As you may recall, the district has been working through a community-guided project to create the Joplin Schools Portrait of a Graduate. Work began last fall with community focus groups to hear what personal traits and soft skills our parents, community members, and business partners believe our students should possess after their time in Joplin Schools. 

A community survey further helped us narrow down those competencies, ensuring the final portrait would be built around our community's top priorities. The competencies that ended up being most highly prioritized by our community were:

• Integrity
• Grit
• Problem-Solving
• Collaboration
• Communication

These 5 competencies were then shared with groups of students at JHS to help inform the final Joplin Schools branded design. This design is not the end of the Portrait of a Graduate process, but it is a great way to unify the message around comes next. The competencies included in our Portrait of a Graduate will be integrated into district curriculum, providing PreK-12 students with opportunities to grow integrity, build grit, use problem-solving, practice collaboration, and master communication.

We want to especially direct your attention to the image of the student silhouettes, noting that the Portrait is built upon the intention that these traits will be taught to our youngest students as well as to our high schoolers. Students may join our district at any time, and still be exposed to great opportunities to develop these characteristics that will help them be successful in life.

Thank you to the many hundreds of district and community voices who helped inform and refine the Portrait from beginning to end, and to the teams who will now take up the task of building curriculum integrations. This next step will take the most time, but we are proud to share the image and intentions with you now!