In our new white paper, Shifting Education with Learning Pathways: Becoming Your Portrait of a Graduate, we examine how to redesign skills-based learning trajectories to better prepare today’s students for successful lives.
In a world that is rapidly changing due to emerging technologies and globalization, learners need academic and technical skills, as well as the ability to adapt and interpret those skills to apply them in current and future contexts. Now is the time to rethink, “What are the skill sets that will equip learners to lead successful lives?”
Portrait of a Graduate establishes a vision for learners’ future success. Over the past decade, many school districts and states have developed Portraits to articulate qualities learners should exemplify by the time they leave formal schooling. We analyzed 69 Portraits from districts across the nation to understand the skill sets districts across the nation identify for students to exemplify by graduation. Our Portrait of a Graduate Synthesis Model (pictured below) captures commonly identified mindsets, skill sets, and practices.
Figure 1. Our Portrait Synthesis Model summarizes mindsets, skill sets, and practices articulated by school districts across the country
Integrated Learning Pathways identify and design opportunities for students to develop mindsets, skill sets, and practices throughout K-12 learning experiences. Integrated Learning Pathways are designed with the following tenets:
Partnering with districts from across the nation, we have co-designed a process to design and implement Integrated Learning Pathways into teaching and learning in three phases: Plan, Build and Implement.
The integration of Portrait mindsets, skill sets, and practices through Integrated Learning Pathways presents an opportunity to make fundamental shifts to how school leaders and policy makers envision and leverage teaching and learning systems to enable transformative change, including these:
We recommend district leaders create Integrated Learning Pathways to align learning and initiatives to their Portrait of a Graduate and ultimately better prepare students for a successful future.
Check out our white paper, Shifting Education with Learning Pathways: Becoming Your Portrait of a Graduate, to learn more about the skill sets districts across the country have identified for students, the design and implementation of Integrated Learning Pathways, and examples of districts putting their Portrait into action.
