Is your “Profile of a Graduate” improving learning experiences in your community, or is it simply describing aspirations without the aligned actions to bring them to life?
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Currently, across North America (at least), I am seeing variations of a “Portrait of a Graduate” (or Profile) or a “Portrait of a Learner” (I prefer the latter term) highlighted as ongoing work at the school, district, or even state level.
Personally, I am working with several organizations this year on this, as I have been doing this work for over a decade in some form or another.
For example, in September 2014, I first wrote about the idea of “The Innovator’s Mindset” in my blog, which is defined as follows.
The hope was that school would be a place where you wouldn’t just “consume and regurgitate” information, but you would have the opportunity to do something meaningful with those ideas in your own context. I prefer the term “The Portrait of a Learner” because this idea should not be limited to students but should be expanded to everyone in our community. That “mindset” is crucial in a world where we do not have access to all the information, but, more importantly, we have unlimited access to one another.
Less than a week later, on my blog, I introduced the “8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset,” which you can see below, though the image is much more up to date than what was shared in the original post.
Obviously, my book titled “The Innovator’s Mindset” came out in October of 2015, which went into those ideas in greater depth.
And although this book was written on innovation, it wasn’t telling people what they should do to become “innovative” (as the book would have been totally irrelevant by the time it was printed if that was the case), but focused more on the characteristics and skill sets for anyone to embody, no matter the time, that would help them create new and better opportunties for themselves and others, no matter the time.
All those characteristics could be seen as relevant today as they were in 2015, as they would be a decade from now.
This is something that I see through the adoption of the “Profile of a Graduate” or “Portrait of a Learner” work happening in many different communities.
For example, below is the New York State “Portrait of a Graduate” image from their site:
Now you can see some direct connection between “The 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset” (reflective is the obvious one), but some have overlap with different languages.
I share the idea of being “Empathetic” and “Networked,” with significant overlap with the “Effective Communicator” area in the New York state image above. I have bolded my own connections below.
“Articulates ideas clearly and confidently through speaking, writing, and the use of different types of media for various purposes, (could be networked or reflective) while engaging with diverse audiences and actively listening to different perspectives (easily connects to empathetic).”
Then jump to the recently released (May 2026) “Portrait of a Learner” from the California State Board of Education.
Again, I could make the connections to my original characteristics, but you could also see the differences and similarities between each of the New York and California state images:
As I connect all of these “attributes” or characteristics from mine and others, I want to make this clear.
Here is what I am not saying.
That mine is better (or worse) than others. It is different. And when you look across states, schools, and districts, they have their own variations. As I share in all my books, I am not here to tell anyone what to do, but for them to consider it in their own context. Nobody knows your community as you do, and I think a great exercise could be, if we were to make your own, is to define what you would add, subtract, change, or keep the same from any of these.
(Here are all three images I have referenced so far in one picture for your use):
(I guess circles were not as cool in 2015 as they are today!)
As I share all of this, there is one thing that is really important to consider.
Many of these “portraits” or “profiles” are not what schools and staff are necessarily asking for.
This will be thrust upon them whether they think it is beneficial or not. And even if it is good, when people are forced to do something, that doesn’t mean they will embrace it; they might even push back because their input in the original creation wasn’t considered.
Yet if this is mandated, the more we can provide true ownership over the experience, the better. It is much easier for something to succeed if I have input into the process.
With that said, I want to share three insights from my work over the years that I have used and will continue to leverage in my ongoing work with school communities through this process.
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1. What are the foundational elements we need to rethink as a school community, especially in school leadership, that ensure this work goes beyond “buzzwords” into meaningful work?
No matter the “portrait” you create, if we do not align leadership practices to this process, it risks becoming a nice poster we hang in the hallways rather than something that meaningfully shapes learning.
In “Innovate Inside the Box”, Katie Novak and I go through each “characteristic” from the innovator’s mindset in part 2 of the book with ideas for practices in the classroom, but in part 1, we explicitly discuss what we call the “foundation for innovation in education” that is meant to rethink the support provided to classrooms.
For example, I challenge the idea of being “data-driven” as a school, and focus on the terminology “learner-driven, evidence-informed” practice. This is one of the foundational elements we discuss in detail:
For example, when you look at “data” on being a “Global Citizen,” is a student getting an “A” for that? An 82%?
There is so much subjectivity in all these attributes that, when we get consumed by the idea of “data” (not the word’s definition, but the perception), it is hard to tell what that looks like.
When you embrace the idea of being “learner-driven, evidence informed” you would start with the idea that you are driven by the goals of the learner in front of you, how they best want to exemplify the criteria of becoming a “global citizen,” and then giving the opportunity to share different “evidence” through the process, which can be created in a multitude of ways.
Obviously, Katie and I go into much greater depth of these concepts in “Innovate Inside the Box,” but the biggest idea I want to get through is that this is a massive change being asked by teachers, and if you want it to be successful, we have to ask what changes in school leadership first?
Don’t ask others to take risks if you are not willing to exemplify that you will do the same.
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2. What does this process look like in our own professional practice, and how does each current attribute become a part of our curriculum, not something that is an additive?
As I shared in question one, we have to model our own learning before asking others to consider altering their practice.
In “The Innovator’s Mindset,” I share each characteristic as something educators need to model first, so they can better understand what it looks like in our classroom. We can’t teach something we have never learned.
For example, how do we create these opportunities to embody these characteristics in our own professional learning?
This is why I always lean toward a portrait or profile of a “learner” rather than a graduate or student.
If we can’t embody those attributes (from whatever framework you are working with) in our own professional practice, then a) it would be hard to emulate them in our classrooms, and b) they are not beneficial to students after their time in schools if they are not something we need to do as adults.
The whole premise of whatever framework you use is that it can evergreen past one’s time in schools and provide students with the skills necessary to adapt, create, and leverage change, no matter their situation.
That is why “The Innovator’s Mindset” focused on characteristics rather than technology.
The technology will change, but our ability to learn, adapt, and grow should be the constant.
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3. What do these attributes look like within the context of our curriculum? What already exists? What needs to change?
As these “portraits” are being implemented in states, the first thought for many is “another thing!” and I get the trepidation for various reasons.
Is this going to be something we can “wait” out until the next thing? Is adding something to educators’ already full platters helpful in a system that is already unsustainable?
First of all, you cannot add anything to the school day. Here is the biggest reason.
No matter what decade you went to school, the timeframe of the day is almost the exact same, yet the demands keep going up. The math ain’t mathing.
The only options you have are changing things and making better use of your time, which could also mean subtracting.
If this is coming to our schools, what are we going to subtract?
Also, how does this fit into our curriculum?
This is where the work of “Forward, Together” comes into support.
You do not need staff “buy-in” or “commitment.” Those words are often used to generate excitement about something the leader wants to do, not necessarily what is created together.
This is about creating ownership.
“Ownership is more about feeling pride in ensuring success about something you created together. It has to do with personal responsibility and care over a particular idea, task, or result. To feel ownership, not only do individuals need to believe in the ideas to participate, they must believe their participation is integral to the success of the idea or initiative.”
So how do we create ownership through a process that might be mandated and over which we have no say?
First of all, those characteristics (no matter what they are) are often so open-ended that the question should be discussed: “What does this process look like in our community and how do these attributes support our current work?” I have been all over New York state, and how that portrait is perceived in upstate New York versus Long Island will probably have similarities and differences. Shape it for your community with your community.
Secondly, another question that is imperative to discuss with your school community is, “Once we start this process, what will we no longer do?” If you add without subtracting, this will fail.
And my final suggestion is, “What does this look like in our curriculum today, and how is this already being done?” If you want this to be successful, tap into experts. That is your current staff and community. A lot of this work is already being done, but it is not being highlighted because it has not been focused on. Don’t make this about doing the curriculum and the portrait.
As I have said often, it is not “curriculum or innovation”; it is how you teach the curriculum that is the innovation.
Learn from the people who are already doing it and do everything in your power (which I acknowledge has some limitations) to take ownership of the process.
I don’t think that is your best chance of success; I believe it is your only chance.
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This is work I have been doing for years, and it is wonderful to see it all come full circle. It is not about “rethinking” school as much as it is equipping learners to find success in a way that is meaningful to them, no matter what is headed their way.
As a quick run-down, if you want to lay the foundation for this work, check out “Innovate Inside the Box.”
If you want to create learning experiences that emulate what you hope to create in your classrooms, check out “The Innovator’s Mindset.”
And if you want to create ownership over these attributes, check out “Forward, Together.”
Don’t look to any of these books to give you the exact answers you are looking for to solve your problems. That would go against my entire philosophy. Read them through the lens of this work and how you would modify it to your own context and community.
That is the best way to ensure success in this “Portrait of a Learner” process, whether it is mandated or you create it entirely from scratch as a community.
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(If you are interested in learning more about how I can help you with this process through my work, please feel free to fill out this form or email me directly. I would love to help support your community through this process.)
