September 29, 2026
Credit for Real World Learning and Durable Skills Progression Standards are two of the seven research and development projects launched by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching today announced the launch of seven initiatives under its Research & Development Consortium for High School Transformation. WestEd is leading two of those initiatives. The Credit for Real World Learning project examines how to count out-of-school learning and experience toward graduation. The Durable Skills Progression Standards project examines the integration of durable skills into high-quality instruction.
The Credit for Real World Learning project addresses the fact that students learn a great deal in internships, jobs, and community work, and almost none of it counts toward a diploma, in part because few districts have a defensible, repeatable way to decide when it should. This project builds and tests that process. It will examine how a school makes credit decisions consistently and transparently, whether the evidence behind those decisions earns the trust of teachers and college admissions offices, and what it takes to sustain this work across a whole district. The project will prototype a Credit Translation Engine that uses AI to translate verified real-world learning into proposed academic credit, with educators making all final determinations.
“Young people learn in powerful ways well beyond the classroom, but our systems often struggle to recognize that learning,” said Brooke Stafford-Brizard, Senior Vice President for Innovation and Impact, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “This project will test how schools can award credit for verified real-world learning with rigor, consistency and transparency—using technology to strengthen, not replace, human judgment.”
WestEd will lead the project, with Project Evident as research partner and Playlab as technology partner. It will run in four school systems: Eastern Hancock Schools in Charlottesville, Indiana; Northern Cass School District in Hunter, North Dakota; Piper Unified School District in Kansas City, Kansas; and the Rural Alliance Zone (RAZ-32) in Randolph County, Indiana.
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 progressions, rubrics, calibration protocols, and instructional patterns available to educators nationwide.
“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 becomes 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 Stafford-Brizard.
WestEd leads the project, with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) as research partner, Building 21 as implementation partner, and Playlab as technology partner. It will run in five school systems: the CAST School Network in San Antonio, Texas; Concord Community Schools in Elkhart, Indiana; Henrico County Public Schools in Virignia; Roanoke County Public Schools in Virginia; and Summit Public Schools in California and Washington State.
“Students build academic knowledge and durable skills in classrooms, internships, and jobs, and schools need fair, consistent ways to recognize that learning,” said Sarah Quesen, Senior Director for Assessment at WestEd. “One project works with educators to decide when out-of-school learning should count for credit. The other helps teachers make the durable skills they already teach explicit and describe how students grow in them. Both depend on evidence that educators, families, and colleges can trust.”
All of the research and development projects announced today grew out of Carnegie’s Research & Development Agenda for High School Transformation, a fieldwide 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. Participating educators and students will serve as codesigners of the work, helping to shape the questions, tools, protocols, and findings.
For more information, visit www.carnegiefoundation.org.