Activating Profile of a Graduate Competencies Through Digital Portfolios

The Oregon School District 220 is a school district supporting over 1,200 students in pre-K through Grade 12 across Oregon, Illinois. Within this district is Oregon Junior/Senior High School, serving approximately 625 students from Grade 7 to Grade 12, where they’re supported by approximately 60 educators and support staff. Oregon Junior/Senior High School is an urban school with a rural, small-town feel.

In their region, Oregon Junior/Senior High School is known for their excellent educators, one of whom won the 2022 Illinois Teacher of the Year Award and was named one of the top five teachers for the 2022 National Teacher of the Year Award. That same culture of excellence extends to students–around 75% of Oregon Junior/Senior High School’s students are involved in some kind of extracurricular activity. And if there’s something they don’t have and the students want to start it, they are given the opportunity to take ownership.

Turning Profile of a Graduate competencies into something students can see and reflect on

“After really digging into our data and seeing what our students' post-secondary outcomes were, we realized that only about 50% of our students were going on to junior college or university,” shared Heidi Deininger, Principal at Oregon Junior/Senior High School. She went on to say, “That’s when we knew we needed to define what our community could count on from us as a school district with our graduating seniors. And so we began the process of developing our Profile of a Graduate.” When it came to developing their Profile of a Graduate, Oregon Junior/Senior High School didn’t cut any corners. Shannon Cremeens, Assistant Principal and lead on the district’s Profile of Graduate creation, detailed the year-long process of “surveying our stakeholders and holding multiple focus groups, getting the voices of students, parents, employers, community members, and graduates, to ensure that we were capturing the right things for our students and our community.”

“When we meet with families and students, they tell us: school is about more than just English, math, and science. It’s about problem solving, leadership, collaboration—and we wanted our Profile of a Graduate to reflect that.” - Shannon Cremeens

After they had developed their Profile of a Graduate, came the challenge of bringing it from poster to practice. Heidi shared that “in a previous district, we did the Profile of a Graduate work and didn’t have any way to measure how we were impacting our students. So when we invested in the work here in Oregon, I knew it needed to come with a way of gathering our student work in developing their competencies and being able to point to the data and say, ‘this is how our students are doing.’” Without having a tool with these capabilities, the district’s Profile of a Graduate rollout could not commence.

“We didn’t want this to be a poster on the wall. We wanted to measure how we were actually impacting students.” - Heidi Deininger

A consistent, student-centered platform for showcasing students’ development of Profile of a Graduate competencies

After researching their options, Oregon Junior/Senior High School decided to move forward with SpacesEDU as their Profile of a Graduate tech solution. The ease of use was a major deciding factor when weighing their options. Heidi explained that “because we were rolling it out with our freshmen, we wanted to ensure it was something that they were used to seeing, and that it wasn’t going to take a bunch of work for them to get into the product or to upload their evidence.” Another enticing feature for the team was that it was customizable to what they wanted. They could use their language, competencies, and everything came together effortlessly through the platform.

When Colby Dace, one of the Freshman Seminar teachers, learned that Oregon Junior/Senior High School would be rolling out digital portfolios to support their district’s Profile of a Graduate, he was skeptical because of his previous experience with digital portfolios at another school. Sharing that his first encounter with them was “such a hassle, not user-friendly, and inconvenient, as we were basically building our own website from scratch.” But he was pleasantly surprised when he was introduced to SpacesEDU, sharing that “we wanted our students to reflect on all of the incredible things that they’re doing inside and outside the classroom and connect them back to these competencies that we've set out for them.” He went on to share that “SpacesEDU gave us an easy-to-use platform where kids could reflect on how their work was helping them become better leaders, collaborators, and problem solvers.”

“It was incredibly intuitive and user-friendly to set up. We were able to add our own competencies and turn it into a living, breathing document for students.” - Shannon Cremeens

When Colby introduced it to his Freshman Seminar class, he asked his students, “‘Who here has X, who here has Instagram, who here has Facebook?’ Everybody raised their hands because they all have one of those three, if not all three.” He went on to say to his class that “This is going to be easy for you to use.” And it was.

The freshman students shared similar experiences with SpacesEDU. Yovanni Carreno, a 9th-grade student at Oregon Junior/Senior High School, explained that “until I actually opened the app, I didn’t realize it would be that easy to use, especially for uploading things like screenshots of my coding work.” Another freshman student, Gwen Vos, shared a similar sentiment, noting, “It’s a great platform to share things you’ve done–like being a good leader or communicator–and you can show that to other people outside of school. It’s pretty simple once you get started.”

From the start, Oregon Junior/Senior High School approached the implementation of SpacesEDU with a long-term vision: build a sustainable Profile of a Graduate portfolio practice that would grow with students over time. The work began with their ninth graders, and the early results have been promising. “We set a goal that every freshman would have at least one upload tied to each of our five competencies by the end of the first semester,” shared Assistant Principal Kip Crandall. “When we checked the data and saw that 85% of students had hit that mark, we were thrilled. For 100 freshmen, that kind of engagement is a huge win.”

“It’s exciting to see how teachers are using the language of the competencies more and more in their lessons, and sharing those strategies at staff meetings.” - Kip Crandall

But it wasn’t just about hitting a benchmark. The shift in student mindset around what learning can look like was equally powerful. Megan Adams, who also taught Freshman Seminar, observed that SpacesEDU helped students realize the value of what they were already doing. “They started to see, ‘Wait a minute—my art club involvement, my sports, my community service, it all matters.’ They began recognizing that learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom.” This deeper level of student reflection was particularly visible in how students began articulating their growth. “Building my portfolio has changed the way I think about learning in the classroom,” shared Gwen.

“It’s not just about grades—it’s about my growth as a person.” - Gwen

To maintain momentum, portfolio work has now been embedded into the school’s advisory period, known as Hawk Huddle. “This isn’t something we wanted students to touch once and forget about,” said Kip. “By continuing their portfolio reflections in Hawk Huddle, we’re making it a natural part of their routine.”
Shannon believes this practice is already changing how students see themselves. “SpacesEDU gives students a place to say, ‘Look at who I am and who I want to be.’ That kind of self-awareness is critical—not just for school, but for life.”

Looking ahead, the team is focused on building vertical alignment across grade levels. “This year it’s freshmen,” Megan noted, “but in a few years, these same students will be seniors with four years of reflections, evidence, and growth. That’s when the power of this work will really shine.” Kip echoed this sentiment, sharing that “we launched it in our Freshman Seminar classes on purpose, so it could roll up with students through sophomore, junior, and senior year.”

“I hope students use their portfolios as living resumes–something they can show to employers or colleges. Our community helped shape this work, and now they’ll get to see the results.” - Shannon Cremeens