Our East Greenbush Central School District Portrait of a Graduate serves as a unified vision that represents the collective hopes and aspirations of our community for all its students.
Through this process, we are initiating a transformative journey towards realizing this vision, with the opportunity to not only provide rigorous academic content, but to also be more intentional about fostering learning experiences to encompass essential 21st-century skills our children need to thrive in this complex, rapidly changing world.
The 5 Skills of Portrait of a Graduate
Confident Learner
- Engage in rigorous academic content and utilize a growth mindset when confronting challenges
- Become life-long learners by developing positive attitudes and beliefs about learning
- Embrace curiosity to explore new ideas
Effective Communicator
- Articulate thoughts and ideas through written, oral, and non-verbal communication forms both in-person and when using technology
- Actively listen to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes, and viewpoints of others
- Use communication for a range of purposes and audiences (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate, and persuade)
Adaptable
- Demonstrate agility in their thoughts and actions
- Respond productively to feedback, praise, setbacks, and criticism
- Seek to understand and balance diverse views and beliefs to reach solutions
Empathetic
- Demonstrate awareness, sensitivity, concern, and respect to connect with others’ feelings, opinions, experiences, and cultures
- Listen and learn from what others are thinking and experiencing
- Use their personal experiences to connect with what others are thinking, feeling, and experiencing
Critical Thinker
- Consistently improve the quality of their thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and restructuring
- Apply thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence
- Identify, evaluate, and prioritize solutions to difficult situations that incorporate the bigger picture
Portrait of a Graduate Planning Committee
A Portrait of a Graduate Planning Committee met several times during the 2023-24 school year to discuss and develop the Portrait of a Graduate initiative. The committee was comprised of approximately 25 people including teachers, staff, administrators, students, parents, and community members.
Next Steps
During the 2024-25 school year, the entire school district will be engaged in implementing Portrait of a Graduate.
‘Let’s Learn Together’ Podcast
The new Portrait of a Graduate was discussed on the East Greenbush CSD podcast Let’s Learn Together by Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Roy Stiles, Bell Top First Grade Teacher, and a parent in our district, Sarah Lussier, and Superintendent Jeff Simons. They talked about what Portrait of a Graduate is, how it will be implemented it with input from teachers, staff and families, and how it will benefit students.