Getting the text from a drop-down box
Simply You can use jQuery instead of JavaScript
$("#yourdropdownid option:selected").text();
Try This.
This should return the text value of the selected value
var vSkill = document.getElementById('newSkill');
var vSkillText = vSkill.options[vSkill.selectedIndex].innerHTML;
alert(vSkillText);
Props: @Tanerax for reading the question, knowing what was asked and answering it before others figured it out.
Edit: DownModed, cause I actually read a question fully, and answered it, sad world it is.
document.getElementById('newSkill').options[document.getElementById('newSkill').selectedIndex].value
Should work
Based on your example HTML code, here's one way to get the displayed text of the currently selected option:
var skillsSelect = document.getElementById("newSkill");
var selectedText = skillsSelect.options[skillsSelect.selectedIndex].text;