Leveraging Technology to Support the Portrait of a Graduate in North Carolina

In October 2022, North Carolina Superintendent of Education Catherine Truitt announced the release of the North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate, developed in collaboration with almost 1,200 K-12 educators, administrators, families, employers, communities, and higher education institutions. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), in collaboration with educators and technologists from across the state, has also developed a comprehensible Digital Learning Plan aligned to the Portrait of a Graduate.

The Digital Learning Plan includes goals and rubrics for the state, Public School Units (PSUs), and schools that allow organizations to evaluate their progress and track growth. The NCDPI has developed a robust professional learning infrastructure to help educators and administrators leverage technology to develop the Portrait of a Graduate competencies. The state has adopted ISTE standards for students, teachers, administrators, and coaches, providing every educator with an ISTE membership. In addition, they sponsor educator cohorts to pursue ISTE educator certification. The state also pays for CoSN memberships for all PSUs and encourages PSU edtech leaders to pursue CoSN’s Certified Education Technology Leader (CETL) certification. The NCDPI pays for interested edtech leaders to take the CoSN CETL course, and the annual NCTIES conference offers the CETL certification exam.  

Using Digital Learning Initiative funds, the NCDPI launched a series of summer mini-conferences for educators called NCBOLD. The state provides teachers exemplifying best practices with digital teaching and learning with a stipend and travel funds to visit all eight state regions over two weeks to present a free mini edtech conference for educators. Attendees get CEU credit towards their teacher licensure renewal.  

By aligning the Digital Learning Plan to the State Portrait of a Graduate and focusing on capacity building at the classroom, building, and PSU level, the NCDPI is supporting a shared vision of student learning to help North Carolina students be truly prepared for civic life, careers, or college after graduation.