The knowledge, skills and dispositions articulated within the framework have continued to be highly valued, robustly articulated in district documents, and elevated in professional learning experiences. Ephrata’s LRG program was never just a poster or a list of aspirational qualities, it is intentionally integrated into the district culture throughout classrooms and buildings. Digital Promise has partnered with Ephrata to learn more about the leadership, strategy, and implementation that can lead to impactful Portrait of a Graduate initiatives. We spoke to Superintendent Dr. Brian Troop to understand his perspective on why their approach has been so successful in his community.
For Ephrata Area Schools, once the LRG was established, it became an aligning force for all initiatives within the school district. LGR provided a framework to inspire a shared responsibility for the school district to produce graduates that represent the values of the community. Once that became the target, there was clarity that the pursuit of this goal was the unifying vision, or north star, for Ephrata schools. Maintaining the LRG as their central mission required examining all processes in the system and continually assessing the extent to which their processes were setting students on a path to attain Life Ready skills and dispositions. Therefore, the district aligned all their internal systems to support students to attain these skills and be successful contributors to society.
Along with developing an instructional framework aligned with their LRG, Ephrata also established ground rules for the frequency with which students should experience learning activities that fostered Life Ready skills and dispositions. Beginning with a requirement of six LRG-focused lessons per year and gradually scaffolding to 24, teachers are required to specify lessons that foster Life Ready skills. These lessons and associated student outputs are indicated within Ephrata’s student information system and student scores related to Life Ready skill development are shared and communicated with students and caregivers.
Establishing this non-negotiable of 24 lessons while supporting professional learning has resulted in students having frequent and regular learning experiences in which they are developing, growing, and reflecting on their Life Ready skills and dispositions. Dr. Troop shared that in 2024-25, district analytics showed approximately 180,000 intentionally designed learning experiences centered on the LRG across Ephrata Area schools, highlighting course content that included formal feedback and/or structured student reflection. This means that on any given day, there are 1,000 lessons happening in which Life Ready skills and dispositions are being fostered.
Ephrata has implemented robust systems of educator support to support the authentic integration of LRG into instruction. Ephrata has a dedicated team of coaches that provide holistic support to educators to integrate LGR into classroom instruction; they support educators to develop learning experiences that build foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy in ways that encourage interaction and self-regulation.
Professional learning, initially led by instructional coaches, focused on lesson design that fostered student-centered learning and student engagement. As teachers began to shift practices to align with this instructional model, professional learning also shifted. Teachers began to lead the professional learning happening in schools and across the district. Hearing from their own colleagues who were using pedagogy that fostered skills and dispositions such as collaboration, empathy, and responsibility inspired others to try similar approaches.
This peer-to-peer learning model further encouraged more teachers to lead professional learning and share strategies, fostering a community of professional learning, growth, and shared ownership. This shift in adult learning, mirrored the shift Ephrata leadership sought for classrooms. By supporting teacher ownership and engagement in designing learning experiences that foster Life Ready skills and dispositions, Ephrata coaches and leadership allowed teachers to foster their own Life Ready skills and dispositions.
Is your district working to move your Portrait from a poster to regular instructional practice?
