Have you run across Portrait of a Graduate?
You’ll see that it’s a trademarked term; indeed, BatelleForKids has developed a thoughtful model. But its foundation is a more generally applicable one: education agencies, such as school districts, are developing and promoting profiles that they hope — and ultimately expect — their students will fit by the time they graduate.
We reviewed over a dozen different models, and frankly they’re fascinating. They describe extremely well-rounded student personae — and they also describe people we’d like to hang out with.
Here are some of the characteristics we see called for by the Portraits that we reviewed:
Most include what we’ve identified as the Four Cs: strong communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
(Right out of the gate we see a very broad emphasis, even to the neglect of tight academic focus, though another C — content mastery — shows up fairly often.)
Twenty-first century strengths like problem solving ability show up often, along with adaptability, and innovative thinking.
And in this age of fevered debate over whether character can and should be taught, several districts hope to graduate students who are empathetic, globally-minded, culturally sensitive and even anti-racist.
Nowhere in any portrait that we came across: Recall. Recitation. Having a big vocabulary. Or even…technical savvy, or likelihood of getting a high-paying job. These Portraits read like the course list of a humanities major from a liberal arts college in the 1980s.
To which we say: good on those districts. Good for them for promoting cold content and warm character traits.
Socio-economic forces are pushing many students — rightly — in post-graduation directions that prepare them for the workforce. Districts that once solely tracked “college readiness” (typically defined as readiness for a four-year university) now have added “career” — and even “military” — as near-term destinations that students should consider. “CR” is now “CCMR” in many schools.
But imbuing students with both marketable job skills and self-actualizing lifeskills isn’t irreconcilable. And as we know from comparing U.S. students’ trajectories to those of their peers from other countries — including those who are products of vaunted education systems — raw test-taking, recall-based prowess doesn’t effect creativity, persistence, or innovation — the traits that typically enable career longevity, not to mention gratification.
So bring on those Portraits, those holistic profiles. Keep preparing students to earn, but also to learn; ready them for jobs, but also for living, and relationships, and contributing broadly to society. It’s what we want for our kids; why wouldn’t that be what we want for all students?
Sample Portrait of a Graduate — from Coeur d’Alene, ID