Human skills don't develop in isolation. The framework is organized to show how they connect, which ones enable others, and how growth in one area fuels growth in another. Explore to see the logic for yourself.
Cognitive Skills is the category of thinking practices that enable a person to gather reliable information, reason through it with precision, and reach conclusions that are supported by evidence.
Interpersonal Skills is the category of practices that enable a person to work effectively alongside others, communicate in ways that produce genuine understanding, and respond with care and accuracy.
Learning Skills is the category of practices that enable a person to engage with the world with genuine curiosity, sustain effort through difficulty, and turn setbacks into growth.
Intrapersonal Skills is the category of practices that enable a person to understand their own emotions, thoughts, and identity, manage their responses with intention, and build genuine belief in their capacity to achieve what they set out to do.
Humans Who Solve is the domain of cognitive work: analyzing what is true, imagining what is possible, and understanding the systems that shape both.
Humans Who Connect is the domain of relational work: communicating clearly, collaborating with others toward shared goals, and developing the social awareness that makes both possible.
Humans Who Adapt is the domain of knowing yourself, directing yourself, and growing through challenge: the inner capacities that determine not just how you respond to the world but how you keep learning from it.
Critical Thinking is the skill of questioning what is known, reasoning carefully through what it means, and forming conclusions warranted by evidence.
Creative Thinking is the skill of questioning assumptions to generate possibilities that don't yet exist, building toward them through risk and iteration, and producing work that is both original and serves the people and context for which it is designed.
Systems Thinking is the skill of mapping how systems are structured, understanding how they change over time, recognizing whose perspectives shape them, and identifying which actions address a problem at its source.
Curiosity is the skill of approaching the world with genuine openness: generating possibilities, asking questions, actively following threads of inquiry, and constructing meaning from what is found.
Resilience is the skill of facing difficulty rather than avoiding it, recovering from setbacks, learning from what went wrong, and keeping moving when the path stays hard.
Perseverance is the skill of choosing to do hard things, staying with them when stopping feels easier, returning with the goal of getting better, and fueling the drive that carries you and others through.
Self-Efficacy is the skill of knowing what a task requires and what you bring to it, choosing an approach that fits, adjusting as you go, and maintaining effort through difficulty.
Self-Management is the skill of managing emotional states with intention, making deliberate choices aligned with your values, and maintaining the focus and well-being that allow you to function over time.
Self-Awareness is the skill of understanding your own emotions, thoughts, values, and identity with enough accuracy to see how they shape your behavior and your relationships over time.
Social Awareness is the skill of reading and responding accurately to the people around you, recognizing what others are experiencing emotionally, making sense of their perspectives, reading the social environment, and acting to ensure everyone belongs.
Communication is the skill of expressing ideas so others can genuinely receive them, listening in ways that produce understanding, and adapting what you say and how you say it to serve the person and purpose before you.
Collaboration is the skill of working alongside others toward shared goals by contributing meaningfully, building genuine relationships, integrating diverse perspectives, and navigating disagreement in ways that keep the work and the relationships intact.
Foundational, K-2. Moves from partial thoughts to complete thoughts. From random order to logical sequence. From vague references to specific words.
What to look for:
What to watch for:
The framework holds twelve skills. Follow Communication down every layer of the structure to a single observable behavior in a second-grade classroom. Every skill is built with this same depth.
The Skill
Communication is expressing ideas so others can receive them, listening in ways that produce understanding, and adapting what you say to serve the person and purpose in front of you.
Every definition in the framework describes what a student does, which keeps the framework from scoring temperament. A student who thinks before speaking and a student who thinks by speaking can both demonstrate communication, and the definition is written so both expressions are captured.
The Strands
Communication breaks into four strands, each one observable on its own.
Breaking the skill apart is what makes it teachable. Telling a student to work on their communication gives them little direction. Strands also surface what a single label hides: the student who speaks brilliantly and cannot listen, the student who listens deeply and cannot get a word out. Those two students need different instruction, and one communication score would treat them the same.
The Progression
Each strand is mapped across K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Every level is written as a learning progression rather than a fixed target, because a second grader and a tenth grader are demonstrating the same strand at different points in their development.
A teacher planning for third grade can see what came before and what comes next. Growth becomes measurable because the framework defines what growth looks like in advance.
The Observables
At the Foundational level, Expression shows up in specific behaviors a teacher can watch for.
This is where an invisible skill becomes a visible one. A teacher who knows only what proficiency looks like can spot the students who have arrived. A teacher who also knows what struggle looks like can tell a student exactly what to do differently tomorrow.
Most human skills frameworks were built to align a community around shared language, and they do that well. Building one that can also carry measurement requires a new approach.
The Human Skills Framework was designed with these characteristics so that one structure carries assessment, curriculum, and district reporting.
Your framework names the outcomes you want for graduates. The Human Skills Framework names the observable practices that build them. Pick a system to see how it translates.
Choose a system to crosswalk
The Human Skills Framework was developed by Dr. Michelle Ament, ProSolve's Chief Academic Officer, drawing on her years as a classroom educator and district administrator.
Districts already prioritize human skills under different names: SEL, the 4Cs, Portrait of a Learner, and College and Career Readiness indicators. The challenge is that each framework uses different language, making it difficult to align instruction, assessment, and reporting.
The Framework measures all five CASEL competencies through observable behavior. Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making each carry grade-level indicators from kindergarten through graduation.
See CASEL alignmentThe Framework makes any district's Portrait of a Graduate initiative visible, measurable, and actionable by crosswalking to grade-level indicators and rubrics. Every outcome in the profile carries evidence of student growth from kindergarten through graduation.
See Portrait AlignmentThe Framework measures the four skill types inside college and career readiness: cognitive for academic success, interpersonal for teamwork, intrapersonal for self-actualization, and learning skills for adaptability. Each carries grade-level indicators from kindergarten through graduation.
See College & Career Readiness AlignmentThe Framework Guide explains the entire system, and shows all observable skills from Kindergarten to graduation. The Solve brings ideas, research, and resources to your inbox once a month.
