Mission Skills Assessment
Teamwork, creativity, ethics, resilience, curiosity and time management. These 21st century skills are critical to your child's success — in school and in life.
Resilience
- Ability to roll with the punches
- Acceptance of what life gives you
- Making the most of what’s given
Teamwork
- Mutual support
- More effective outcomes
- Ability to focus different minds on the same problem
Creativity
- Seeing things from a different perspective
- Using your imagination
- Increased passion
Curiosity
- An active mind
- Openness to new ideas
- Added excitement to living
Ethics
- Thinking about what matters
- Understanding the rules
- Being strong enough to stand up for what you believe in
Time Management
- Avoiding missed deadlines
- More time to do what you enjoy
- More flexibility and spontaneity
Almaden Country Day School has been selected to be part of a prestigious international study group of 100 elite schools participating in the Mission Skills Assessment. MSA schools are helping to develop the assessment, which will improve the ability to deliver these critical skills to more than 35,000 students worldwide.
What is it?
The Mission Skills Assessment is a tool developed by Educational Testing Services (ETS) to measure six skills essential to student success in today’s world. These include: teamwork, creativity, ethics, resilience, curiosity and time management.
Why are they called Mission Skills?
The MSA skills are commonly found in independent school mission statements; schools promise to cultivate these attributes in children, but historically have never attempted to scientifically measure whether their students actually develop the skills during their time in our schools. The MSA schools are committed to objectively evaluating — and improving — their effectiveness in delivering these six skills.
The assessment is for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and consists of two 30-minute sessions as well as a teacher assessment of each student.
Why are we participating?
The MSA is an important and innovative project. Over time, it will provide Almaden Country School with objective, scientific data informing how well our instructional programs develop these six essential skills in our students. Studies conducted by ETS and other researchers demonstrate that these skills predict college readiness as well as the SAT; perhaps more importantly, they are integral to success in the 21st century workplace and have been shown to correlate with measures of happiness and fulfillment in adult life. This is why we believe that the MSA can help us provide Almaden Country Day School students with a powerful head start toward living a meaningful, fulfilling, successful life.
We are proud to be the first and only South Bay independent school, and one of just 10 schools in California, participating in the MSA. Our aim is to collaborate with the other schools worldwide on this important research project, and optimize our ability to deliver most important lessons of our students' lives across the preschool, elementary, and middle school years — their most crucial window for transformation and growth.
For more information, please see the FAQs below; you may also contact either Head of School Dr. Jorgenson or Assistant Head Mr. DeMoss.
Mission Skills Assessment FAQs
- Q: How do you define each skill or attribute measured in this study?
- Q: How were the test items generated?
- Q: How will the tests be scored?
- Q: Who developed the assessment and who will do the scoring?
- Q: What's the experience like for students taking the test?
- Q: What grades will take the test?
- Q: What does ACDS do with the results?