Brain-First Learning for an AI World
HIGH SCHOOL
Study Skills for High School: The Executive Function Curriculum
The skills that look like motivation problems often aren’t. They’re executive function gaps — and SOAR® makes the invisible visible.
High school raises the stakes — but not every student arrives with the skills to manage them
By ninth grade, something shifts. The grading changes. Colleges start paying attention. Workloads increase, deadlines carry consequences, and students are expected to manage multiple teachers, classes, digital systems, long-range assignments, and competing priorities with far less adult support.
When students struggle, they often assume the problem is personal. They look around and see classmates who appear to have it figured out, while their own missed assignments, procrastination, scattered materials, forgotten deadlines, or poor test performance feel like evidence: I’m lazy. I’m not smart enough. Everyone else can handle this but me.
But organization, time management, independent learning, note-taking, prioritizing, and self-advocacy aren’t character traits — they’re skills. And skills can be taught.
Many students have simply never been shown how to manage a high-school workload. They’ve been told to get organized, manage their time, study harder, take better notes, and stay motivated — without being explicitly taught the systems behind any of those expectations.
Once students realize the struggle is teachable, the story changes. Instead of Why bother?, they can begin asking, What strategy do I need here? The problem becomes visible. The shame drops. And motivation finally has room to surface.
What is SOAR for high school?
SOAR is a turn-key executive function and study skills curriculum that explicitly teaches students how to learn. Across 18 sequenced lessons, students build the systems behind organization, time management, goal-setting, reading, note-taking, studying, writing, test-taking, communication, self-advocacy, and self-monitoring.
It can serve every student — not just students already in crisis. SOAR can anchor universal Tier 1 instruction, freshman transition, advisory, a dedicated study skills course, intervention, or other schoolwide structures. Students who need Tier 2 or Tier 3 support can deepen the same skills without starting over with an entirely different program.
SOAR can also support academic requirements, not compete with them. The curriculum can be used as an ELA credit where appropriate, while also supporting RTI/MTSS, transition programming, college and career readiness, and CTE goals.
And it arrives ready to teach. The Teacher Presentation Tool includes slides, scripts, activities, and assessments. Student materials are available as a workbook, software, or both.
When students can understand the struggle, they can change it
Students become more capable when invisible learning processes become visible. Instead of interpreting difficulty as proof that they aren’t smart enough, they can learn to recognize what is actually happening: I lost track of the assignment. I underestimated the time. I’m overloaded. I don’t understand this yet. I need a different strategy.
SOAR teaches students how their brain learns — then gives them explicit strategies for acting on that understanding. They learn how to manage attention, time, materials, information, priorities, tasks, and communication rather than relying on willpower or vague advice to “try harder.”
That turns struggle into useful information. A missed deadline becomes a planning problem. A blank page becomes a thinking-and-organization problem. Poor test performance becomes a preparation problem. Once students can name the problem, they can choose a strategy for solving it.
That is how engagement becomes sustainable. Not through motivation speeches, but through competence: I understand what went wrong. I know what to try next.
See it in action
What’s inside?
Student materials are modular — book, software, or both. The teacher presentation tool brings it together with slides, scripts, and assessments.
Get My Review CopyThe student workbook PDF is yours immediately — or look inside one live lesson first, no sign-up needed.
Executive function is the foundation. Everything else stacks on top.
When students can organize, prioritize, manage time, track assignments, plan long-range projects, regulate attention, and advocate for themselves, every other academic demand becomes easier to manage. SOAR builds that foundation first — then allows schools to use it in several ways.
Executive function is the foundation. Everything else stacks on top.
ELA credit + universal Tier 1
Every student benefits from explicit instruction in how to manage learning. SOAR covers the transferable ELA anchor standards for grades 6–12, allowing schools to use it as an ELA credit for one year where appropriate and/or as universal Tier 1 instruction.
For high schools, that makes SOAR a natural fit for freshman transition programs, advisory, graduation or remediation structures, and dedicated study skills courses.
RTI/MTSS Tiers 2 & 3
Students who need deeper support don’t have to start over with a different curriculum. The same strategies can be scaffolded, practiced more intensively, and applied with greater support at Tiers 2 and 3.
The framework stays familiar. The depth changes.
Anchor standards as outcomes
Instead of teaching to standards, SOAR teaches the reusable skills the standards measure. Students learn how to comprehend, organize ideas, communicate clearly, regulate their own thinking, revise, present, and learn independently — skills they can carry across classes and beyond high school.
AI-ready skills
AI changes the tools; students still need to do the thinking. As information becomes easier to generate, students increasingly need the human skills required to evaluate it: comprehension, critical thinking, communication, self-management, judgment, and the ability to distinguish signal from noise.
SOAR also has 100% alignment to NACE standards, connecting those same skills to the workplace and CTE pathways.
Student success
When students finally have a usable executive-function toolkit, motivation is no longer carrying the whole load. Students can see what to do, how to begin, how to recover when something goes wrong, and how to manage themselves with increasing independence.
Confidence grows because competence grows.
This is what explicit executive-function instruction actually looks like
SOAR teaches 18 lessons that build from self-awareness and motivation through organization, strategic learning, communication, and self-monitoring. Each lesson teaches an immediately usable study skill while strengthening the executive-function process underneath it.
| # | Lesson | The Study Skill | The Executive Function Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 1 — How Are You Smart? | |||
| 1 | Why Study Skills? | Self-awareness & learning strategy | Metacognition — understanding why these skills matter |
| 2 | What Are Your Strengths & Superpowers? | Strengths identification | Motivation activation — unlocking the potential that’s already there |
| 3 | How Does Your Brain Learn? | Learning strategy & brain awareness | Metacognition — understanding how your own brain works |
| Section 2 — Set Goals | |||
| 4 | Identify Your Priorities | Priority-setting | Planning & task initiation |
| 5 | Create Your Goals | Goal-setting | Long-range planning & self-direction |
| 6 | Manage Time & Take Action | Time management | Prioritization & task initiation |
| Section 3 — Organize | |||
| 7 | Organize Your Papers & Digital Files | Organization systems | Reduced cognitive load; navigating LMS chaos |
| 8 | Organize Your Space | Environmental organization | Reduced distraction & improved focus |
| 9 | Organize Your Time & Manage Your Energy | Scheduling & energy management | Self-regulation & attention management |
| Section 4 — Ask Questions | |||
| 10 | How to Read Nonfiction | Active reading strategies | Working memory & information processing |
| 11 | How to Communicate with Teachers & Peers | Interpersonal communication | Social cognition & self-advocacy |
| 12 | How to Listen & Take Notes | Note-taking | Processing & retaining information across multiple classes |
| 13 | How to Study & Learn New Terms | Memorization strategies | Long-term memory consolidation |
| 14 | How to Take Tests | Test preparation | Flexible thinking & performance under pressure |
| 15 | How to Write Paragraphs & Essays | Writing process | Sequential processing & communication |
| 16 | How to Learn Correct Grammar & Punctuation | Grammar & mechanics | Attention to detail & rule application |
| 17 | How to Give a Presentation | Presentation skills | Emotional regulation & executive communication |
| Section 5 — Track Progress | |||
| 18 | How to Track Progress & Keep Moving Forward | Self-monitoring | Self-evaluation & sustained motivation |
All 18 lessons build on one another, moving students from awareness to increasingly independent application.
The curriculum is already built. Your staff doesn’t have to invent it.
Every SOAR implementation includes the Teacher Presentation Tool. Teachers receive the slides, scripts, activities, and assessment options needed to deliver the lessons — making the curriculum accessible to classroom teachers, advisory teachers, counselors, interventionists, or support staff.
Student materials can be delivered in the format that works for your school. Choose the workbook, student software, or both.
Assessment options include pre/post inventories, quizzes, rubrics, portfolios, observation checklists, a final exam, and an exit presentation.
SOAR is designed to fit into structures high schools already have
The real implementation question isn’t whether students need these skills — it’s where to teach them. SOAR can flex across multiple schedules and staffing models without requiring schools to create an entirely new system.
- Freshman transition blocks — Give ninth graders the skills to manage the jump in workload, independence, and expectations as it happens.
- Advisory periods — Build executive function in smaller, recurring blocks while reaching students universally.
- Dedicated study skills courses — Deliver the full curriculum in a semester or full-period structure.
- RTI/MTSS across all three tiers — Use one common framework from universal instruction through increasingly intensive support. See how SOAR works across RTI/MTSS →
- ELA credit — Use SOAR as an official ELA credit for one year where standards and local graduation requirements allow. See the full ELA credit case →
- Multi-year implementation — Continue instruction across grades 9–12 for deeper application and increasingly independent use. Multi-year implementation guide →
- CTE integration — Build the self-management, communication, critical thinking, and independent-learning skills students need across technical pathways and careers.
- Schoolwide adoption — Introduce SOAR broadly during an initial adoption year, then transition to a sustainable model for incoming students.
Whatever your schedule, the pacing can flex. SOAR can be taught in a full period, a semester course, shorter advisory blocks, or other existing structures.
Need the practical details?
| What exactly is included? | What Is SOAR? → |
| How do we fit it into the schedule? | Pacing Guide → |
| Can this count as ELA credit? | ELA Credit → |
| Can this support RTI/MTSS? | RTI/MTSS → |
| Need help rolling it out? | Training & PD → |
| What proof do you have? | Proven Results → |
| What does it cost? | Pricing & Options → |
The instructional approach behind SOAR is supported by research — and SOAR brings its own implementation track record
Explicit study-skills instruction improves academic performance. A meta-analysis of 70 studies involving more than 2,400 secondary students found that explicit study-skills instruction moved students up roughly one full letter grade compared with peers who did not receive it.1 On a 100-point test, that’s about a 20-point improvement — the difference between a 70 (C) and a 90 (A-minus).
Strong study habits and executive-function skills are also associated with persistence. Independent research at Ohio State University found that struggling students who developed stronger study habits were approximately 45% more likely to graduate than matched peers over the study period.2
SOAR-specific implementations add another layer of evidence. One Utah district reported an average +1.0 GPA improvement among students completing the program.
SOAR is now used in 5,100+ schools across 53+ countries. That reach reflects decades of implementation across classrooms, intervention programs, transition courses, and schoolwide models. See school results, educator stories, and testimonials →
Making the invisible visible
Your students don’t arrive in high school without potential — they arrive without visibility into many of the systems school suddenly expects them to manage. Workloads grow. Deadlines matter more. GPA consequences appear. Long-range projects multiply. And students are expected to manage all of it with increasing independence.
When you teach executive function, you aren’t manufacturing motivation — you’re unblocking it.
Once students can see how their brain learns, how organization works, how to prioritize, how to manage time, and how to think their way through a problem, the invisible becomes visible. The fog clears. Struggle becomes something they can act on instead of something they have to blame themselves for.
Making the invisible visible gives students something motivation speeches cannot: a way forward.
FAQs
Can SOAR count as an ELA credit for high school?
Yes. SOAR can serve as an official ELA credit for one year in grades 6–12 where local requirements allow. The curriculum aligns with the transferable ELA anchor standards, and the full standards case is available on the ELA Credit page.
Does SOAR work for 9th-grade transition or freshman seminar programs?
Yes — freshman transition is one of the most natural placements. Students learn how to manage workload, time, assignments, communication, studying, and independence precisely when those demands increase.
Is SOAR only for struggling students?
No. SOAR is designed as a universal foundation that benefits every student. Tier 1 instruction gives all students explicit executive-function and study-skills strategies, while students needing more support can deepen those same skills at Tiers 2 and 3.
Can SOAR support RTI/MTSS in high school?
Yes. One curriculum can thread through all three tiers. Tier 1 establishes common language and strategies for every student; Tiers 2 and 3 provide more intensive practice and support without requiring students to start over with unfamiliar content.
Who can teach SOAR?
SOAR does not require a study-skills specialist. Classroom teachers, advisory teachers, interventionists, counselors, and other support staff can deliver it using the Teacher Presentation Tool, which includes lesson-by-lesson slides, scripts, activities, and assessments.
How much class time does SOAR take?
SOAR is designed to flex around the schedule you already have. It can be delivered in a full-period course, a semester structure, a 30-minute advisory block, or other pacing models. The Pacing Guide maps the available options.
Looking for grades 6–8? See our Middle School Study Skills Curriculum →
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Research Sources
1 Scruggs, T. E., Mastropieri, M. A., Berkeley, S., & Graetz, J. E. (2010). Do special education interventions improve learning of secondary content? A meta-analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 31(6), 437–449. ↩
2 Tuckman, B. W. (Independent, Ohio State University). Study skills program corroboration — independent research, not a SOAR study. Struggling students ~45% more likely to graduate; results based on matched cohort over 7 years. ↩
