President Obama's first address to Congress signaled a shift in educational priorities. He committed his administration to ending the dropout crisis in the nation's public high schools and ensuring that by 2020 America would once again lead the world in the proportion of its population with college degrees. What has not been talked about is that a shift to making high school and college completion the national educational goal requires a corresponding shift in educational policy and practice, "away from a focus on test scores" and toward a new emphasis on developing the cognitive and noncognitive factors that lead students to earn high course grades. The emerging recognition of the importance of noncognitive factors to young people's long-term success raises new challenges for teachers seeking to prepare their students for college and careers. To make this shift, educators need to understand how best to help adolescents develop as learners in their classes. By helping students develop the noncognitive skills, strategies, attitudes, and behaviors that are the hallmarks of effective learners, teachers can improve student learning and course performance while also increasing the likelihood that students will be successful in college. This report grew out of the understanding that it is not enough to know that noncognitive factors matter for learning. Researchers from a range of disciplines have provided evidence that such factors are important to students' grades and long-term educational outcomes. However, little work has been done to bring clarity to this wide-ranging evidence, to examine its relevance for practice, or to review actionable strategies for classroom use. The authors' goal was to develop a coherent and evidence-based framework for considering the role of noncognitive factors in academic performance. They conclude by summarizing the most promising levers for change as well as critical gaps in the knowledge base and in the link between research and practice. Appendix: Educational Attainment by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity is Driven by Differences in GPA is included. (Contains 5 figures, 1 table, 3 boxes, and 12 endnotes.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the Raikes Foundation.]