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Portrait of a Graduate Captures Skills and Characteristics a Student Will Need to Thrive

The New Haven Public Schools have adopted a “Portrait of a Graduate” to guide the educational experience from pre-kindergarten through high school. The portrait outlines the key qualities, skills, and characteristics a student should possess upon graduation. It serves as a framework to guide the educational experience and help students prepare for success beyond high school. The portrait was presented to the Board of Education at its January 13, 2025 meeting.

The six characteristics of an NHPS graduate are: civic and global contributor, creative innovator, critical thinker, effective communicator, empathetic connector, and resilient learner. Each of these qualities is described below:

Implementation will require educators to think about how these qualities, skills, and characteristics can be elicited and fostered at each grade level. The answer to these questions will inform curriculum and teaching approaches throughout a student’s education.

“We want to be sure that, as early as pre-kindergarten, we are eliciting and encouraging the qualities that we seek in our graduates,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Keisha Redd-Hannans. “The portrait will serve as an anchor for all of us as we make decisions about how we can best support student learning.”

“It is no surprise that the most important priorities to emerge from the development of our strategic operating plan are academic,” said Superintendent Dr. Madeline Negrón. “In addition to our goals for literacy and mathematics, we have identified character traits that can help our students flourish in and contribute to a changing world. We are grateful to the many members of our community who have contributed to this work; we look forward to their continuing partnership as we incorporate the portrait of a graduate into our teaching.”

In New Haven’s case, the process of articulating the portrait began as part of the district’s strategic planning process in February 2024. Teachers, administrators, staff, students, families, and community members were asked to identify the qualities, skills, and characteristics students would need in order to succeed in life beyond high school. The advice from more than 500 responses was assembled and distributed for comment using an artificial intelligence platform called Thought Exchange. The team developing the strategic operating plan synthesized this information, then in May began developing draft attributes and skills. In September, a committee of teachers, students, and administrators reviewed this data and then shared it in focus groups of university and business partners. That feedback was incorporated into a draft portrait that was shared again with stakeholders via Thought Exchange, this time garnering over 1,200 responses. Finally, a revised draft was presented to the superintendent in November and to principals and central office administrators in December. 

The portrait will be presented to assistant principals and teachers. In addition to identifying how the portrait connects to the curriculum in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, curriculum supervisors will engage with teachers to make the portrait come to life in the classroom.