Joplin Schools

Portrait of a Graduate

What is a Portrait of a Graduate?

This is a process we are working through because we know how important it is for our students, staff, and community to have a clear idea about what qualities, traits, and skills we want our students to possess when their time in Joplin Schools is finished. This is about more than the core academics – which will be threaded throughout everything Portrait of a Graduate stands for – it’s also about the soft skills, the life skills, and the character competencies we want our graduates to exemplify.

When finished, our Portrait of a Graduate should answer the question: What does our community need from our Eagles? We can’t wait to hear the answer.

These are YOUR students.

And this is YOUR vision for how they'll show up in our community's future and in their own success stories.

A group of people gather around tables for a discussion at a Portrait of a Graduate focus group in the Black Box Theatre at Joplin High School. Principal Dr. Randy Oliver is addressing the audience from the stage, with a Portrait of a Graduate presentation in the background!

Step 1: Focus Groups

In November 2024, the Joplin Schools Portrait of a Graduate team invited more than 200 community leaders, industry leaders, district staff, educators, parents, and students to two separate Focus Groups. These events were held at Joplin High School, and served as a fitting kick-off for our Portrait of a Graduate work centered around community feedback. Attendees worked individually and in teams to learn about our district’s particular demographics and student makeup, hearing a variety of student stories to help center their understanding about what these students will need in order to be successful in their futures.

Focus Group participants were asked to consider our students’ unique but representative stories, then lean into what core competencies, skills, and abilities each Joplin student should be equipped with when they begin their lives outside of Joplin Schools.

Teams came up with dozens (hundreds!) of traits and competencies they felt Joplin students could use in order to build successful futures. Then, they refined those lists to prioritize the MOST important competencies. Things like grit, integrity, and self-advocacy were mentioned, alongside skills like communication, confidence, and perserverance. It was exciting to hear groups of students interacting with leaders in local industry and education as a team to discuss the potential within each of our Eagles.

Step 2: Community Survey

But we can’t stop there – 200 fantastic participants was just the starting point for our Portrait of a Graduate process. Next, we want input from the broader Joplin community, based on the competencies that were most highly rated and prioritized during the Focus Group sessions.

For this survey (and during the Focus Groups), we used four specific areas to guide our thinking: Ethical/Moral, Intellectual, Performance, and Civic/Community. Each area allows us to dig into the particular skills and competencies our students will need in their future careers and lives to be successful. It’s a balancing act centered on Joplin’s specific strengths and growth areas, so we need your voice.

To help narrow down the many, many suggested competencies our Focus Groups said were important for our students to possess, we invite your answers on this public survey. It will remain open through Jan. 12, 2025, so please share with your colleagues, civic groups, and families as we work together to isolate and identify what Joplin thinks are the MOST important competencies for our graduates to possess.

Click Here to Start the Survey

A large group of graduates in maroon robes stand together, celebrating their achievement. The text reads 'We need your voice! Portrait of a graduate.'

Step 3: Design

Once survey data has been compiled and understood, the district’s Portrait of a Graduate team plans to work with district students on a graphic design process to exemplify the handful of final competencies our community has identified as our priorities. The graphic representation will present visual guidance to our students, staff, adminstrators, and Board of Education about where our efforts should be focused on student development outside of pure academics. As always, strong and growing academics will remain our topmost goal in Joplin Schools; but our Portrait of a Gradute will help provide the underpinnings our students need in order to be successful alongside our constant academic goals.

The expected timeline for the design process will take place during the Spring 2025 semester.

Step 4: Reveal

By May 2025, we will unveil to the community our final Portrait of a Graduate in Joplin Schools. Students, staff, and administrators will be guided through how to understand our Portrait of a Graduate, and how they can expect it to show up in future district processes.

We will continue to remind our staff and familes that Portrait of a Graduate isn’t just about a pretty graphic. The competencies and qualities that have been identified as MOST important for our students in our community will be built into curriculum and learning opportunities from PreK through 12^th grade.

Step 5: Integrate

Because we mean to offer intentional, quality guidance to our educators on how to integrate Portrait of a Graduate competencies into every grade level, this work won’t happen overnight, or even over one summer. Joplin Schools curriculum staff, educator team leads, grade-level leaders, department heads, and administrators will be doing the intensive work of building learning opportunities throughout PreK through 12^th grade curricula.

This step will take the most time and will have long-reaching arms of support for our students and teachers as we build success stories together. Stay tuned, Eagles! The best is yet to come.

Thank you for supporting Portrait of a Graduate in Joplin Schools!