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Durango reviews Portrait of a Graduate baseline; plans grade-level badges and clearer success criteria
Summary
At its Aug. 19 meeting the board received the first monitoring report on the district’s Portrait of a Graduate results policy. District staff said data show partial participation and proposed a shift to grade-level 'badges' with eight success criteria per grade to improve clarity and teacher workflow.
District leaders presented the board on Aug. 19 with the first monitoring report for the Portrait of a Graduate results policy and outlined a plan to make the system easier for teachers and more meaningful for students.
The presentation described the current monitoring as a baseline year: participation in the district’s artifact-based system varied by competency, and staff recommended a redesign to make instruction and assessment clearer. Superintendent Dr. Chester told the board the report establishes a baseline and that the district is proposing several changes to the program.
What staff proposed - Grade-level badging: staff recommended selecting eight success criteria per grade so that a smaller, consistent set of competencies is taught and assessed each year rather than asking teachers to cover all 24 success criteria at once. Under the proposed sequencing, students would cycle through the full set across multi-year spans. - K–2 language and unit integration: staff said they will provide K–2‑specific language and model units to help early-grade teachers directly teach the competencies. The goal is to embed the success criteria in existing units so artifacts are a natural outcome of instruction rather than an add-on. - Teacher supports and exemplars: the district will convene a Portrait of a Graduate “rock stars” group of teachers and coaches to develop exemplar projects, artifact rubrics and capstone examples and to pilot pilot classroom furniture and learning-environment approaches.
Why it matters: the change shifts the metric from a single-year artifact-count to a developmental, repeated demonstration of competencies and aims to increase teacher clarity and student ownership. Board members said they preferred the proposed grade-level approach and asked for a revised monitoring rubric at the September meeting.
Next steps: staff will return to the board with updated K–2 language and an implementation schedule for grade-level badges; the board plans to review the revised monitoring report in September.
