Student Core Competencies

Involves intellectual exploration, questioning, analyzing evidence, and challenging assumptions. Students apply reasoned approaches to conceptualize, analyze, make judgements, and problem solve. Students’ thinking is guided by humility, integrity, fairness, reflection, and an open mind.

• Inquiring about the world around them, having a desire to learn or explore new or interesting things, and seeking out diversity of thought
   
• Synthesizing bits of thoughts and knowledge to discover new insights or extend current understandings
   
• Framing problems with clarity and coherence, drawing plausible conclusions, and identifying how to move from what is known to what is sought, and then taking action
   
• Questioning information and evaluating assumptions, while taking into account what is essential, secondary, and superfluous
   
• Reflecting on one’s thinking and acknowledging its flaws in order to improve 

Involves accessing, interpreting, organizing, evaluating, and sharing information from a variety of sources, including social media. Students use critical thinking skills recognizing that truth, evidence, and facts compete for attention alongside rumors, hoaxes, and disinformation. Students seek, and use, information honorably and in a manner consistent with good character.

• Understanding the facts before accepting a conclusion or formulating an opinion
   
• Identifying, locating, and/or curating trustworthy sources through the use of research and inquiry tools
   

• Evaluating for accuracy, perspective, credibility, bias, and relevance of information and soundness of claims

• Engaging with and using information responsibly, including countering the diminishing role of truth, facts, and analysis in public life

• Understanding the influence of hidden algorithms on what we see online, thinking like a fact checker, and identifying deceptive information 

Involves producing new ideas or applying existing ideas to a new purpose in order to generate something of value. Students push beyond boundaries to connect disparate ideas (process) and develop or discover solutions (outcome). They play with ideas and embrace imagination, curiosity, ethics, and risk-taking. 

• Challenging assumptions and connecting seemingly disparate things in order to push beyond boundaries to uncover new syntheses or generate a novel or unique idea, question, solution, or product 

• Engaging in a design process to develop, test, and revise products, embracing the cyclical process of trial and error

• Looking at constraints, mistakes, and setbacks as an opportunity for learning and improvement, or seeing something in a new way, drawing upon previous experience 

• Allowing oneself to experience flow, in which one is fully present and completely immersed in a task

• Speculating and asking provocative questions, including about the relationship between creativity and ethics

Involves articulating, circulating, and exchanging ideas with others verbally and non-verbally. Students listen with empathy, share responsibly, consider the intended and unanticipated impact of messaging, and deal with disagreement respectfully. They are self-aware: they consider context, audience, occasion, and other cues when communicating. 

• Being alert and maintaining a sense of presence, with the intention of understanding a message
   

• Conveying a message with a sense of voice using tools, styles, formats, and media appropriate to the audience, occasion, and purpose

• Grasping the purpose or intention of a message in relation to audience and occasion, as well as platforms, tools, styles, formats, and media 

• Exchanging ideas with attention to others’ perspectives, feelings, experiences, intentions, and cues such as tone, selection of details, etc.

• Understanding the intended and unanticipated impact of messaging, and  dealing with disagreement respectfully

Involves working with others to get things done. Students value working with others and leverage the ideas, skills, and interests of others. They welcome the perspectives, cultural diversity, and contributions of others and regard them as central to the work or goal. 

• Listening to and acknowledging the feelings and concerns of others
   
• Valuing and leveraging the knowledge, experience, skills, and contributions of peers and other collaborators 
   
• Demonstrating empathy and sensitivity to diverse cultures and contexts when working with others
   
• Sharing and receiving ideas, feedback, and assistance from peers or other collaborators 
   

• Following, and even setting, ground rules for working together (i.e., agreeing on goals, assigning roles, coordinating jobs, distributing work)  

Involves seeking and valuing diverse perspectives and appreciating one’s own culture and personal history, as well as the values and traditions of others. Students embrace diversity, work towards equity, and contribute to a climate of inclusion. Civic-minded, they understand their impact on others and work for the common good. 

• Recognizing that all people are individuals, but we are also members of socially constructed groups 
   
• Appreciating one’s own culture and personal history, as well as the values and traditions of others
   

• Understanding that cultures and groups have historically been stratified, with statuses potentially affecting opportunities, access to resources built into institutions and cultural norms, and ability to thrive

• Seeking and valuing diverse perspectives in order to inform and broaden one’s knowledge and understanding 

• Taking informed and responsible action to create equity and a sense of belonging and address ethical, social, and environmental challenges, while also evaluating the consequences of such action 

Involves taking care of emotional, intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of the self. Students show empathy and caring, including for themselves. They seek help and form healthy relationships. Students feel a sense of agency and purpose. They have integrity and are responsible for their actions. They take on positive, healthy challenges and are hopeful, flexible, and resilient in the face of setbacks and new or unexpected situations. They value healthful living and find time for what they enjoy. 

• Maintaining healthy relationships with family, peers, adults, food, sleep, and exercise, and consistently seeking support, guidance, and encouragement from trusted people
   
• Approaching uncertainty and risk with forethought and determination, viewing one’s effort, resourcefulness, and resilience as signs of success 
   

• Finding meaning, purpose, joy, and satisfaction, along with a positive outlook on life that comes from looking inward rather than outward (e.g., grades) for validation and self-worth

• Balancing different aspects of self—emotional, intellectual, and physical—and recognizing one’s connection and interdependence with other people and the world

• Using the Honor Code’s underlying principles as a personal compass and acting with resolve by applying the principles for successful living, learning, and citizen-leadership

While these competencies should inform teaching, learning, and programming, they are NOT intended to dictate classroom and pedagogical practices.

Student core competencies should instead be seen as a lens through which we’re reconsidering teaching and learning. It is important to note that we are also NOT in any way compromising the strength of our academic program. Rather, we are acknowledging that the students entrusted to our care are human beings with human needs—they are not machines. They need to be sufficiently prepared to meet the world ahead and make it better, and these Student Core Competencies will be their toolkit for doing so once they leave our campus.

Colleges value the core competencies we are now putting forth. As the standardized testing and college admissions landscape continues to change, we are seeing growing evidence of schools attempting to measure character, leadership, and community involvement when evaluating applicants. These colleges and universities want students who will make a lasting impact once they arrive on campus, and they are eager for ways to help measure potential for impact among applicants.  After all, these are the very students who will one day be THEIR future alumni!  Our newly-defined student core competencies will only make our Pingry students more attractive applicants to colleges and universities nationwide. 

As noted by Head of School Tim Lear: “Colleges are searching for students who are intellectually brave and motivated to take action, students who are eager to collaborate, apply what they learn, and anticipate future challenges.”

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• What does it mean to be globally, civically, and interculturally competent?
   
• What kinds of proficiencies and dispositions do we think students need in order to discover alternative responses to challenges presented by the changing nature of today's jobs—or for work not yet invented?
   
• Knowing Pingry students are prepared to thrive in college, what do we see as the demands beyond college and in the 21st century workplace?
   
• What habits of mind and heart are essential for students to thrive as world citizens and leaders within and beyond the workplace?
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