Apr 24, 2026
In 2026, more and more districts are turning to Portrait of a Learner to define the skills, mindsets, and competencies students need for life beyond graduation. But once that vision is in place, leaders often run into a major challenge: How do you make it real across classrooms, schools, and systems?
In this recorded webinar, Dr. Terra Greenwell, former Chief Academic Officer at Jefferson County Public Schools (KY), explores why Portrait initiatives are gaining traction and where implementation efforts often stall. Then, leaders from Carroll County Schools (KY) share how their team built a Portrait of a Learner that is embedded in instruction, assessment, and districtwide practice.
Throughout the panel discussion, leaders shared strategies on how to:
- Build alignment across schools and stakeholders to support Portrait implementation
- Translate Portrait competencies into observable student evidence
- Sustain and scale the work across a district over time
Three Ways Districts Can Make Portrait Work Stick
A Portrait needs to be built into the work
For Carroll County Schools, the turning point came when Portrait work stopped being treated as a compliance exercise and started guiding real decisions across the district. The team uses the Panther Path, the district’s Portrait of a Learner, to anchor academics, work-based learning, and the broader student experience. That shift helped move the work from something symbolic to something staff could actually use.
“It has become our North Star for everything from academics to our work-based learning programs—pretty much everything we do—and allows us to promote that deeper learning for our students and support them as they work toward mastery of these durable skills that are within our competencies.”
Jeannie Rohrer
Supervisor of Instruction
,
Carroll County Schools (KY)
Implementation gets stronger when Portrait competencies are embedded into instruction
Rather than building a separate initiative around Portrait of a Learner, Carroll County looked at what students were already being asked to do in class and connected those expectations to its competencies. The district tied the work to lesson planning, curriculum maps, learning targets, and proficiency scales so teachers could build it into daily instruction. That helped create stronger alignment without adding another disconnected layer for staff. The team didn’t want the Portrait to be “one more thing,” they wanted it to be the thing.
“We needed to calibrate our learning as instructors and agree on and calibrate with one another to see, ‘What are we assessing? What are we expecting from students?’ This also helped us to identify learning for our teachers and how to support them in this work. We know that a competency is not just about the level of rigor. We want to make sure that students have the right tools to be quality citizens and people in the workforce.”
Amanda New
Federal Grant Coordinator
,
Carroll County Schools (KY)
Measuring student growth is what makes the work sustainable
The panel made clear that Portrait work is significantly harder when districts don’t have a consistent process for gathering evidence and defining what proficiency looks like. Carroll County has spent years refining that process through committee work, common documents, capstones, and competency-based proficiency scales. That slower approach gave the district time to make adjustments and build a stronger understanding across schools.
“It's being able to measure learning, trusting the teacher to do it, providing solid rubrics so we know what we're looking for, and allowing students to have chances to get feedback and redo their work to create it at a level of proficiency.”
Dr. Terra Greenwell
Strategic Academic Advisor and Former Chief Academic Officer
,
Jefferson County Public Schools (KY)
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