Skills for the Future Initiative Kicks Off, Advancing Portrait of a Graduate Vision

With the official launch of North Carolina's Skills for the Future project this month, four North Carolina school districts are at the forefront of a national effort to measure and incorporate durable skills into classrooms.

Educators, district leaders and community stakeholders are coming together for a series of professional development events, starting with Mooresville Graded School District and Iredell-Statesville Schools on Sept. 9 and 10, followed by Edgecombe County Public Schools on Sept. 22 and Caldwell County Schools on Sept. 26.

Each two-day event will immerse participants in North Carolina's evolving educational landscape and offer hands-on experiences with tools and strategies that support collaboration, one of the seven durable skills outlined in the state's Portrait of a Graduate.

"This initiative is about ensuring that every student in North Carolina has the opportunity to develop and demonstrate the skills they need for success, not only academically, but in their careers and communities," said Shaun Kellogg, senior director of the Office of Research and Promising Practices at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). "We are excited to partner with educators, families and local leaders to make the Portrait of a Graduate a reality in every classroom."

Last fall, NCDPI received a nearly $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to pilot the Skills for the Future project, along with Indiana, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Nevada.

The project is a partnership between ETS, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Battelle for Kids/AASA and the University of North Carolina. Along with the pilot states, these partners will create a new "Skills Suite" platform that captures student learning through performance tasks, real-time insights and a mastery-based transcript.

By the end of the grant period, the project aims to produce skills transcripts for 6,000 students and engage 400 educators in professional learning across the state.

The ultimate goal is to increase college and career readiness by modernizing the way student learning is assessed, in alignment with NCDPI's recently released strategic plan.

State Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green said the Skills for the Future project ties in seamlessly with the goals of preparing each student for their next phase in life and leading transformational change.

"This is a transformative opportunity for North Carolina to lead the nation in measuring the skills students need to thrive after high school graduation," Green said. "We are not only expanding how we define achievement -- we're empowering educators and communities to co-create the future of learning."

The assessment tools will be anchored by North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate durable skills. The Portrait identifies the skills and mindsets North Carolina's students need for success after high school, including adaptability, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, empathy, learner's mindset and personal responsibility.

This month's Skills for the Future kickoff events will feature a reflective and interactive learning agenda, including:

• A deep dive into the why of collaboration and its role in preparing students for future challenges.
• A showcase of North Carolina's durable skills in action, with videos featuring industry leaders, educators and students.
• A case study performance task on FUNctional Spaces that highlights authentic ways collaboration is embedded in instruction.
• AI-supported design time and peer feedback sessions to refine strategies for teaching and assessing collaboration.
• An evening at Futures CoLab, engaging school communities in dialogue about the implications of this work for students, families and the broader workforce.

Dr. Jason Gardner, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, said participating in the Skills for the Future project is an exciting opportunity to expand the way student skills are measured beyond a traditional multiple-choice assessment.

"We know that durable skills are essential to the future success of our students in the workplace, and we believe this work will be a key element of the transformation of the high school experience," he said. "The teachers and leaders at Mooresville Graded School District have a long history of innovative practices, and we see this as the next step in our journey to provide the best possible experience for all students, so they are prepared to grow, thrive and succeed."

For more information on North Carolina's Portrait of a Graduate and the Skills for the Future initiative, visit go.ncdpi.gov/pog.

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