Destin Joins Carnegie Foundation Push to Improve High School
Professor Mesmin Destin was named a senior fellow with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, joining a national effort to bridge the gap between what young people need to thrive and what high school currently delivers.
Destin, a social psychologist, and other cross-disciplinary scholars are tasked with informing "skills progressions" — guides that map how abilities like teamwork, communication, and critical thinking develop over time. The goal is to help educators better understand and measure student growth.
The work is part of the Carnegie Foundation's multiyear effort to transform the American high school and define a coherent set of evidence-based skills standards. These new benchmarks would complement and improve academic standards to make sure learning is increasingly rigorous, interesting, and career-aligned.
Destin, a professor of human development and social policy, runs a research lab that studies how students' environments and experiences shape their motivation, wellbeing and long-term success — expertise that aligns closely with the foundation's work on student goals and perseverance.
He studies:
- How young people see themselves and think about their future
- What motivates students and affects their well-being
- How school and university environments either help or hinder first-generation and lower-income college students
"In some ways we are building a 'human skills genome,' carefully defining the key skills that allow us to reason, connect, create and contribute,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. "Without common, tested definitions of skills standards that are freely available and refined over time, it is hard to imagine how we improve opportunity for millions of Americans."
Destin is cofounder of the SESP Leadership Institute, a program that helps students from first generation or low income families build on their strengths. He is Northwestern's faculty director of student access and enrichment and a fellow with the Institute for Policy Research.
His 2023 TEDx Chicago talk "How Our Interactions with People can Shape Their Futures," illustrated what can happen when people receive meaningful support from others, institutions, and the larger society.
Whether the timing is intentional or serendipitous, encountering certain messages at critical moments can offer hope and keep people inspired to work towards their goals, he says.