are different — and therefore their educational experiences must be different — we also need to acknowledge that the pivotal role of our teachers must change. In every district in which we’ve worked, approximately one-third of educators embrace the shift from a content-focused education to a skills-focused education early, seeing the value in transforming their practices. Another third is hesitant but open-minded, while the remaining third resists change, preferring to maintain their established methods.

The most successful districts invest in that top third of willing educators, allowing them to pioneer and experiment with new strategies. As these educators demonstrate success, the middle third gradually adopts these practices and the transformation gains momentum. This process typically takes one or two years for the top third and another two to three years to bring the middle third on board. Over time, however, most educators become advocates for change, creating an environment where even the most resistant educators feel the pressure to conform.

Assessing and reporting what matters.

The skills, knowledge and aptitudes students need to become independent adults aren’t always reflected in traditional assessments and report cards. However, changing these systems can be challenging due to entrenched rules, regulations and traditions.

Forward-thinking districts start by supplementing existing assessments rather than overhauling them completely. They develop rubrics to evaluate higher-order cognitive, interpersonal and self-leadership skills, and they train staff to apply these tools consistently. These supplemental assessments provide valuable insights that often become as important as traditional report card grades to parents, to higher education institutions and to the business community.

Over time, these additional data shift the focus toward what truly matters. By gradually evolving assessments and reporting, schools can align what they value with what they measure, ensuring that students are prepared for success beyond graduation.

Transforming instructional practices.

Districts addressing these new trends find that instruction necessarily becomes more problem-based, infused with projects and activities that require students to collaborate over extended periods of time. This approach encourages the development of future-focused skills such as teamwork, problem solving and critical thinking. These distinctly human skills enhance student success in an AI-driven world.

Many districts are moving toward integrated instructional programs, breaking down the barriers between isolated disciplines or between classrooms. They shift from having traditional department chairs to establishing interdisciplinary teams, allowing educators to collaborate across subjects. This change fosters a more holistic learning environment where students see connections between different areas of study.

In Mesa, Ariz., superintendent Andi Fourlis has reimagined the teaching professional. She has eschewed the traditional model of one teacher per 30 students and instead introduced team teaching to integrate subject areas. Her approach has created cohorts of students representing different abilities, interests and aptitudes.

Fourlis also has embedded professional learning in this structure. An expert teacher and a beginning teacher can be assigned to the same cohort, which provides added support to rookies, thereby reducing their attrition.

AI is vital in supporting this shift, assisting teachers as they identify interdisciplinary projects that align with standards and that accommodate individual student interests. This approach addresses the design flaw in our current system, where isolated disciplines lead to divisions in content, physical space and real-world modeling.

Final Thoughts

Embracing these trends enables school district leaders to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. By focusing on elevating skills over content, personalizing learning and transforming instructional practices, schools can ensure that today’s students are equipped to thrive as independent, capable adults in the future.

Bill Daggett is founder and executive chair of Successful Practices Network in Ballston Spa, N.Y.