Q: Learning seems to be siloed in my school, at least in the way teachers are thinking about it. How can we integrate durable skills into classes without it feeling like extra work for educators?
A: In many of the schools I’ve worked with, “content” lives in one lane, “skills” in another, and “extra initiatives” somewhere off to the side, waiting to be squeezed into already full lesson plans and extra curriculuars. The result is familiar: Teachers feel overwhelmed, durable skills get treated as add-ons, and students receive mixed messages about what really matters. These mixed messages are a killer of excellent intentions and initiatives.
On the plus side, integrating durable skills does not have to mean creating one more thing for educators to do. The most effective approach is usually the opposite: stop treating durable skills as an additional program and start treating them as the way we already want students to learn content. When schools make that shift, durable skills become embedded in daily instruction rather than layered on top of it. This immersion ensures depth of development and integration into student learning.
Start with a Shared Definition of “Durable Skills”
Before we can effectively integrate durable skills, we need a common language. Durable skills—sometimes called transferable skills, essential skills, or future-ready skills—typically include things like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, self-management, and adaptability. And many of these competencies are being built into the formal portrait of a learner or the portrait of a graduate initiative. These are not separate from academic learning; they help students apply it beyond a single assignment or unit.
A common mistake is assuming that because everyone values these skills, everyone means the same thing by them. They do not. One teacher may think collaboration means students working together politely. Another may expect students to debate, negotiate, and revise ideas together. Without alignment, durable skills become vague, which makes them harder to teach and even harder to assess. This is true of so many initiatives with ambiguous terminology and, frankly, assumptions that we all mean the same thing.
Schools can help by naming a few priority skills and defining them in student-friendly, observable terms. The goal is not to create a massive rubric library. It is to make sure teachers and students know what the skill looks like in practice. These can also be made into learning progressions, which help students know where they are and how to improve along the way.
Integrate Skills into the Work Teachers Are Already Doing
The fastest way to make durable skills feel like “extra” is to bolt them onto existing lessons as separate activities. Instead, schools should help teachers identify where those skills already naturally live in the curriculum.
For example, a science teacher does not need a standalone collaboration unit if students are already running labs, analyzing evidence, and defending claims. A literature teacher does not need a separate communication module if students are discussing texts, writing arguments, and revising ideas. A math teacher can reinforce perseverance and problem-solving through rich tasks that require multiple strategies rather than a single correct answer.
The key is to ask: What durable skill is already implicit in this lesson, unit, or task? Then make it explicit. Teachers do not need more work so much as a sharper lens. If you do this work as a team, it will help develop mastery of understanding and shared integration and will help students transfer the skills when it is embedded in the learning.
Use Routine Practices, Not Special Events
One reason durable skills often feel like an add-on is that schools introduce them through special projects, themed weeks, or isolated performance tasks. Those experiences can be valuable, but they do not change the day-to-day culture of learning. Instead, schools should build durable skills into existing routines: daily or weekly reflection prompts; discussion protocols that require listening and building on ideas; peer feedback structures; goal-setting and self-assessment; exit tickets that ask students to explain their thinking; and revision cycles that normalize improvement.
These routines do not require teachers to reinvent instruction. They simply make the skills visible, repeatable, and part of the fabric of classroom life. As part of these routines, teachers can talk explicitly about the skills, call them out as they work through the daily routines, and always tie them back to the vocabulary. These small shifts have a large impact.
Make the Work Easier, Not Heavier
If schools want educators to integrate durable skills, they need to remove friction. That means providing ready-to-use tools rather than asking teachers to design everything from scratch. Professional learning should also be practical. Teachers are more likely to embrace durable skills when they see how these skills strengthen core instruction, not when they are handed abstract theory. Show them what it looks like in a math problem set, a history discussion, a lab report, or a group project. Concrete examples reduce anxiety and increase consistency. When I work with teacher teams, we always unpack these ready-made materials as part of job-embedded professional learning that allows the teams to make them their own. We also want to make sure teachers have the time and flexibility to familiarize themselves with the material and routines so that they feel confident rolling it out as a part of their curriculum.
Connect Skills to Outcomes Teachers Already Care About
Teachers are far more likely to prioritize durable skills when they can see their impact on student learning. That means connecting these skills to outcomes they already value: deeper understanding, stronger writing, more independent work, better discussion, and improved problem-solving.
For instance, a teacher might notice that students who learn to monitor their own progress turn in stronger revisions. Or that students who practice academic dialogue produce more thoughtful claims in writing. Or that students who develop planning habits can manage longer-term projects more successfully. When educators see that durable skills improve academic performance rather than compete with it, the work feels purposeful rather than burdensome. And we need teachers to be our allies in this work as they work with students.
Share Ownership Across the School
Durable skills should not belong to a single department, a single specialist, or a single initiative leader. If they do, they will remain siloed. School leaders can support integration by creating shared expectations across grades and subjects while also allowing teachers to express those skills in ways that fit their discipline. We see this all the time with literacy, for example. For too long, English teachers have borne this burden, but helping students develop their literacy skills is a responsibility across all content areas. Same with durable skills.
A history classroom might emphasize argumentation and source analysis. A CTE class might emphasize collaboration and workplace communication. An English class might focus on revision and synthesis. The skill is shared; the application is authentic to the subject. That is what makes integration sustainable. Students appreciate this alignment, and it helps with transfer.
Ultimately, schools do not need to ask educators to teach content and durable skills as two separate things. They need to help teachers see that durable skills are the means through which content becomes usable, transferable learning.
If the message is “Here is one more initiative,” teachers will hear burden. If the message is “Here is a clearer way to teach what you already care about,” they are much more likely to engage. That shift—from add-on to embedded practice—is how schools break down silos and make durable skills feel less like extra work and more like better teaching.
If you have an issue that you would like me to address, please email me at ssackstein@educatorsrising.org or complete this form. You will be kept anonymous.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Starr Sackstein
Starr Sackstein is the Massachusetts state coordinator for PDK’s Educators Rising program, COO of Mastery Portfolio, an education consultant, instructional coach, and author. She was a high school English and journalism teacher and school district curriculum leader. She is the author of more than 15 educational books, including Hacking Assessment (Times 10, 2015), Making an Impact Outside of the Classroom (Routledge, 2024), and Actionable Assessment (Routledge, 2026).
Visit their website at: https://www.mssackstein.com/
