EdLeader21 Announces Campaign to Help Prepare Every Child for College, Career and Citizenship in the 21st Century
Tucson, AZ (PRWEB) March 23, 2017 -- Today, EdLeader21 announced an ambitious campaign to help ensure that every student is prepared to address the complex challenges of college, career, life and citizenship in the 21st century. The Profile of a Graduate (PoG) campaign seeks to energize communities of educators, students and parents around envisioning the essential competencies for success and provides tools and resources that support schools and districts in this process. The campaign’s goal is to have 1,000 schools and districts create and adopt a Profile of a Graduate by the end 2019.
EdLeader21 has developed a free, online PoG Toolkit that helps education stakeholders define what student success looks like in their own school or district. The Toolkit emphasizes a range of competencies including the 4Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity). Built upon many years of experience in over 200 school systems, EdLeader21’s PoG Toolkit helps any leader start the transformative process of 4Cs teaching and learning.
The free, online toolkit includes these key resources:
● PoG Builder: Any education stakeholder can create an online PoG to help define 21st century student success in their school and/or district.
● PoG Action Plan: Individuals will use the custom Action Plan to help build support from other stakeholders and ratify the PoG.
● PoG Implementation Guide: School and district leaders will use this to build consensus, support and adoption of the PoG.
● PoG Examples: An extensive gallery of PoGs from the EdLeader21 network helps illustrate the wide variety of approaches being used by educators from across the country and emphasizes the importance of a custom, creative approach to this important work.
Many school districts across the country have already adopted the PoG. The largest, Fairfax County Public Schools(VA), used a question to help define what success looked like in the community, which serves a diverse student population of more than 186,000 students in grades prekindergarten through 12. Their question was “What are the skills necessary for success for all children in this rapidly changing, increasingly diverse and interconnected world?” Fairfax’s PoG looks beyond the high-stakes testing environment and helps students develop skills so they can be successful in the workforce of the future.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) worked to identify the skills that transcended content areas and were relevant throughout a student’s life. Sustained efforts by leadership and the community resulted in a PoG plan that placed 21st century skills on the same playing field as academic proficiency. As part of the strategic planning process, VBCPS identified a set of attributes that they believe are critical for ensuring students are future-ready. The profile is intended to inspire, motivate and guide the work of students, teachers, schools and the division.
Now superintendents, parents and educators can all access the free, online toolkit to determine what is best for their school or district. This approach is not a one-size-fits-all model. If someone is considering adopting the PoG, the first question to ask is, “What competencies do you want every student to have when they graduate?”
“The Profile of a Graduate (PoG) is a critical component to Dysart Unified School District’s planning process,” said Dr. Gail Pletnick, superintendent, Dysart Unified School District (AZ), AASA president-elect and EdLeader21 professional learning community (PLC) chair. “We are able to engage our entire community, board members, teachers, parents, students and business and civic leaders, in our work to define a PoG. Defining the knowledge, skills and dispositions each child needs to be future-ready helps ensure the district has clear goals and outcomes. The PoG has helped us redefine, redesign and re-imagine the teaching and learning environment for the innovation era our students will live and work in after graduation.”
“By creating a Profile of a Graduate, education leaders are embracing transformation efforts that will impact every student,” said Ken Kay, EdLeader21 CEO. “Each school or district creates a PoG that is appropriate for that community and its students. It is not a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, it is a bottom-up approach that is empowering and helps set a strategic direction for education in the 21st century.”
To learn more about EdLeader21’s Profile of a Graduate, visit http://www.profileofagraduate.org.
About EdLeader21
EdLeader21 is a professional learning community for district and independent school leaders dedicated to 21st Century Education. We support education leadership teams in integrating the 4Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity) into K-12 Education. We do this by providing affordable, customizable tools and resources, access to industry thought leaders and the opportunity to work with like-minded education leaders from across the country. Participation in EdLeader21 is the fastest, most cost-effective way for districts and independent schools to implement the 4Cs. To learn more about joining the Professional Learning Community, visit http://www.EdLeader21.com. Follow EdLeader21’s leadership on Twitter: @kenkay21, @val_green and @EdLeader21.
Stacey Finkel, EdLeader21, http://profileofagraduate.org/, +1 (703) 304-1377, [email protected]
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