Higley USD is working to implement the “Higley-ized” version of “Portrait of a Graduate” that the Governing Board adopted last May.
But the effort has come under some criticism from one board member, newly elected Anna Van Hoek, who tied it to the national effort from Battelle for Kids, a nonprofit organization that works with school districts and defines its mission as “realizing the power and promise of 21st century learning for every student,” according to its website.
The "Portrait of a Graduate" is a list of traits the district would like to see from district students as they graduate.
"Imagine it is simply a set of goals," said Kristopher Treat, the district's professional development director. "It's a way for a large organization like this to be able to envision what is it we really want for our students."
On its website, Battelle for Kids says its process is a way of bringing educators, students, elected officials, community members and families together to build a unifying, collective vision for students. Van Hook took exception to it.
“This program pushes families out of the picture of their children's future, replaces personal education priorities with a non-academic social-justice vision of correct attitudes and mind-sets, which are all social emotional learning competencies that every child is expected to model and master,” Van Hoek said. “Portrait of a Graduate is being used to fundamentally transform the purpose of U.S. education, shifting curriculum assessments, school accountability and data collection away from academics and towards social-emotional learning.”
But Board Member Kristina Reese said the district intentionally did not adopt the national model. She said Superintendent Dawn Foley, then the associate superintendent, told the board in 2017 what the national program meant.
“We were like, ‘no, no, no, no, that's not what we want. We want a Higley version. We want to ‘Higley-ize’ it,’ which we do a lot of,” Reese said. “We wanted some goals. We wanted to be able to define what we want kids leaving Higley with.”
The end result for HUSD was three listed traits:
College- and career-ready scholar who possess the knowledge and skills needed to be successful;
Responsible citizen who demonstrates integrity and empathy through global awareness and community engagement; and
Innovative learner who thinks critically and creatively, works collaboratively and communicates effectively.
Treat is leading the effort of district stakeholders, including teachers and even students, to further define the portrait, which was adopted alongside the district’s strategic plan.
Treat led the board at its March 8 meeting through a review of what it was doing to implement the portrait.
Treat said that for college- and career-ready scholars, the district is working on instructional maps that align the district’s curriculum with state standards for learning and do so in a logical sequence.
“If you think about the instructional cycle, it's plan, teach, measure, adjust, and this is what teachers do in the classroom,” Treat said. “Well, we feel that instructional maps such as this that are aligned to current standards help them in that process and make it so that they're not having to hunt around and search around and hope that they have something that they can pull out that might work, but rather to build on the strength of all of their peers who have come together in this process and see their voices there.”
The maps are being worked on by teams of teachers in each discipline at every level, Treat said.
“This is truly something done with teachers for teachers and not done at them or something to try to enforce or prescribe any type of teaching,” he said.
Developing responsible citizens may look different on each campus, Treat said, using clubs like Best Buddies, which connects neurotypical students with those who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, or Veterans Day celebrations as examples.
For innovator learners, the efforts rely heavily on thoughtful professional development sessions, Treat said. The district has early release Wednesdays for teachers to have time to do professional development, which Treat said the district takes seriously to use responsibly for teachers’ growth.
He said the district also makes an effort to promote the sessions to teachers.
“When possible, we like to get folks excited about it, come and know that it's going to be a time of collegial fellowship,” Treat said. “It's going to be a time where you're going to learn something and hopefully have a good time while you're doing it.”
Van Hook said Foley and district officials have sat with her to explain how the district’s program differs from the national one, which she appreciated but hoped that the district would understand why parents would be concerned about the data-mining of children done in the Battelle for Kids program and the emphasis on social-emotional learning.
“I still see a lot of similarities, I do have to say, and I still have a lot of questions,” Van Hook said. “So I will continue to come to you guys with my questions to better understand it, not only for myself but also for my constituents, to assure them that what I described isn't actually what is brought into the district.”
Reese said the questions were good but also that the board and district would never allow the practices that most concerned Van Hook to happen in HUSD.
“What you read there, exploiting children for information and things like that, would not ever be acceptable in this district,” she said.
Foley said she was pleased with the program Higley has developed, particularly with the input it has received from the district’s students.
“We feel we have a much better product than we've ever had before — and own it,” she said. “We own all of the data and we own all the feedback, which is what we implement and act from.”
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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