In recent history, the concept of “future-ready” PreK-12 education has been closely tied to the development of technical and digital skills—such as coding and digital modeling—to equip students for an increasingly technology-driven world. However, many states and districts have recognized the limitations of this approach. The rapid pace of technological advancement makes it nearly impossible to design technical curricula that remain relevant over time. Skills that are essential today may quickly become obsolete, rendering narrowly focused training ineffective in the long term.
Beyond the challenge of keeping pace with technological change, automation is expected to fundamentally reshape the workforce. While discussions around automation have often centered on entry-level roles, such as call center operations or data entry, the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning extends far beyond these sectors. Experts anticipate that within the next decade, AI will revolutionize much of the work currently performed by software developers and programmers. Even highly specialized professions, such as cardiology and oncology, are projected to undergo dramatic transformations as technology surpasses human capabilities in accuracy and efficiency.
The World Economic Forum has estimated that nearly 70% of jobs today’s students will eventually hold do not yet exist. Given this uncertainty, educators and curriculum designers cannot realistically anticipate the specific technical skills students will need in their future careers. Without a fixed target, traditional workforce preparation models become insufficient.
Jaime Casap, former Chief Education Evangelist at Google, succinctly captured this challenge: "We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, to use technology that hasn’t been invented, to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet."
In response, states and districts are increasingly shifting their focus toward equipping students with the skills necessary to navigate an unpredictable future. Over the past two decades, competencies such as adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration, and resilience—those same qualities valued by today’s employers—have been recognized as fundamental to K-12 education. Schools are integrating these competencies not only to enhance academic achievement but also to support students’ overall well-being and long-term success. Instruction in these areas strengthens students’ ability to thrive in dynamic environments, both in their personal lives and professional pursuits. But which skills are being featured in these skill-based frameworks most often? According to a 2024 interview from the Harvard Graduate School of Education:
Now, we're not seeing technical skills. What we're seeing are these durable, A.K.A., soft skills. I hate the term "soft skills"... when we use the term durable, they're things that once you learn them, they're durable. You maintain them. So we're seeing skills like critical thinking and problem solving. Those two skills were the most common in the [Portraits of a Graduate] that we reviewed. Social awareness and being an active citizen, communication skills, self-management skills, academic and technical knowledge, collaboration and teamwork, etc. So it's really about durable skills.
—Andrew Tucker, Co-Author of Portraits of a Graduate: Strengthening Career and College Readiness
A comparative analysis of state-level Portraits of a Graduate reveals several key overlapping themes:
Nonprofit education advocacy group America Succeeds has delved deep into research on the skills today’s students will need to find success in the future job market, reaching a similar conclusion. The durable skills they detail encompass transferable human-centered competencies that serve individuals in any number of professional fields.
America Succeeds’ Durable Skills Report shows similar results to research on professional skill demand: that, even today, 70% of the skills desired by potential employers are durable rather than technical. Additionally, these skills are sought out nearly four times more often than the most in-demand technical skills and are aligned with the types of management, operations, and engineering positions likely to proliferate over the coming decades.
Durable skills even outrank academic skills in terms of district priorities. A 2022 EdWeek Market Brief asked leaders to rank what they believed to be the areas of highest need in their schools. “Student engagement and motivation” emerged as the top priority, beating out foundational academic skills like reading, writing, and communication competencies. In third place, ranking above math, science, and history, was “student mental health.” These priorities are backed by research demonstrating that comprehensive student support improves engagement and motivation in elementary, middle, and high school students and acts as a preventative mental health measure. Per the EdWeek Market Brief report on 2025-2026 priorities, these remain among the top concerns among administrators.
The good news is that future-ready skill building and academics are not at odds. Thanks to a well-documented meta-analysis and follow-up studies showing that self-management and interpersonal competence support academic performance, it is clear that durable skills education and academics can coexist in schools, with neither detracting from the other. When well integrated across classes and throughout campus culture, durable skills like collaboration and adaptability support success within traditional academics and technical instruction.
With a wealth of research to lean on, states and districts are now codifying the need for teaching durable skills into their Portraits of a Graduate. A Portrait of a Graduate—also known by other names, including Vision of a Learner and Graduate Profile—is a framework that outlines the shared vision of a state, district, or school for what skills and knowledge students need to learn as they prepare for life after graduation.
This framework, often co-created with input from educators, policymakers, community stakeholders, and industry leaders, helps shape instructional priorities, align educational practices, and ensure that students graduate prepared for postsecondary education, careers, and civic life. Through surveys, focus groups, and community forums, states and districts gather diverse perspectives on the essential competencies graduates should possess. This collaborative process ensures the vision is relevant, community-driven, and reflective of local economic and social contexts.
Students’ families play a key role in the collaborative process of building a Portrait of a Graduate. According to a 2025 national polling report, families indicated that “social and emotional learning support” was the key to improving student outcomes, ranking it higher than any other type of intervention. Insights like these reveal an ongoing interest in whole-student education.
Based on stakeholder input and research on future workforce demands, districts identify core competencies that extend beyond academic achievement. Once competencies are defined, states and districts embed them within curriculum frameworks, assessment models, and instructional practices. This may involve:
To measure students’ progress in meeting competencies, districts also sometimes shift toward performance-based assessments, including portfolios, capstone projects, and demonstrations of learning. These assessment models emphasize mastery of skills over traditional standardized testing and provide a more holistic measure of student readiness. More traditional classroom skills assessments are sometimes paired with demonstrations of and/or reflections on the Portrait of a Graduate skills students used to complete exams.
Once the vision is developed, tools are created or acquired to teach target skills, and assessments are in place to measure them, states and districts then establish mechanisms to track progress, assess the impact of Portrait of a Graduate implementation, and make data-informed adjustments. This includes:
Consider the following state-level examples:
By clearly defining what it means to be future-ready, states like Vermont, Washington, and Nevada have shifted K-12 education from a narrow focus on academic content to a holistic approach that prepares students for life and citizenship. Aligning across state policies, district initiatives, and classroom practices, they’re working to ensure that every student graduates with the skills necessary to thrive.
To learn more about how states and districts are building out Portraits of a Graduate and the tools Wayfinder offers for facilitating this important work, download our white paper, Portrait of a Future-Ready Graduate: Why Human Skills Matter More Than Ever.