Having taught in high school and college, I have observed that many, if not most, students need explicit guidance on how to succeed in school. Students at all levels benefit from instruction on the strategies and practices that help them organize and manage the various academic and other demands on their time, attention and other cognitive resources. Unfortunately, schools are not often prepared or inclined to provide this instruction or assistance.

The focus of most content-area teachers, and most schools, is not on building students' overall academic readiness. Instead, the emphasis is typically on academic content within a specific subject area. In other words, teachers teach about geometry, history, or biology, for example, without teaching students how to maintain a daily planner, take notes or study for an exam. Or, if subject matter teachers do address overall academic readiness, there is no consistency in their guidance, so students may end up more confused about what to do or what works. Because students often do not develop the knowledge, skills and habits they need to navigate multiple concurrent courses successfully, their grasp of academic content and their success in school are diminished.

Based on my experience, there is a pressing need for resources that will help students learn how to do well in all of their classes, and to help them set and reach their academic and professional goals. We must move away from providing students instruction only on traditional academic subject matter. We must also introduce them to what many adults learn through experience about how to set goals, stay organized, make timely progress on important tasks, and achieve important goals. Tools and instruction on general academic skills and practices can benefit parents also, because parents often lack the resources they need to provide appropriate guidance to their students. Through experience, parents may have learned what to do to succeed professionally, but they may not have ready access to ways to communicate those lessons to their children.

If students are introduced to and practice general strategies that help them organize, understand, and complete their work across content areas, their overall achievement in school, and their sense of their own potential and efficacy in an academic setting, will improve greatly.