Mandy Savitz-Romer

Social, Emotional, and Affective Skills for College and Career Success

Mandy Savitz-Romer (mandy_savitz-romer@gse.harvard.edu) is a senior lecturer in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the co-author of Ready, Willing and Able: A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success. Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon (rowanken@bc.edu) is an associate professor in the higher education program in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Her work focuses on college access and success for underrepresented students. Cheri Fancsali (cfancsali@impaqint.com) is managing director of education research and principal research scientist at Impaq International. Her research focuses on the impact of school-improvement efforts, including the social, emotional, and affective dimensions of learning. By Mandy Savitz-Romer, Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon, and Cheri Fancsali

Finding Conceptual Coherence: Trends and Alignment in the Scholarship on Noncognitive Skills and Their Role in College Success and Career Readiness

Recent questions about the degree to which higher education adequately equips graduates with desired workplace skills has drawn attention to the role of noncognitive skills in college and the workplace. Yet, there is questionable alignment of these skills across higher education and employment sectors. The literature on noncognitive skills, defined here as a diverse set of social emotional and self management competencies, is varied across higher education and employment literatures, thus creating confusion and a lack of clarity. A systematic review of the literature was conducted as a means to clarify and organize a set of terms and concepts that support college and career success. This manuscript presents the findings from that review, as well as the development of a taxonomy created for analytic purposes and alignment of noncognitive skills bridging the higher education and employment literatures. The taxonomy is divided into three domains of noncognitive skills that emerged from our analysis-Approach to Learning/Work, Intrapersonal Skills, and Social Skills.

Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Economy: Its Association with Academic Engagement and the Role of School-Based and Parental Relationships

In the context of widespread media coverage of economic problems, un- and under-employment, and overwhelming student loan debt, youth are making sense of the prospects of getting a job and value of education. Further, they are assessing the implications of the job market in curtailing or enhancing their future success. School-based and familial relationships may support students in making sense of the job market. The current study focuses on how youth view the economy, its association with academic engagement, and how parental and school-based relationships shape views of the job market and their impact on academic engagement. With an ethnically diverse sample of high school students (N = 624; 54% female), perceptions of the job market were tested as mediators and moderators of the relations between school-based relationships and parenting on academic engagement. Using structural equation modeling, job market pessimism mediated the relation between school-based relationships and engagement. School-based relationships and parenting practices moderated the relation between job market pessimism and academic engagement. At high levels of parental and school support, interpreted as increased centrality and salience of academic success, there was a stronger negative association between job market pessimism and academic engagement. This set of findings indicates that high school students are thinking about the job market in ways that impact their engagement in school. These findings extend theories that have focused on the job market and the likelihood of dropping out of school or enrolling in post-secondary education. These findings are significant because just staying in school is not enough to succeed. With increased emphasis on college and career readiness, students are required to be more planful and purposeful during high school in order to succeed in the job market.