MESH
Mindsets, Essential Skills, and Habits (MESH)
The MESH framework outlines a set of mindsets, skills, and habits that support student success in college, career, and life. It was developed by Transforming Education, a non-profit that supports educators to equip students with social-emotional skills in partnership with California’s CORE Districts, a group of nine school districts seeking to incorporate social-emotional measures into their school accountability and improvement metrics. The framework is focused on intrapersonal and interpersonal mindsets and competencies that matter for long-term success, are measurable, and can be taught in school settings. The four competencies in the framework are not a comprehensive set of MESH competencies but were selected as a starting point because of their research base and relevance to CORE district priorities.
Breakdown by Domain
Domain Key
Key Features
Context & Culture
- Some resources available in Spanish
Developmental Perspective
- No information or learning progression provided
Associated Outcomes
- Describes academic, career, and well-being outcomes tied to non-cognitive skills in general
- Provides specific outcomes tied to each of the four competencies, including academic achievement, motivation and learning, school completion, physical health, economic stability, and workforce success
Available Resources
Support Materials
- Provides reports, toolkits, and webinars for policymakers, educators, and parents that cover key learnings, policy recommendations, setting up district accountability and improvement systems, building MESH skills in the classroom and at home, and more
Programs & Strategies
- Competency-specific professional development toolkits for educators seeking research-based strategies to help their students build each of the four MESH competencies
- Growth Mindset toolkit for parents
- Strategy resource list and sample strategies for building MESH competencies
Measurement Tools
- Framework designed to create measurement tools that guide district accountability and improvement
- Two survey-based measures for grades 5-12:
- Student self-report surveys that cover all of the MESH competencies
- Teacher-report surveys that cover the two externally observable competencies (self-management and social awareness)
- Sample survey protocols and a FAQ that covers when, why, and how to use the surveys and interpret their results
Key Publications
- Transforming Education. (April 2016). Measuring MESH: Student and teacher surveys curated for the CORE Districts. Retrieved from: https://www.transformingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/160406_MeasuringMESH_ForRelease2.pdf
- Transforming Education. (Dec 2015). Ready to be counted: The research case for education policy action on non-cognitive skills. Gabrieli, C., Ansel, D. & Bartolino Krachman, S. Retrieved from: https://www.transformingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ReadytoBeCounted_Release.pdf
- Transforming Education. (April 2017). Introduction to social and emotional learning. LaRocca, R. Retrieved from: https://www.transformingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Introduction_to_SEL_4Competencies.pdf
- Transforming Education. (Sept 2016). Expanding the definition of student success: A case study of the CORE Districts. Bartolino Krachman, S., Arnold, R. & LaRocca, R. Retrieved from: https://www.transformingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/TransformingEducationCaseStudyFINAL1.pdf