Developing a Portrait of a Learner: Berkeley Carroll's Community-Driven Approach

“Our Portrait of a Learner began as a moment of reflection,” says Stephen Mak, Assistant Head of School for Program and Innovation at the Berkeley Carroll School. “In the wake of the pandemic, we wanted to be intentional about who we are as a learning community — what truly matters for our students and what skills, knowledge, and habits of mind will prepare them for a complex, changing world.”

That reflection led to a unifying vision: Berkeley Carroll’s Portrait of a Learner, which the school describes as illustrating “the habits of mind and essential skills that represent our community’s vision for learning and prepares students for the world beyond school.” Developed through a cross-divisional, community-driven process, the school’s Portrait serves as both a foundation and aspiration for what “rigorous and joyous” teaching and learning look like.

Clear and accessible, Berkeley Carroll’s Portrait defines the enduring traits the school seeks to cultivate in every learner: curiosity, empathy, resilience, and discernment. Together, these qualities define how students learn, lead, and live with purpose within and beyond the classroom.

A Portrait of a Learner (also called Portrait of a Graduate) is a public statement of a school’s goals for learning that expresses the durable, transferable traits students will possess when they graduate. It drives how schools design learning experiences and represents a collective commitment to develop these skills in every student.

Berkeley Carrol's Portrait of a Learner Team partnered with the GOA professional learning team to bring their community together around the important, relevant skills, and mindsets that matter to students’ futures. During this partnership, GOA facilitated a design process to support the school in creating the time, structure, and frameworks for reflection. The GOA team assisted Berkeley Carroll as they sought to clarify key attributes, skills, and mindsets that they value most and align on how those values can guide decision-making across curriculum, professional learning, and program design. 

Berkeley Carroll began by forming a cross-divisional steering committee of 14 educators representing every division and a range of roles. “Our goals were to clarify our educational vision, to articulate the essential habits of mind that define a Berkeley Carroll learner, and to ensure that the language and design would speak to the entire community — from our youngest students to our alumni and trustees,” says Mak. “Those early sessions were lively and generative.” 

“GOA entered the process as a thought partner and facilitator, helping us structure the inquiry and bringing comparative insights from schools across the country,” says Mak. During the deeply participatory process, the committee examined models from peer schools, unpacked their own mission statement, and surfaced themes that resonated across disciplines. 

They then conducted focus groups with students, faculty and staff, administrators, parents, alumni, and trustees. “From the start, we wanted the Portrait to reflect not just faculty perspectives but the lived experience of the entire community,” Mak says. “Each group discussed what they believe students should know, be able to do, and value when they leave Berkeley Carroll. That input directly shaped both the traits we selected and the language we used to describe them.”

“After synthesizing feedback and mapping emerging themes, four qualities stood out: curiosity, empathy, resilience, and discernment,” says Mak. “We saw these as the habits of mind that enable students to become ‘critical, ethical, and global thinkers,’ a phrase drawn from our mission statement.” 

The language itself went through multiple drafts and feedback cycles to ensure that “every word felt authentic to Berkeley Carroll,” says Mak. “Our goal was a Portrait that is both aspirational and practical — something that could guide daily teaching as well as long-term planning.” 

The team also put a lot of consideration into the Portrait’s visual design. Circles emerged as a central motif due to their connection to restorative practice, where “a circle can hold anything — and that everyone is present and can be seen in a circle.” Color, layout, and iconography were also carefully chosen to harmonize with school colors and icons that speak to learners at every age.

Portraits begin as a shared reflection and evolve into a living document — a tool that empowers school communities to design learning around what they value most for their students. “The Portrait served as the focal point for the Teaching and Learning sections of our most recent accreditation self-study,” says Mak. “Faculty reflected on how the descriptors show up in daily practice and how they might inform assessment, feedback, and student growth over time.”

Now a living expression of the school’s mission, the Portrait guides curriculum reviews as well as emerging technologies. “We’ve framed AI not just as a tool,” he says, “but as an opportunity to practice discernment, to ask better questions, and to use technology with curiosity and empathy.”

“Perhaps most importantly, we’re seeing students take up the language themselves,” Mak continues. “One Upper School student who helped found our Coalition for Civil Discourse described turning to the Portrait for guidance, noting that ‘communicating across difference’ remains an aspiration students continue to work toward. We're looking forward to our work as a school to advance civil discourse and civic engagement through the lens of our Portrait.”

“The process was both hopeful and necessary,” says Mak. “Hopeful in its belief that a shared vision can unify and energize our work, and necessary because the pandemic reminded us how vital shared purpose and alignment were to our ability to sustain a strong, connected community.” 

Through its partnership with GOA, Berkeley Carroll joined a global network that uses Portrait work to align what school communities value most for their students with how learning actually happens. For Berkeley Carroll, this means preparing students not only for success in college, but for lives of curiosity, empathy, resilience, and discernment.

As Berkeley Carroll plans for the future, the school is affirmed by the work undertaken to design its Portrait of a Learner — a critical guidepost for articulating its core value proposition, aligning messaging to attract and retain families, and curating powerful stories through the lens of the habits of mind to share with its community and beyond.

GOA is a nonprofit learning organization that reimagines learning to empower students and educators worldwide. In partnership with our global network of 150 schools, we provide interactive, relationship-driven courses, expert resources, and innovative thinking that help to expand and elevate academic programs. Together, we help students and educators become open to the extraordinary.

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