June 2018 - Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate

By Brent Swartzmiller, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Perrysburg Schools

Perrysburg School District, along with parents, guardians, community members, representatives from higher education institutions and local business leaders, is developing a Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate. This school year, a group of twenty-five individuals have come together to develop a list of the most important skills our students should demonstrate upon graduation. We understand that test scores alone do not go far enough in defining our success. Though, of course, we want our students to have a range of competencies, this group is tasked with selecting about five or six skills that we would like to focus upon developing in our students, such as empathy, collaboration and communication.

The primary goal of this process is for us to stay relevant to our students and their needs. Of course, there are many more competencies that we value, but we understand the need to focus on those that have been identified as the most critical for our students’ success in college and career. Furthermore, we want to focus the valuable time we have with students from preschool to their final high school years in promoting the competencies that will be most impactful for their future success.

Working with Batelle for Kids, we initiated Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate as a result of our Vision 2020 strategic planning process. We were first asked the question: “What is our vision for our school district?” This led to another question: “What competencies do we most need to emphasize in shaping our graduates?” In the fall, the Academic Needs subgroup of the Vision 2020 strategic planning committee met with our District Leadership Team and highlighted the need to answer that resulting question.

The work of the Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate will be presented to focus groups to elicit feedback and plan for our students’ future needs together. We do not just want to look at what our graduates need today, but what our current preschool students and beyond will need when they graduate, which could look very different. The next challenge will be, once we have our Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate, how do we embed these skills in all that we do?

The Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate is not separate from our curriculum. We will still teach rigorous content, while also imparting these additional competencies for the students’ future success and happiness. We are excited for the challenge of incorporating the development of these competencies into English Language Arts or Mathematics lessons, for example. We believe that adding this layer will improve our effectiveness and relevance in carrying out our mission of ensuring all students achieve their greatest potential.

In the short term, our goal is to clearly define our Portrait of a Perrysburg Graduate for the larger community and collect feedback throughout 2018. In the coming school year, we will begin to intentionally weave these skills into our curriculum. The rollout will continue as we communicate in our classrooms for our students, beginning as early as spring 2019.