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Deepening student ownership and ensuring consistency across grade levels by embedding life skills into everyday learning.

Howard-Suamico School District (Wisconsin) partnered with the Âܲ·AVÊÓƵDistrict Services team on Portrait to Practice Frameworks for Learning work to assist in developing a framework to align curriculum. These foundational steps have enabled the district to embed its Graduate Profile life skills into everyday learning, deepen student ownership, and ensure consistency across grade levels.

The Challenge

• Howard-Suamico serves about 5,879 students across eight schools and multiple preschool sites.
• The district had adopted a Graduate Profile, but moving from vision to implementation revealed gaps: inconsistent articulation of what deeper learning looks like across grades; variable success criteria and assessment; and curriculum not always aligned to support the Graduate Profile life skills.
• Teachers wanted clarity about what success looks like (learning intentions, success criteria) across content areas, while students needed more voice and ownership in learning.

Key Impacts

• Staff perception data reveals that aligning the Graduate Profile within the curriculum has brought more clarity to teachers.
• Classroom walkthroughs and teacher collaboration reflect a transformation in how teams function. PLCs are moving beyond pacing and coverage to focus on student performance and Graduate Profile development. Teachers are now using common learning intentions and success criteria aligned to the Graduate Profile, sharing strategies, and developing resources for student self-assessment and reflection, leading to improved instructional practices and greater coherence.
• Students are increasingly involved in assessing their own learning, understanding what deeper learning means, and participating in designing learning tasks with greater autonomy.
• Alignment means lower grade learning builds toward upper grade expectations; district frameworks support smoother transitions and more coherent progression of life skill development.

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