Centennial advances "Portrait of a Graduate" work with student-led design retreat, community forum set for Jan. 30

Centennial School District leaders and consultants from Performance FACT brought students, families, staff and community partners together for a two-day design retreat last week to advance the district’s Portrait of a Graduate and to draft an instructional vision and progression matrix.

"The students who were participants in the group really grounded and centered the work," said Lauren Hefty of Performance FACT during the Centennial School Board meeting that followed the Budget Committee session.

The portrait — developed during the district’s Roadmap 27 strategic planning process — identifies six broad qualities (for example, inquisitive and innovative; care for self; care for community) and associated attributes the district wants every student to develop from prekindergarten through grade 12. Retreat participants mapped "what this looks like" at early grades through high school and began translating the portrait into classroom instructional practices and demonstrations of learning.

Nut graf: why it matters

District leaders said the Portrait of a Graduate is intended to be the instructional "north star" that ties strategic priorities to classroom practice and student reflections. The design work is an early step in articulating what students will be able to demonstrate at each grade band and how schools will collect evidence of that growth.

What happened at the retreat and next steps

- Participants: More than 40 staff, students, parents and community partners took part in the design retreat. Students led portions of the work and emphasized reflection and demonstration of growth.

- Draft artifacts: Retreat teams produced an initial progression matrix and a draft instructional vision anchored in culturally and linguistically responsive instruction, relationship-centered learning, student voice and ownership, rigorous academic engagement, and community-connected learning.

- Demonstrations of learning: Consultants emphasized the move from describing the profile to requiring student-owned presentations of learning — opportunities for students to explain and show how they had developed specific skills over time.

- Public forum: The…