Vision - Portrait of a Graduate

Vision: Upon completion, all Utah students are prepared to succeed and lead by having the knowledge and skills to learn, engage civically, and lead meaningful lives.

This vision for Utah students is also articulated through the Utah's Portrait of a Graduate, which identifies the ideal characteristics of a Utah graduate upon exiting the K-12 system. The Portrait of a Graduate serves as our north star for system transformation. As school districts and charter schools develop Portraits of a Graduate for their unique communities, we continue working through the implications of this vision for the design of our system at the state level. Our aim is to create the conditions for school systems throughout the state to intentionally deliver on this powerful vision.

Mission

Mission: The Utah State Board of Education leads by creating equitable conditions for student success: advocating for necessary resources, developing policy, and providing effective oversight and support.

The Board has adopted the following definition of equity to accompany its mission statement:

• Acknowledging that all students are capable of learning, educational equity is the distribution of resources to provide equal opportunities based upon the needs of each individual student. Equitable resources include funding, programs, policies, initiatives and supports that recognize each student’s unique background and school context to guarantee that all students have access to high-quality education.

Education Elevated 2022 Targets

To gauge progress of the system toward our vision, we track several indicators at the system level. In 2017, the Board established ambitious 5-year targets for each of these indicators. These targets were set by determining the amount of progress necessary to get one-third of the way to 100% by 2022. A summary of progress toward achieving these targets is below. Note that statewide assessments were not administered in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. Readiness coursework data will be finalized soon.

For more information on the Education Elevated measures, including data definitions for each measure and progress broken out by student group, refer to the Utah State Board of Education Strategic Plan 2020 Implementation Update.

Goals

The strategic plan provides four goals for the education system. The goals are written as results statements reflecting an ambitious outcome we aim for the system to provide for each student. Utah State Board of Education's role in achieving these goals is to create the conditions at the state level to enable local education agencies and leaders to achieve them in schools and classrooms across the state.

For more information on personalized learning, including a definition and information on how to initiate personalized learning, refer to Personalized Learning.

For more information on the goals, including The Why behind each goal and measures we are monitoring to track progress, refer to the Utah State Board of Education Strategic Plan 2020 Implementation Update.

Strategies

The strategic plan identifies high-leverage strategies to align efforts toward impacting each goal.

Strategies Aligned to Goal 1

1. Promote high-quality instruction in every early grade classroom
2. Increase optional access to high-quality extended day kindergarten
3. Increase optional access to high-quality preschool
4. Increase engagement of families with young children in early learning experiences

Strategies Aligned to Goal 2

1. Support districts and schools in providing effective mentoring for beginning educators and leaders
2. Assist districts and schools in providing continuous personalized professional learning for each educator and leader
3. Evaluate and support educator preparation programs in meeting requirements established by the Board while providing room to innovate
4. Lead in changing the perception of teaching as a profession
5. Promote equitable access to highly effective teachers
6. Increase the supply of transformational school leaders across the state

Strategies Aligned to Goal 3

1. Support districts and schools in creating and maintaining conditions for safe and healthy learning environments
2. Increase adoption of evidence-based student health and wellness practices
3. Build capacity of educators and other stakeholders to meet students’ mental, emotional, and social needs

Strategies Aligned to Goal 4

1. Empower USBE, educators, parents, and students with access to timely, useful, safeguarded data
2. Support LEAs in providing a personalized learning plan for each student
3. Increase access to qualified school personnel to design personalized learning plans in partnership with teachers, students and families
4. Promote new school system models for personalized learning implementation

For more information on the strategies, including a theory of change behind the strategy, and an update on implementation progress, refer to the Utah State Board of Education Strategic Plan 2020 Implementation Update.

2020 Implementation Update

The Utah State Board of Education Strategic Plan 2020 Implementation Update details progress on implementation, provides indicators we are tracking for each goal, and articulates a theory of change for each strategy. While the pandemic has impacted education in profound ways, and we adapt and learn in response, our vision of success for each student as articulated in the Utah's Portrait of a Graduate is more relevant than ever. Amidst the challenges of the pandemic, we have made significant progress, including:

• publishing resources, best practice guides, frameworks, and model policies to support the goals;
• advocating (successfully) for increased funding for key initiatives;
• revising standards and publishing modules;
• increasing coordination with other organizations who are working toward similar aims; and
• developing model competencies for students and educators.