Workforce demands are continuously changing in response to technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI), select field shortages, and the emergence of new industries. As a result, today’s educational shifts are increasingly focused on the growing demand for a durable skills framework to support their students in developing the durable skills needed to thrive after graduation, regardless of the pathway they choose. This blog will explore what a durable skills framework is and how school districts across the United States are creating their own local Portrait of a Graduate frameworks to ensure all their learners leave the K-12 system armed with the skills needed for success.
Durable Skills Framework: What is it and How are School Districts Implementing it?
While the importance of durable skills and the shifts required in education and the workforce to address skill gaps are still emerging, organizations like America Succeeds are leading the way in supporting these changes. They’ve created their own framework with performance indicators to help educators and employers identify where students and employees are at in their development of durable life skills. As we continue to see the development of skills frameworks and the emergence of innovative digital portfolio platforms that can help document and measure durable skills in both private and non-profit sectors, school districts across the country are also creating their own durable skills framework in the form of a Portrait of a Graduate.
Looking to bring your durable skills framework to life through ongoing student-driven digital documentation and reflection on growth? Download the K-12 Guide to Choosing a Digital Portfolio Platform
What is a Skills Framework?
A skills framework refers to a set of skills that an individual should be able to demonstrate, serving as a guide to determine workforce readiness. In K-12 education, this kind of framework is used as a guideline to determine where students are at in their development of specific durable life skills. It often involves learner progressions and proficiency scales as a way to track student progress meaningfully. In a K-12 setting, a durable skills framework also emphasizes documenting evidence of these skills, along with student-owned reflection on their progress towards meeting the skills outlined in the framework.
Durable Life Skills Examples
Workforce trends indicate that there is a growing need for durable skills to fill both the existing and projected gaps in the job market. As employers continue to prioritize hiring those who can demonstrate they have these skills, the education system must focus on helping students develop these durable life skills in order to give them the best chance of success after they leave school. Some of the top durable life skills examples we see in K-12 education are listed below.
Adaptability: The ability to adjust to new situations, environments, and challenges presented. Being adaptable can help students as they enter the workforce and are faced with a new environment as well as the everyday challenges that arise.
Communication: The ability to actively listen to those around you and clearly convey a point or ideas through written, verbal, and visual methods. As students progress beyond the classroom, they will need to continue interacting with people around them. Strong communication skills can help them as they enter the job market and search for employment as well as in their future careers.
Creative Problem-Solving: The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique ideas and ways to solve problems. As workplaces continue to adopt AI and leverage it to eliminate or reduce many traditionally manual tasks, creativity can help set students apart and respond to challenges that AI cannot help solve.
Critical Thinking: The ability to evaluate and analyze evidence and information to make informed decisions. The demand for higher cognitive skills like critical thinking is expected to rise through 2030, according to McKinsey & Company.
Resilience: The ability to persevere through difficult situations and challenges, and recover from setbacks and failure. Developing resilience will help students navigate the uncertainty, new situations, and challenges they will face after leaving the K-12 system.
For more durable life skills examples and the overarching categories they fall into, see America Succeeds’ durable skills report.
Portrait of a Graduate as a Durable Skills Framework: Examples from School Districts Across America
As school districts across the country continue to help develop future-ready students, there is a growing trend toward developing a durable skills framework, also called a Portrait of a Graduate. A Portrait of a Graduate is often co-created by a school district and its stakeholders, including educators, students, families, and local businesses, and takes into account the competencies that a local community values and deems important to develop in its students. Below are three examples of local Portrait of a Graduate frameworks that districts across Illinois have created to help their students develop the durable life skills needed to thrive after graduation.
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 is a Pre-K-12 school district that serves approximately 5,500 students in the Lake Zurich area, northwest of Chicago. Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 has developed a durable skills framework called Empower95 Portrait of a Graduate, which also serves as the district’s vision. The framework includes five overarching characteristics that their community feels are important for students to have, including being an effective communicator, a global citizen, an advocate for self and others, future-ready, and growth-oriented. Within each of these characteristics, they have identified durable skills examples that can students demonstrate growth over time to show that they embody each of the broader characteristics.
Batavia Public School District 101
Batavia Public School District 101 (BPS 101) is a Pre-K-12 school district in the Fox Valley area of Illinois. BPS 101 developed a durable skills framework in the form of a Portrait of a Graduate to develop lifelong learners and contributors who will be successful beyond graduation. Their Portrait identifies five key attributes that they want all learners to develop by the time they graduate. These attributes include curiosity, flexibility, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and initiative.
Oregon Community Unit School District 220
Oregon Community Unit School District 220 (OCUSD) is a Pre-K-12 school district that serves over 1,400 students in northern Illinois. They have developed a durable skills framework called the OSD Portrait of a Graduate. This framework outlines five skills, aptitudes, and characteristics that will help their students face the challenges they may encounter throughout their lifetime, including competency, character and culture, critical and creative thinking, and community.
OCUSD is in the process of placing its durable skills framework in the hands of its students, leveraging student portfolios to have their ninth-grade students document evidence of skill and competency development throughout the year. They plan to continue with this phased roll-out approach, with each new group of incoming ninth-graders, so that their progress toward the skills outlined in their Portrait of a Graduate will be documented and visible from grades 9 through 12.
Curious how SpacesEDU can help you bring your Portrait of a Graduate from poster to meaningful implementation? Explore Portrait of a Graduate with SpacesEDU