(OCTOBER 2025) - The Portrait of the Graduate was created in 2023 by the New Canaan Public Schools community, including educators, students, Board of Education members, and families, to define the essential competencies our graduates need to thrive in today’s world. The five competencies in our Portrait of a Graduate—adaptability, communication, critical thinking, curiosity, and empathy — are foundational to teaching and learning across all grade levels.
The Portrait of the Graduate is more than academic standards; it embeds life skills and transferable competencies into every student's experience. As society and workplaces become increasingly dynamic, our graduates must be equipped not just with knowledge but also with the flexibility to think critically, work collaboratively, and continue learning throughout their lives. Our work with students aims to strengthen each proficiency with our five competencies through classroom instruction and authentic learning experiences, while providing meaningful feedback to ensure transparent progress towards mastery.
This district-wide initiative prepares students to be thoughtful, skillful, and adaptable citizens ready for whatever the future brings - at college, careers, and beyond. The Portrait of a Graduate represents a shared commitment by the entire New Canaan Public Schools community to ensure that every student can build both academic knowledge and the transferable skills needed for lifelong success.
This month, we encourage families to focus on Critical Thinking. Critical thinking is a disciplined process of analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to solve problems and generate original ideas. It relies on logical reasoning, reflective judgment, questioning assumptions, and assessing evidence to refine one’s thinking continually. In school, students display critical thinking by identifying and evaluating solutions to complex problems, thinking openly and with evidence, and demonstrating originality as they engage with new ideas.
Our students practice their critical thinking skills on a daily basis at NCHS. Earlier this year, for example, students in pre-calculus classes completed an “around the room” activity. Students worked in small groups to analyze examples of all six trigonometric functions, including degree/radian angles, reference angles, and non-unit circle measures that required evaluation. Through this work, students demonstrated their ability to interpret and apply trigonometric data to solve problems. (From the NCHS Weekly Update - 10.3.25)
Meanwhile, in World History I students (pictured below) emulate Hunter/Gatherer societies by creating primitive tools and protective gear in the Maker Space by “thinking openly and with evidence, and demonstrating originality as they engage with new ideas”. (From the NCHS Weekly Update - 10.10.25)
As we continue to move forward with our district's Portrait of Graduate vision, families are encouraged to discuss with their students how they’ve approached recent challenges and to encourage the application of critical thinking skills at home, in the community, in life, and in future endeavors.