Abby- A0: One way to check the quality of your graduate profile is to use the ELP Quality Criteria Tool that asks a series of questions to guide your revision process. LINKED HERE!
Suzanne- A0: In my experience so far, there are three key things that make a graduate profile good. It has to reflect skills that needed in many areas of life. It has to be actionable and measurable. And it has to be attractive and accessible to students and stakeholders.
Abby– A0: A great way to check the “Authenticity” is to pull up a current job description from any industry and see how many of your graduate profile skills show up in what businesses are looking for in employees. Fun to have students and adults do this!
Deeper Learning Coaches, Abby Benedetto & Suzanne Malek
Suzanne- A1: Taking a graduate profile from a poster on the wall to an organizing principle of a school means first taking the “Headlines” of the skills and breaking them down into observable outcomes. Once you have involved your community in naming the observable behaviors all students must be able to demonstrate in order to graduate, you can design or redesign your assessment system to support all learners in developing and demonstrating those skills. Once you have some great assessments in place, a reflective school staff and leadership can analyze their whole system through the lens of what kind of culture, structures, other elements, are needed to prepare all students to be successful in those assessments.
Abby- A1: You cannot measure a graduate profile with a fill-in-the-blanks quiz. More authentic demonstrations of learning like portfolio defense, student-led conferences, capstone projects, etc. are necessary to challenge students to demonstrate their skills.
Suzanne- A2: At @BryanAdamsHS a public school in Dallas they designed Portfolio Defenses to measure their Portrait of a Graduate. All their students do 2 before they graduate. 1 big shift was developing advisory to support all students. Ask @MaryAnnSuhl. (MaryAnn is a Coordinator for Dallas ISD and was a teacher leader and then key system re-designer and Coordinator at Bryan Adams)
Read more about our partnership with Bryan Adams here.
Abby- A2: A hugely impactful shift is that a system must make room for reflection when actualizing a graduate profile. Regular moments to pause and make deep connections between the grad profile skills and the work of school and life is a powerful necessity for all.
Abby- A3: As with all good teaching, you want to begin with the end in mind. We think about the process as 3 steps, our Theory of Action. It is vital to involve ALL stakeholder groups every step of the way, especially those most marginalized in your system.We encourage you to assemble diverse co-creators that represent all of the voices in your system: students, families, teachers, community members, higher education, etc. to begin an inquiry process about your definition of success for your young people, and what skills are needed.
Suzanne- A4: The BIGGEST pitfall is doing nothing. Use design thinking: build on your strengths & start actualizing your Graduate Profile today! You have to prototype, test, reflect, revise, and improve, or it will forever remain an abstract idea.
Make sure to follow ELP on Twitter @EnvisionSchools and use the hashtag #ELPCoachChat to join our next Twitter Chat!
