Stevenson Coaching Letter #55 The Portrait of the Graduate work rests on an inter-related set of ideas.  The Portrait of the Graduate statement that a district develops as a result of a multiple-stakeholder involvement process represents the district’s vision and vision—to create graduates that match the description in the portrait.  So it is, at one level, a statement of desired student outcomes.  But this statement is not an end in itself—it can only be realized if the experiences that students have during their school career actually lead to their acquiring the knowledge, skills and dispositions described in the Portrait of the Graduate.  So there’s design work related to that.  Then there is figuring out the capacity and understanding that need to be built among instructional staff to bring those experiences to life, so there’s design work there too.  Then there are the school and district leadership moves that have to happen, and the understanding and capacity that need to be developed among leaders.  All this design work amounts to a large backwards mapping project.  Then there is all the work that has to be done to implement these designs; and the progress monitoring that needs to be designed and enacted to see if everything is happening the way it’s supposed to happen; and the feedback loops that need to be created so that information about implementation can be acted upon.  So there are at least four dimensions to this work, and I haven’t even mentioned communication, culture, and underlying beliefs…  This is why the term “system transformation” is often used in connection to the work—it implicates all components of, and all the people in, the system.  It is complex work. Stevenson Coaching Letter #55