The New York State Education Department recently presented a transformative framework: the Portrait of a Graduate. This vision shifts the focus of our education system from standardized test performance alone toward the development of adaptable, socially aware, and future-ready human beings. It defines a successful graduate through six core attributes: Academically Prepared, Creative Innovator, Critical Thinker, Effective Communicator, Global Citizen, and Reflective and Future Focused.

Crucially, this new model places Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) Education and Social-Emotional Learning at the very center of student success. While this represents a vital milestone for New York’s schools, it raises a critical question for educators: If these are the competencies our society values most, why are they primarily framed as outcomes of a high school education?

The Developmental Reality

The capacities described in the Portrait—such as cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and collaborative problem-solving—do not suddenly emerge at age 17. They are built over time, and their foundations are laid during the most formative years of a child’s life.
Research in neuroscience and developmental psychology consistently shows that the early childhood and elementary years are the "decisive periods" for establishing the cognitive and emotional infrastructure needed for later success. Specifically, these years are critical for:

• Executive Function Development: The mental processes that allow us to plan, focus, and multitask.
• Self-Regulation: The ability to manage emotions and behavior in various environments.
• Social Awareness: Understanding perspectives and empathizing with others.
• Flexible Thinking: The "curiosity and imagination" needed to solve problems creatively.

When reform efforts focus heavily on graduation requirements without transforming early learning environments, we risk addressing outcomes without strengthening the underlying foundations.

Closing the Gap Between Vision and Practice

There is currently a "structural misalignment" in many schools. While we aspire to cultivate complex, adaptive thinkers, many elementary classrooms remain structured around fragmented skills and sedentary instruction. Whole-child development cannot be "retrofitted" during adolescence; it must be intentionally designed from the very beginning of the educational journey.
To truly realize the NYS Portrait of a Graduate, we must extend its logic downward into kindergarten and primary school. These are not merely preparatory stages, but the active spaces where learning habits and social competence are shaped. This requires learning environments that:

• Integrate movement and cognition.
• Strengthen executive function through active engagement.
• Foster emotional awareness alongside academic growth.
• Connect disciplines rather than isolating them.

From Vision to Practice

Translating developmental science into everyday classroom experiences is the next major challenge for education systems. Across many contexts, educators are exploring movement-based and interactive learning models that integrate cognitive, physical, and social development into unified learning experiences. These approaches aim to transform whole-child education from an aspiration into daily practice.

Kinems learning games represent one example of how such principles can be implemented in early and elementary education. By combining physical engagement with academic learning and self-regulation challenges, they illustrate how the attributes described in modern graduate frameworks can begin developing long before high school.

Graduate portraits define the human capacities education systems aspire to cultivate. The next phase of reform is ensuring those capacities are intentionally developed from the earliest years of schooling.

Thus, one important question for education leaders today is not simply:

What should graduates look like?

It is:

Are we building the foundations for that vision from the very first years of schooling?