To kick off the 2026–27 school year, faculty and staff collaborated to help shape the Portrait of a Cambridge Graduate, drawing on guidelines established by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).
Faculty and staff members were broken into five groups with the goal of creating definitions for each of the following characteristics (creative innovator, global citizen, critical thinker, reflective & future-focused and effective communicator). The groups were tasked with imagining students who fit these categories. They answered questions such as what do you see and what do you hear when you picture a student in these categories.
The groups brainstormed individually before consolidating their ideas into unified definitions for each core attribute:
Creative Innovator
A creative innovator is a self-motivated, positive, confident problem solver who brings fresh perspectives and demonstrates resilience.
Global Citizen
A global citizen is someone who is open-minded and accepts others. Not only do they understand others, they also celebrate their success. A Cambridge global citizen engages in activities that positively impact our community and beyond.
Critical Thinker
A critical thinker at Cambridge Central School is a student who is curious, asks questions, considers before responding and uses evidence when providing responses while broadening the perspectives of others. A CCS critical thinker is an open-minded, empathetic problem solver.
Effective Communicator
An effective communicator embraces open and welcoming interaction through listening and expressing clear, concise language in a confident audience-centered manner, using articulate, clearly spoken language while being direct and engaging.
Reflective & Future-Focused
A reflective and future-focused thinker is someone who is goal oriented. They demonstrate curiosity, eagerness and positivity. They are adaptive, adventurous and risk-taking. Communication, end goals and empathy are some of the strong work ethic qualities that they portray, which makes them planners and purposeful thinkers.
These five pillars reinforce the district’s core objective—preparing students academically. As stated in our district mission, Cambridge Central School empowers students with the knowledge, skills and values to pursue their goals and contribute positively to society throughout their lives.
Yesterday, the Board of Regents accelerated the timeline for the State Education Department to move toward the implementation of portrait of a graduate and discussed adjusting testing requirements for students to graduate.
Under the new regulations that the department will write, Regents exams will still exist as an option, but students will no longer have to pass them to graduate. Instead, they will focus on projects and other ways of showing mastery — a transition away from traditional testing to better align with the characteristics outlined in the portrait of a graduate.
The portrait model changes graduation requirements. It calls for students to demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, communication skills, civic responsibility and self-reflection. It also calls for students to show mastery of coursework without a test.
