It’s been a while.
No excuses here—life got full, work got deep, and something had to give. Turns out, it was this blog.
But here’s the thing: I wasn’t idle. We were building something.
The Work That Pulled Me Away
For the past several years, I’ve been immersed in one of the most challenging and rewarding projects of my career: reimagining what it means to prepare students for their futures. In my supervisory union, we’ve been developing and implementing a Portrait of a Learner—a competency-based graduation system that asks a fundamental question: What do our students actually need to thrive in a world we can barely predict?
This wasn’t a committee assignment I could knock out in a few meetings. It started in 2019 with students and industry leaders drafting graduation proficiencies. Teachers gave feedback. We revised. We piloted. We learned. And in 2024, our board approved these indicators as our graduation requirements, effective for the class of 2028.
The premise is both simple and profound: traditional seat-time and credit accumulation don’t guarantee that students are actually ready for what comes next. Instead, we’re asking students to demonstrate competence in skills that matter—not just content knowledge in math, science, and history, but also the “human” skills that can’t be automated away: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, self-regulation. The other major shift is that we are asking them to do this with evidence, not grades.
Why This Matters (And Why It Consumed Me)
The research is clear: the jobs our current students will hold might not exist yet. They’ll likely have multiple careers. The skills that can be automated will become less valuable. What remains essential are the capacities that make us distinctly human—the ability to think critically through a mountain of information, to create something new, to work alongside others, to adapt.
We’ve been building this from Pre-K through grade 12, ensuring that by the end of ninth grade, students have mastered what we call the “foundational 8” indicators—the self-regulation and foundational academic processes that unlock access to more sophisticated content. It’s intentional. It’s research-based. And it’s been all-consuming in the best possible way.
What I’ve Learned (And Why I’m Writing Again)
Here’s what years of deep implementation work taught me: the hardest part isn’t designing the system. It’s living in the constant change, supporting teachers at different entry points, and maintaining focus when everything feels uncertain.
And that’s exactly why I need to write again.
I’ve been so focused on doing this work that I haven’t been processing it. I haven’t been reflecting publicly, connecting with other educators wrestling with similar challenges, or documenting the messy middle of transformation. That changes now.
What’s Next
I’m not promising daily posts or a rigid schedule. But I am committing to showing up here regularly to share what I’m learning about:
- How to support self-directed learning without sacrificing structure
- What it really looks like to implement competency-based education
- The tension between traditional grading and proficiency-based assessment
- Small wins in helping students become “master learners”
- The reality of educational change (spoiler: it’s harder and slower than anyone admits)
I’ve missed this space. I’ve missed the clarity that comes from writing through complexity. And I’ve missed connecting with other like-minded educators.
So here I am, dusty keyboard in hand, ready to restart this practice.
Thanks for sticking around—or for finding me now. Let’s learn together.