How one community shaped its Graduate Profile

www.acsa.org

May 12, 2025

The following article was written by Dr. Rody Boonchouy, superintendent of Winters Joint Unified School District.

Since the pandemic, our district (like many others) has been striving to address a broad range of student needs, including social-emotional, academic and behavioral challenges, all while implementing a variety of statewide programs. Our teachers, administrators and support staff have been working tirelessly, yet we face a pressing challenge: uniting these efforts under a clear, cohesive vision for what we aim to achieve as a school district.

While standards-based education remains essential, we recognize it is no longer sufficient. In today’s interconnected and rapidly evolving world shaped by artificial intelligence, social complexities, and shifting economic landscapes, our students need more.

At the Winters Joint Unified School District, we turned to a strategy embraced by nearly 100 other California school districts: Asking our community a simple but profound question — what should be the overarching goal of our district to ensure students succeed in college, career, and life?

The answer came in the form of a Graduate Profile — a set of essential skills that serves as our district’s “North Star.” This profile unites our programs, providing clarity and inspiration for the dynamic teaching and learning we want to foster in our schools.

Engaging the community Winters is a small agricultural town at the edge of the Sacramento Valley, en route to the Bay Area. Known for its close-knit community and spirit of collaboration, we understood that crafting a meaningful vision for our district couldn’t happen in isolation.

Amid the rollout of initiatives like universal transitional kindergarten, Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, community schools, and ethnic studies, we paused to ask ourselves: How do these programs fit together? What outcomes are we striving for as a district?

To find answers, we turned to our greatest asset: our community. Through town hall meetings, focus groups, surveys and workshops, we created opportunities for meaningful engagement, ensuring every voice was heard — especially those of our students.

We visited the largest employer in town, Mariani Nut Company, where the automation and technology-driven processes underscored the importance of modern skills. Local organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, emphasized the value of entrepreneurialism, financial literacy and civic engagement. We also discovered that our most competitive college applicants often demonstrated leadership through participation in Future Farmers of America, career technical education programs, and extracurricular activities.

These conversations revealed a shared commitment to equipping students with the skills they need to thrive academically and contribute meaningfully to society. Parents highlighted the importance of resilience and adaptability, while employers stressed communication and collaboration. Students, through surveys and focus groups, expressed a desire to solve real-world problems with creativity and critical thinking.

This collective feedback became the foundation for our Graduate Profile.

These conversations revealed a shared commitment to equipping students with the skills they need to thrive academically and contribute meaningfully to society. ... This collective feedback became the foundation for our Graduate Profile.

The Graduate Profile: A shared vision The Winters JUSD Graduate Profile reflects our community’s values and aspirations for its young people. At its core, it identifies six key competencies that every graduate should develop alongside strong content knowledge.

Communication: The ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in diverse formats and settings. Collaboration: Skills to work productively with diverse teams, valuing different perspectives and building collective solutions. Critical Thinking: The capacity to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to solve complex problems. Creativity: The imagination and innovation to design original solutions and approaches. Cultural Awareness: An appreciation for diverse cultures, identities, and global contexts, fostering empathy and understanding. Community Engagement: A commitment to active participation and leadership in local and global communities.

From vision to reality Creating the Graduate Profile was only the first step. Bringing this vision to life requires embedding these competencies throughout our educational system. This multi-year effort involves integrating the profile into school structures, teaching practices and assessments, and fostering an organizational culture centered on the whole child.

Our first step was auditing existing programs that already support these skills. For example:

CTE programs directly teach and apply these competencies.
Dual Language Immersion programs leverage Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) strategies, which emphasize project-based, skill-driven learning.
AVID strategies align seamlessly with the Graduate Profile’s core competencies.
Senior projects require 12th graders to tackle real-world challenges and engage in extensive community involvement.

By highlighting these existing efforts, we help staff and the community recognize the direct impact of these practices on students’ readiness for college, career and life. Additionally, our Local Control Accountability Plan now explicitly references the Graduate Profile as a guiding framework for instructional priorities. We are updating report cards to reflect these skills and developing our ethnic studies course with the competencies at its core. To provide more accurate feedback on both content mastery and skill development, we’ve begun transitioning to competency-based grading. Partnerships with local organizations and businesses are also expanding, creating opportunities for students to apply these skills through apprenticeships, capstone projects, and community-based learning experiences.

A collective achievement For Winters JUSD, the Graduate Profile is more than a document — it is a reflection of our shared values and purpose. As schools increasingly focus on whole-child outcomes, they become even more central to their communities. With this in mind, we understand the importance of having a clear and pragmatic vision.

The work ahead involves transforming the energy and enthusiasm behind this shared vision into actionable practices. By doing so, we are preparing our graduates not only to face the challenges of today but to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

FYI

Find It Online

View Winters Joint USD's Graduate Profile.