The Conference on Measuring and Assessing Skills was a follow up to the conference of the same name hosted by the R24 Network in 2015 at the University of Chicago. The conference focused on the growing recognition that multiple skills, beyond IQ and cognition, are important predictors and likely determinants of success in many aspects of life.

Although a variety of methods are used to measure these skills, there is no consensus on which approaches are most suitable for which purposes. This conference assembled leading economists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and measurement specialists to examine and evaluate alternative approaches to the measurement of skills, including modifications to self-reports, behavioral measures, games, and methods based on neuroscience. The conference addressed five guiding questions:

1. How predictive are elicited measurements of skill of both short-run and long-run outcomes?
2. How important are incentives and contexts in the measurement of skills?
3. Do differences in environments change the predictive accuracy of elicited measures of skill?
4. How can separate components of skill be identified?
5. Are measurements of skills comparable across elicitation strategies?

This conference was co-organized with the The Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, and the Research Network on the Determinants of Life Course Capabilities and Outcomes, a Center initiative funded by the National Institute on Aging.