Three conclusions of the study are:

1. A new set of competencies and foundation skills should be required of all high school students

2. Companies need "high performance" works who are:
   • Comfortable with technology
     
   • Comfortable as members of a team
     
   • Have a passion for continuous learning
     

3. Schools must be "relentlessly committed to producing skilled graduates as the norm, not the exception."

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The Commission posed a three-part foundation consisting of:

1. Basic Skills: Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens and speaks. These skills include:

   • Reading: Locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in documents, such as manuals, graphs, and schedules

   • Writing: Communicates thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing; and creates documents , such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, graphs, and flow charts.

   • Arithmetic/Mathematics: Performs basic computations and approaches practical problems by choosing appropriately from a variety of mathematical techniques

   • Listening: Receives, attends to, interprets, and responds to verbal messages and other cues

   • Speaking: Organizes ideas and communicates orally

2. Thinking Skills: Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons

   • Creative Thinking: Generates new ideas

   • Decision Making: Specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers risks, and evaluates and chooses best alternative

   • Problem Solving: Recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action

   • Seeing Things in the Mind's Eye: Organizes, and processes symbols, pictures, graphs, objects and other information

   • Knowing How to Learn: Uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills

   • Reasoning: Discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or more objects and applies it when solving a problem

3. Personal Qualities: Displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity and honesty

   • Responsibility: Exerts a high level of effort and perseveres towards goal attainment

   • Self-Esteem: Believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive sense of self

   • Sociability: Demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and politeness in group settings

   • Self-Management: Assesses self accurately, sets personal goals, monitors progress, and exhibits self-control

   • Integrity/Honesty: Chooses ethical courses of action

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In addition to this three-part foundation, SCANS identified five competencies that all graduates should have in order to be successful in the work world:

1. Resources: Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources
   • Time: Selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules

   • Money: Uses or prepares budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records, and makes adjustments to meet objectives

   • Material and Facilities: Acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space efficiently

   • Human Resources: Assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and provides feedback

2. Interpersonal: Works with others

   • Participates as Member of a Team: Contributes to group effort

   • Teaches Others New Skills

   • Serves Clients/Customers: Works to satisfy customers' expectations

   • Exercises Leadership: Communicates ideas to justify position, persuades and convinces others, responsibly challenges existing procedures and policies

   • Negotiates: Works toward agreements involving exchange of resources, resolves divergent interests

   • Works with Diversity: Works well with men and women from diverse backgrounds

3. Information: Acquires and uses information
   • Acquires and Evaluates Information

   • Organizes and Maintains Information

   • Interprets and Communicates Information

   • Uses Computers to Process Information

4. Systems: Understands complex inter-relationships
   • Understands Systems: Knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work and operates effectively with them

   • Monitors and Corrects Performance: Distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on system operations, diagnoses deviations in systems' performance and corrects malfunctions

   • Improves or Designs Systems: Suggests modifications to existing systems and develops new or alternative systems to improve performance

5. Technology: Works with a variety of technologies
   • Selects Technology: Chooses procedures, tools or equipment including computers and related technologies

   • Applies Technology to Task: Understands overall intent and proper procedures for setup and operation of equipment

   • Maintains and Troubleshoots Equipment: Prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment, including computers and other technologies

Revised 2/14/99