CAST Schools Joins National Effort to Transform the American High School

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CAST Schools alongside field partners have launched the Durable Skills Progression Standards project, a research and development initiative examining the integration of durable skills into high quality instruction. It is one of seven projects launching under Carnegie’s Research & Development Consortium for High School Transformation.

The Durable Skills Progression Standards project will explore what is required for Carnegie’s published durable skills standards to become part of sustained, everyday classroom practice alongside academic learning. Working with educators and school systems, the project will study how teachers build the capacity to recognize and develop these skills. The project is expected to produce validated progressions, rubrics, calibration protocols and instructional patterns available to educators nationwide.

“What excites us about joining Carnegie’s work is the opportunity to translate what we learn at CAST Schools into practical tools that educators here in San Antonio and across the country can use,” CAST Schools Executive Director Jennifer Maestas said. “For years, our employer partners have told us that creating opportunities for students to develop these skills through projects, internships, and other authentic learning experiences is what makes them desirable in the workforce. We also believe that these skills are what help students find their voice in school and in the world of work.”

The research and development projects grew out of Carnegie’s Research & Development Agenda for High School Transformation, a field-wide effort to identify and address the most consequential questions standing between today’s time-based system and a future organized around rigorous learning, meaningful experiences and trustworthy evidence of what students know and can do. The work is informed by Carnegie’s Future of High School Network, launched in June 2025 with 24 innovative school systems that serve approximately 90,000 students across urban, suburban and rural communities.

After a year of learning with network members, the Carnegie Foundation organized seven projects focused on schools and systems that are building promising approaches — and where stronger evidence and shared tools will enable those approaches to take hold, sustain and scale. Participating educators and students will serve as co-designers of the work, helping to shape the questions, tools, protocols and findings.

“Defining durable skills is the beginning of the work. This initiative is about doing the much more important work: learning with educators how the development of essential skills become visible, teachable, and meaningful in the daily life of a classroom, particularly when integrated into academic instruction. If we get this right, educators will have practical tools to help many more young people build the capabilities they need to thrive,” said Brooke Stafford-Brizard, Senior Vice President for Innovation and Impact, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The project is led by WestEd, with WestEd and NCIEA (the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment) serving as the research partners, Building21 serving as the implementation partner, and Playlab as the technology partner, and will run in 5 school systems: the CAST School Network, Concord Community Schools, Henrico County Public Schools, Roanoke County Public Schools, and Summit Public Schools.

For more information, visit www.carnegiefoundation.org.

About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Carnegie Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Educational Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.