Superintendent’s Blog
After a year of meetings, surveys, and graphic design work, we have finally finished our Dolores Graduate Profile. Some might ask, “What is a graduate profile?”. A graduate profile is a set of skills the community believes every student should possess when they graduate. These are often not “academic standards”; they are intangible skills that might be hard to measure but are very important for success in life.
We started the development of our graduate profile by gathering a group of parents, teachers, students, and administrators to brainstorm ideas. We also developed a survey and sent it to every parent in the district (if we had a correct email address) to get additional feedback, and we received a lot of feedback! Next, we organized the feedback, looked for themes, and incorporated it into the graduate profile. What we eventually came up with was six areas that we felt students should be proficient in: Character, Innovation, Personal Responsibility, Clear Communication, Resilience, and Balance. I will briefly address each area:
- Character – A young person with emotional intelligence, kindness, respect, and tolerance and a growth mindset.
- Innovation – Someone who is a critical thinker, shows creativity, resourcefulness, and imagination, and is a problem solver.
- Personal Responsibility – a young person is accountable for their actions and demonstrates productivity, work ethic, self-direction, and time management.
- Clear Communications – someone who clearly communicates in writing and discussion, is collaborative, open-minded, actively listens, and shows empathy.
- Resilience – A young person who demonstrates determination, grit, perseverance, and risk-taking.
- Balance – Someone who brings all of these traits together to be prepared for a work/life balance, has financial literacy skills, is prepared academically for life, and is civic-minded.
As we progress with our graduate profile, we will train our staff to begin the new school year and have posters and signs in all classrooms and offices. We hope the parents and community will help us reinforce these traits with our students and future graduates. And finally, we hope that the students will understand the importance of each of these areas and traits and will work hard toward mastering each trait.
