Portrait of a Graduate in Potsdam, NY: From State Mandate to District Roadmap
- District: Potsdam Central School District
- Leader: Jerry Griffin, Superintendent
A Clear Expectation Without a Clear Implementation Path
When New York State Education Department introduced Portrait of a Graduate, Potsdam Central School District understood the direction of the work. What was less defined was how districts should get there.
There wasn't a prescribed process for translating the state's graduate competencies into a local framework, determining how existing district priorities fit, or bringing community voice into the work. Like districts across New York, Potsdam had to build that process locally.
Superintendent Jerry Griffin didn't want the answer to be another standalone initiative.
Potsdam already had a strategic plan with three priority areas, alongside professional development, intervention, technology, safe schools, and other operating plans. The opportunity was to use Portrait of a Graduate to bring those efforts into greater alignment—not create another layer of work alongside them.
"We didn't want the Portrait of a Graduate work to completely take us down a different path. We wanted to bring our existing plans together and align everything in one direction."
Connect What Exists. Identify What Needs to Change.
Potsdam engaged faculty, staff, families, and students about the district's strengths and opportunities for improvement. The questions extended beyond traditional perception surveys, giving leaders community input they could use to both validate existing work and identify where more attention was needed.
The district then organized the work around seven graduate attributes: six competencies referenced by the state and a seventh local attribute focused on cultural responsiveness. Leaders mapped those attributes against existing strategic priorities and plans, looking for areas of alignment as well as gaps revealed through stakeholder feedback.
ThoughtExchange provided an outside thought partner as leaders reviewed the results, helping them identify common themes across several plans and determine where community input pointed to opportunities for action.
What ThoughtExchange partners are saying
“The first benefit is having a liaison or coach and an objective outside voice. Working with Rup helped us bring all these plans together and identify commonalities across them, which I wouldn't get from a typical survey platform.”
From an Open-ended Mandate to a District-owned Plan
The process helped Potsdam confirm that much of its existing work already supported the state's direction. Portrait of a Graduate became a framework for organizing and clarifying that work rather than replacing it.
That finding gave staff greater clarity. They could see existing practices reflected in the framework, from the high school capstone requirement to inclusive K–5 programming. Leaders also had specific areas where community feedback indicated that further attention would be valuable.
The response from families of students with disabilities provided one important indication of whether district priorities and practices were visible beyond the administrative team.
“We were impressed by the number of parents of children with disabilities who understood the work we've done to make sure their children are included in every aspect of our program. It was nice to see that work recognized in the survey results, and it makes us want to work even harder.”
Feedback in Action
- A clearer district roadmap: Potsdam connected seven graduate attributes to existing priorities, giving district leaders a clearer view of where current work aligned with the state's direction and where opportunities remained.
- Professional development shaped by community input: Findings informed the district's 2026–27 professional development plan and created opportunities for departments, teams, and grade levels to examine strengths and areas for improvement.
- A shared direction for the year ahead: The work helped shape opening-day programming around three district-wide messages: “Every student belongs,” “Every student grows,” and “Every educator improves.”
- Greater visibility into what's working: Family feedback affirmed existing inclusion practices, including integrated co-teaching across K–5, while also showing leaders an opportunity to communicate district successes more clearly.
The Bottom Line
Portrait of a Graduate gives New York districts a destination, but not necessarily a roadmap for getting there.
Working with ThoughtExchange, Potsdam brought the state's expectations together with existing district priorities and community voice to understand where its current work aligned and where there were opportunities to improve. The result was a locally owned path forward that affirmed strengths, surfaced gaps, and gave leaders a clear basis for action.
For Potsdam, the process is also repeatable. The work that is not being treated as a one-off, it has become a source of truth that will be revisited and integrated into what they do each year. In fact, Griffin recommended that districts start the process earlier, giving instructional staff more opportunity to examine the findings and shape the following year's plans. The approach remains the same: connect expectations, existing priorities, and community voice to understand what's working, identify what needs attention, and determine what comes next.
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