Portrait of a Graduate: Connecting Standards to Real-World Skills

Original Post Written by Helen Maltese in 2020, Updated Fall 2025 I commit the majority of my time to managing our database of standards, which translates to I read a lot of standards daily. I research international program requirements, locally adopted state standards, and recently published benchmarks from national organizations. 

Educators everywhere face the same challenge: an overwhelming number of academic standards. Alongside the long list of benchmarks, and students often asking, “When am I ever going to use this?”

The Portrait of a Graduate (PoG) provides a powerful answer. It gives schools and districts a shared vision of the skills, knowledge, and dispositions students should develop before graduation, and a framework to make learning relevant for students and parents.

What Is a Portrait of a Graduate? A School Wide Guide

You might use the term Portrait of a Graduate (PoG), Expected School wide Learning Results (ESLRs), or School wide Learning Outcomes (SLOs), regardless, the purpose is the same: 

• • To define what it means for students to be college, career, and life ready
  • Identify both academic competencies and non-academic dispositions such as values, attitudes, and beliefs
  • Guide decisions for curriculum alignment, accreditation, and continuous improvement

In short, the PoG acts as a compass, aligning curriculum, teaching, and school culture to your mission and vision. View examples of school and district-created PoGs here. 

Why PoG Matters for Teachers

While administrators often use the PoG to guide strategic planning, it can also be transformative for classroom teachers. Instead of feeling pressured to cover every single standard, teachers can prioritize those that connect to broader life skills.

Think of the PoG as a bridge between academic standards and real-world readiness. It helps students see the relevance of their learning while allowing teachers to emphasize skills that are harder to measure but vital for success—like collaboration, resilience, and empathy.

How to Start Building Your School's Portrait of a Graduate

Step 1: Emphasize Soft Skills

As you prepare to create statements for your Portrait of a Graduate, start with the competencies students need in order to be prepared for life beyond the classroom. Academic standards focus on cognitive skills, so now is the time to draft a list of non-cognitive skills (a.k.a. soft skills) that will become the focus of these school wide expectations. A great jumping off point is to research skills related to employability and social-emotional competence. In a review of different examples of ESLRs and PoGs shared by schools, the following soft skills appear to be the most represented:

• • Communication
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Critical thinking
  • Citizenship and Social Responsibility 
  • Empathy
  • Ownership of learning
  • Research
  • Self-directedness 
  • Self-awareness

Some great points of reference for this list might also be found in state or national sets of cross-curricular competencies and career and technical standards. Schools in the U.S. might refer to employability skills outlined by many CTE standards, in addition to technology standards, and 21st century skills frameworks. Schools in Australia might refer to the ACARA general capabilities, and specifically, the capabilities that are especially difficult to teach like ethics, personal and social capabilities, and intercultural understandings. 

Step 2: Gather Community Input

Consider reaching out to parents and community members to ask them what skills and attitudes they believe are most valuable to students as they enter college or the workforce. Extending your efforts into the greater school community can provide valuable insight as well as encourage community members to be invested in the process so that everyone can support the implementation of the PoG in the future.

• • Use surveys to collect parent and community feedback
  • Ask: What skills are most valuable for success in college, work, and civic life?
  • Incorporate this input into schoolwide expectations to build buy-in and shared ownership

Step 3: Align and Apply in Curriculum

As you begin to draft these school wide statements, consider saving them in a place that is easily accessible for everyone to view. As I mentioned earlier, these can be helpful to refer to during curriculum planning because they can be another point of alignment. With Atlas, you can add these directly to the unit planner, or you include them in your standards drop-down menu so that they stay the center of your curriculum mapping process. If you’re curious how another Atlas school incorporated their Portrait of a Graduate, check out this blog by Sandra Boyles, Head of Head of Lower and Middle Schools The Crescent School.  If you’re interested in additional resources to help you in the process of creating your PoG, check out the two resources below:

• Center for Curriculum Redesign Framework: This framework is meant as a guide to examine how your current curriculum incorporates critical 21st century competencies that prepare students for life beyond the classroom. Consider using the list of skills and behaviors as a starting point! Find out more about our partnership with them here.
• The Portrait of Graduate By Battelle Kids Resource Hub

 

Learn more about how Atlas can support your Portrait of a Graduate Development