The Graduate Portrait
Why have a Graduate Portrait?
At the center of an educational vision is the Graduate Portrait—a description of the community’s aspirations for its young people. Our Graduate Portrait is courageous, informed by community values and foresight about likely trends our students may encounter. It describes the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and mindsets that Santa Clara Unified School District’s students need to thrive in life and career.
While the Graduate Portrait is aspirational*, our commitment is to support every student in working toward realizing its elements to the best of their ability. The aspirations are bold, to catalyze the system changes needed to improve student outcomes. Our Graduate Portrait will also guide adult actions and decisions, aligning leadership, management, teaching and learning, and resource allocations for student success. Our objective is to prepare each student for life beyond high school by supporting them in reaching their full potential. We believe that all of the Graduate Portrait elements are important for ensuring that students thrive in the increasingly diverse environment in which they will live.
The following Graduate Portrait elements have been developed through iterative cycles of input, feedback, and revision, as illustrated in the roadmap.
Quicklinks
Graduate Portrait Elements
- Resilient Mind, Healthy Body
- Critical-thinking Scholar
- Collaborative Problem Solver
- Future-ready Learner
- Effective Communicator
- Inclusive Empathizer
- Equity Ambassador
- Global Citizen
Resilient Mind, Healthy Body
Critical-thinking Scholar
Collaborative Problem Solver
Future-ready Learner
Effective Communicator
Inclusive Empathizer
Equity Ambassador
Global Citizen
Graduation Portrait Implications
Successful implementation of our Graduate Portrait will require collective effort, some of which will be clear immediately, and some of which may be more emergent. The following three areas of focus will accelerate the comprehensive development of the Graduate Portrait.