From Reopen to Reinvent. Michael B. Horn

and create meaning. The characteristics include honesty, integrity and responsibility, hard work and resilience, lifelong learning and personal growth, service, and respect.

Utah isn't telling individual schools and districts to just adopt its portrait of a graduate.¹⁰ The state is instead encouraging schools and districts to use its model as a jumping-off point to develop their own portraits,¹¹ much as Juab School District in Utah did to craft its own portrait, which revolves around the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students should have to be able to successfully navigate the world after graduation.¹² You can check out many other portraits of a graduate that states, districts, and schools have constructed at portraitofagraduate.org.

      Grosse Pointe Academy

The Grosse Pointe Academy in Michigan undertook this work during the pandemic and arrived at the purpose illustrated in Figure 2.2. You'll see some familiar themes—objectives around creating intellectually curious graduates who are empathetic and active listeners capable of thinking critically.

Figure 2.2 Purpose

      Source: Courtesy of the Grosse Pointe Academy.

Maybe most important, though, is that the school didn't just lay out platitudes for what it wants its graduates to be able to do in the future. For each area, it also clarified what those phrases didn't mean so that there was greater clarity and less room for misinterpretation. For example, global citizenship is about “understanding the wider world and his/her place in it, respecting all cultures, and environmental and community stewardship.” It's not just about traveling, fulfilling community service, or being bilingual.

      Grosse Pointe Academy:

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ALGjCrcYtc

      My Take

      At a high level, I contend that the purpose of K–12 schools is to help students become individuals prepared to:

       Maximize their human potential;

       Discover their purpose;¹³

       Build their passions and lead choice-filled lives;

       Participate civically in a vibrant democracy as thoughtful, informed citizens capable of acting through the proper levers of society;

       Contribute meaningfully to the world and the economy; and

       Understand that people can see things differently—and that those differences merit respect rather than persecution.

I hold this view based on my reading of what it takes for students to be prepared to lead successful lives—as they define success—in our complex world. But my take isn't what's important here. What's important is having that conversation in your community.

      Once you have defined the end, the next step is to state how you would know if your school was successful so the school can learn and improve. What are the metrics that allow you to know if the school is fulfilling its purpose, and how will you measure them?

      After you have done that, then you can start to think about the scope of activities it will take to get your graduates there. That's the topic of the next chapter.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

       The purpose of schooling isn't a straightforward topic.

       Schools suffer when they don't clarify the purpose as they seek to balance different priorities or struggle because of a lack of clarity.

       Beginning with the end—defining the destination—is imperative for each schooling community.

       Constructing a portrait of a graduate can be a powerful way to enter this conversation at a state, district, and school level.

NOTES

      1 1. For a sample of the different views that parents prioritize as being the main purpose of schooling, see “National Tracking Poll #210362 Crosstabulation Results,” Morning Consult and EdChoice, March 11–23, 2021, https://edchoice.morningconsultintelligence.com/assets/140102.pdf, pp. 16–43.

      2 2. There are sometimes disagreements over that history.

      3 3. Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), Chapter 2.

      4 4. Some of these desires were fueled by racist, xenophobic, and anti-Catholic sentiments, for example.

      5 5. “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform,” United States National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983.

      6 6. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (Miami, FL: Mango, 2017), pp. 131–138.

      7 7. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2nd ed. (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005).

      8 8. See, for example, “Portrait of a Graduate,” Battelle for Kids, https://portraitofagraduate.org/.

      9 9. “Utah Talent Mastery Autonomy Purpose,” Utah State Board of Education, https://schools.utah.gov/file/bccb96eb-e6a6-47cf-9745-cf311675ad8b.

      10 10. The Utah State Board of Education is working to implement competencies around the characteristics. Toward that end, Utah has broken down the competencies underlying the characteristics at different grade spans. “Utah Portrait of a Graduate Competencies,” Utah State Board of Education, September 22, 2021, https://schools.utah.gov/file/4b9d1341-ddaa-47bc-8052-f029e794d513.

      11 11. “Board Approves Statewide ‘Portrait of a Graduate’ Model,” Utah State Board of Education, May 2, 2019, https://schools.utah.gov/file/91dfa870-3b06-4ef5-a60a-c1c02079595e.

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