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El Segundo High outlines ‘graduate profile’ push to turn posters into classroom practice
Summary
El Segundo High School leaders told the Board of Education they are embedding a district graduate profile into daily instruction and expanding career-pathway opportunities including internships, a student portfolio process and community partnerships.
El Segundo High School administrators briefed the El Segundo Board of Education on Feb. 11 about efforts to move the district's graduate profile "from poster to practice," describing curriculum changes, student reflection portfolios and a new career-pathway initiative.
The presentation, led by Principal Steve Gephardt with teacher leaders Teresa McDormand and Alyssa Reyes, outlined steps the school has taken to integrate the graduate profile into instruction and student experiences so that the district's stated competencies appear in daily lessons and extracurricular programming.
Gephardt told the board the work began with professional development and teacher teams who translated the graduate-profile posters into classroom tools, then layered student-facing evidence collection. "From poster to practice," he said, is how staff described the shift.
School leaders described three strands of the profile they said now show up across campus: empowering continuous learners, creative and critical thinkers, and responsible, resilient individuals. Examples offered to the board included: - A new portfolio/reflection process (referred to as GRAPI) that gave students a 30-minute portfolio-reflection period where they uploaded evidence of progress to a Google folder. - Student projects that placed at the California Invention Convention, including a Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) drone concept to detect wildfires. - Integration of social-emotional supports: a revamped MTSS committee that includes classified and security staff, a wellness center, peer support internships and a therapy dog on campus.
Gephardt also introduced the Career Pathway Experience (CPE) initiative, which the school said will expand student partnerships with local businesses and organizations to provide internships (credit and noncredit), paid employment, structured volunteer opportunities and job shadowing. "What that does for the students when they come back to El Segundo High School is it just enriches the experiences they have there," Gephardt said.
Teacher-leader Teresa McDormand described classroom-level tools that support student reflection and critical thinking, while Reyes highlighted efforts to recognize staff and student demonstrations of the profile using surveys that solicit nominations from students and staff.
Board members asked about broader adoption and next steps; the presenters said the work will continue to be developed with teacher teams and community partners, and senior events such as the Shark Tank presentations and a senior expo will continue to showcase student work.
The presentation concluded with board appreciation for the work and several members saying they would like to see continued community engagement and partnerships that support the pathways described.
