IPR Scholar to Lead Work on Student Learning and Development as a Carnegie Senior Fellow

IPR social psychologist Mesmin Destin will contribute his research expertise to the Carnegie Foundation’s Skill Progressions initiative

IPR social psychologist Mesmin Destin was named a senior fellow by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in January, joining a group shaping the next generation of skills that high school students need to thrive in a fast‑changing world.

As part of its ongoing effort to define science‑based skill standards that complement academic learning, the foundation is developing a series of “Skill Progressions.” They outline how key skills grow more complex over time and provide researchers and educators with clearer ways to understand, support, and measure students’ development. Destin’s fellowship will contribute to this work.

The foundation’s recently released “Progressions”—focused on collaboration, communication, and critical thinking—provide evidence-based definitions of essential competencies and outline indicators of increasingly complex performance. They also reflect decades of research showing that these skills rarely develop in isolation and often build on one another in interconnected ways.

Destin will participate in the ongoing development of an evidence-based approach to cultivating student skills, learning, and development. His research examines how young people’s opportunities, identities, and socioeconomic circumstances shape their educational experiences.

“What makes Mesmin’s work so powerful is that it connects students’ day-to-day experiences to long-term outcomes,” said IPR Director and sociologist Andrew Papachristos. “The Carnegie Foundation is doing important work to define how essential skills develop over time, and Mesmin is uniquely positioned to ensure that their approach is grounded in both evidence and lived experience.”

Destin also studies how social experiences, institutional structures, and contextual factors influence students’ motivation, wellbeing, and long‑term educational trajectories—expertise that aligns closely with the foundation’s effort to map how student goals and perseverance develop over time.

“As schools and policymakers move towards holistic approaches to student learning and development, we aim to provide guidance to help them do so in a way that is grounded in evidence and inherently linked to academic learning,” Destin said.

As part of the cross‑disciplinary group of senior fellows, Destin and his colleagues—experts in education, workforce development, cognitive science, and technology—will lend their research and practical insight. Their work will help ensure future Progressions remain evidence‑based, relevant, and responsive to rapidly shifting learning and workplace demands.

This work is part of the foundation’s multiyear effort to transform the American high school and establish clear, science‑based skill standards that complement academic standards and better prepare students for college and careers.

Mesmin Destin is a professor of psychology and human development and social policy, Northwestern’s faculty director of student access and enrichment, and an IPR fellow. 

Photo credit: Northwestern University

Published: February 25, 2026.