Learner Outcomes: Learner Portrait

Getting Smart Resources

Podcast: Nevada’s State Portrait of a Learner

This Getting Smart podcast episode examines Nevada’s development and implementation of a Portrait of a Learner, a competency framework that defines the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students should possess upon graduating from the state’s education system. The episode likely features state leaders, educators, and possibly students discussing how Nevada built consensus around shared learner outcomes that extend beyond traditional academic metrics to include whole-child competencies such as critical thinking, civic engagement, and social-emotional skills. For practitioners and school leaders, this resource offers a real-world state-level case study in how a Portrait of a Learner can be co-created, adopted at scale, and used to drive curriculum, instructional, and assessment decisions across diverse communities. It matters because shifting from seat-time and test-score accountability toward portrait-based outcomes represents one of the most significant levers for systemic education transformation, and Nevada’s experience provides concrete lessons for others navigating similar redesign efforts.

Town Hall: Portrait of a Graduate in Practice

This TownHall resource from Getting Smart examines how schools and districts are translating Portrait of a Graduate frameworks from aspirational documents into lived, daily practice. It offers practitioners and school leaders concrete examples, conversations, and strategies for aligning curriculum, assessment, and school culture around competency-based learner outcomes that go beyond traditional academic metrics. The resource addresses one of the most persistent implementation gaps in education innovation — the distance between what communities say they want for graduates and what schools actually measure and develop. For leaders working to shift their systems toward whole-child, competency-focused models, this TownHall provides grounding in both the why and the how of making learner portraits operational rather than decorative.

Portraits Model: Implementation process for all portraits

The Portraits Model from Getting Smart is a practical implementation framework designed to help schools and districts develop and activate Learner Portraits — defined profiles of the competencies, dispositions, and skills graduates need to thrive. The resource walks practitioners and school leaders through a structured process for co-creating these portraits with community stakeholders, embedding them into curriculum design, instructional practice, and assessment systems. It addresses a common gap in education transformation work: schools often articulate aspirational outcomes but lack a coherent process for making those outcomes operational across classrooms and culture. For leaders moving beyond standards-only frameworks toward whole-child and competency-based approaches, this model provides a replicable, community-grounded pathway for aligning school systems around shared graduate outcomes.

One Goal, Two Journeys: The Role of Community and Workforce in Defining Graduate featuring Kentucky and South Carolina

This Getting Smart resource examines how Kentucky and South Carolina have approached defining what graduates should know, be, and be able to do by actively engaging community members and workforce partners in the design process. Through the lens of two distinct state contexts, it explores how learner portraits and graduate profiles are shaped when education systems look beyond school walls to ground their outcomes in local economic realities and civic expectations. The resource offers practitioners and school leaders concrete examples of how cross-sector collaboration can move graduate profile development from a bureaucratic exercise into a meaningful, community-anchored commitment. For those working on outcomes-based redesign, it demonstrates that durable learning goals require alignment between schools, employers, and communities—and that the process of building that alignment is itself transformative.

Kindling the Spark: How the Portrait of a Graduate Becomes the Catalyst for Transformation

Kindling the Spark: How the Portrait of a Graduate Becomes the Catalyst for Transformation” by Getting Smart examines how a Portrait of a Graduate—a shared vision statement defining the skills, competencies, and dispositions a school community wants students to develop—can serve as a foundational driver of systemic school change. The resource explores how schools and districts develop, communicate, and embed these portraits into curriculum design, instructional practice, and community engagement to move beyond compliance-driven education toward competency-based, learner-centered models. It offers practical insights into the process of co-creating graduate profiles with diverse stakeholders, including students, families, and community members, ensuring the vision reflects authentic local values rather than generic standards. For practitioners and school leaders, this resource matters because it reframes the Portrait of a Graduate not as a decorative mission statement but as an operational tool that aligns decision-making, resource allocation, and instructional priorities across an

Charting a Course for Educational Transformation: The Power of Aligned Portraits

Charting a Course for Educational Transformation: The Power of Aligned Portraits, published by Getting Smart, examines how learner portraits—articulated visions of what students should know, do, and be—can serve as a foundational alignment tool for systemic school change. The resource guides practitioners and school leaders through the process of developing and operationalizing these portraits so that curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and culture all point toward the same north star for student outcomes. It offers practical framing for why misalignment between stated values and actual school structures undermines transformation efforts, and how a well-crafted learner portrait can close that gap. For educators pursuing deeper innovation, this resource matters because it shifts the conversation from isolated program initiatives to coherent, whole-system design grounded in a clear and shared vision of the whole child.

So You Designed a Profile of a Graduate, Now What?

So You Designed a Profile of a Graduate, Now What?” is a resource from Getting Smart that addresses the critical gap between creating a graduate profile and actually implementing it in meaningful ways across a school or district. It offers practical guidance for educators and leaders on translating aspirational learner outcomes into curriculum design, instructional practices, assessment frameworks, and community engagement strategies. The resource recognizes that many schools invest significant effort in developing learner portraits only to see them stagnate as wall documents rather than functioning as living drivers of school culture and decision-making. For practitioners pursuing genuine education transformation, this resource matters because it moves the conversation beyond vision-setting into the harder, more consequential work of systemic alignment and continuous improvement around student outcomes.

Additional Resources

Portrait of Graduate in Practice

NGLC
NGLC’s *Portrait of a Graduate in Practice* is a resource designed to help schools and districts move beyond aspirational learner profiles toward concrete implementation of graduate competencies in everyday teaching and learning. It examines how schools are translating their Portrait of a Graduate commitments—skills like agency, collaboration, and critical thinking—into observable practices, assessments, and structures that shape student experience. The resource draws on real school examples to show what it looks like when these outcomes are embedded in culture, curriculum, and community rather than left as wall-hanging ideals. For practitioners and school leaders, this matters because defining desired graduate outcomes is only the starting point; the harder and more consequential work is aligning systems and instructional practice to actually produce them.

South Carolina Portrait of a Graduate

South Carolina Dept of Ed
The South Carolina Portrait of a Graduate is a state-level framework developed by the South Carolina Department of Education that defines the competencies, skills, and attributes students should possess upon completing their K-12 education. The resource outlines a vision for graduate readiness that moves beyond academic standards to encompass qualities such as critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, and citizenship, reflecting what communities and employers identify as essential for success in college, career, and civic life. For practitioners and school leaders, it provides a shared language and north star for redesigning curriculum, instructional practice, and school culture around whole-child development. Its significance for education transformation lies in its ability to anchor systemic change efforts—offering a graduate-facing lens through which schools can evaluate whether their programs, structures, and experiences are actually preparing students for the demands of a complex, rapidly changing world.

Portrait of a Graduate: A Guide for Community Conversations

Battelle for Kids
Battelle for Kids’ *Portrait of a Graduate: A Guide for Community Conversations* is a practical toolkit designed to help schools and districts engage their broader communities in defining the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students should possess upon graduation. The resource provides structured facilitation protocols, conversation guides, and collaborative activities that bring together educators, families, business leaders, and community members to co-create a shared vision of graduate outcomes. Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all answer, it centers local values and context, making the resulting portrait more likely to earn genuine stakeholder buy-in. For school leaders pursuing systemic transformation, this matters because a community-developed Portrait of a Graduate can serve as a north star that aligns curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school culture around competencies that go beyond standardized test performance—anchoring innovation efforts in a collectively owned definition of student success.

Vermont’s Building Your Steering Committee Guide

Vermont Agency of Education
Vermont’s Building Your Steering Committee Guide, published by the Vermont Agency of Education, is a practical resource designed to help schools and districts establish effective governance structures for developing a Learner Portrait—a shared vision of the competencies, skills, and dispositions students should demonstrate upon graduation. The guide walks practitioners and school leaders through the process of identifying and recruiting diverse stakeholders, including educators, students, families, and community members, to form a steering committee capable of leading this collaborative work. It offers concrete guidance on committee composition, roles, and the inclusive processes needed to ensure the resulting Learner Portrait reflects the values and aspirations of the whole community rather than a narrow institutional perspective. This matters for education transformation because a well-constructed Learner Portrait anchors systemic change by giving schools a north star that shifts focus from seat time and content coverage toward clearly defined, meaningful outcomes for every student.

Farmington Public Schools Profile of a Learner

Farmington Public Schools (CT)
Farmington Public Schools in Connecticut developed a Profile of a Learner that defines the knowledge, skills, and dispositions the district aims to cultivate in every student across their K-12 experience. The profile articulates specific learner outcomes beyond academic content, including attributes such as critical thinking, collaboration, and self-direction, giving educators and school leaders a shared framework for instructional design and assessment. Rather than leaving graduate competencies abstract, Farmington operationalizes them in ways that can inform curriculum planning, professional learning, and school culture decisions. For practitioners exploring how to move from mission statements to actionable learner-centered practice, this resource offers a concrete example of how a public school district has codified its vision into a usable, system-wide tool. It matters because it demonstrates that defining and aligning around learner outcomes is a viable, replicable strategy for driving coherent education transformation at the district level.