That last point is what district leaders usually want confirmed, and it is worth stating precisely rather than reassuringly. This explainer sets out who Battelle for Kids is, where the Portrait of a Graduate framework originated, exactly what moved to AASA and what did not, how the Portrait to Practice and Portrait to Impact services fit, and what the transition means for a district partway through the work. For the framework itself, see what a Portrait of a Graduate is.
Who Is Battelle for Kids?
Battelle for Kids is a national not-for-profit organization working to equip educators so that students leave school future-ready. Its best known contribution to American K-12 education is the Portrait of a Graduate model, which it developed alongside its EdLeader21 Network and has used to support hundreds of school districts and state education agencies across more than 40 states.
The organization’s framing of student success is broader than college enrollment. Battelle for Kids describes a Portrait of a Graduate as a shared community vision that widens the definition of readiness across enrollment, enlistment, entrepreneurship, and employment. That four-way framing explains why portrait attributes tend to be durable skills rather than academic thresholds: the vision has to hold for a student entering the military, starting a business, or taking a job, not only for one heading to a four-year degree.
Two points of clarification are worth making, because both cause confusion in search results. First, Battelle for Kids is a distinct organization from Battelle, the applied science and technology nonprofit, and the two do different work. Second, Battelle for Kids has not closed. Following the July 2025 transition it describes itself as continuing to partner with organizations on projects requiring a personalized technology solution, while the Portrait of a Graduate service line moved to AASA.
Where the Portrait of a Graduate Framework Came From
The Portrait of a Graduate framework came out of more than a decade of work by Battelle for Kids and the EdLeader21 Network, a national network of school and district leaders. EdLeader21 was founded to help systems move beyond content coverage toward the skills employers and communities said graduates were missing, and the portrait emerged as the practical instrument for doing that: a short, community-authored statement of what a graduate should be able to do.
The design process, rather than the document, is the part that spread. A portrait is developed with the community rather than for it, typically through a design team drawing in teachers, students, families, employers, and higher education, and that participatory method is why local portraits vary in wording while converging on a similar set of skills. Battelle for Kids maintained a public gallery of district portraits that made the pattern visible, and districts routinely credit the model directly. New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District in New York, for example, developed its Portrait of a Learner during the 2018-19 school year explicitly based on the Battelle for Kids model.
State agencies then adopted the same approach at scale. North Carolina partnered with Battelle for Kids from 2021 on a three-phase process involving more than 1,200 educators, employers, students, and parents, which produced the state’s seven durable skills and, in August 2023, the rubrics and student-facing I Can statements that accompany them. In December 2023, AASA launched a Portrait of a Graduate Academy in partnership with Battelle for Kids, well before the two organizations combined.
What Changed When Battelle for Kids Joined AASA
On July 1, 2025, AASA acquired the strategic assets and staff of Battelle for Kids, and a substantial contingent of Battelle for Kids staff transitioned to AASA on the same date. Battelle for Kids characterized the move as ensuring long-term sustainability and growth for the Portrait of a Graduate and Portrait to Practice design process, and the staff transfer as providing continuity for district clients and network participants.
The practical shape of the change is easier to read as a before and after.
The distinction that matters is between the framework and the organization. This was an acquisition of assets and people rather than a shutdown, so there is no successor framework and no rebranded methodology to migrate to. A district that built a portrait with Battelle for Kids in 2022 has not been left with an orphaned product, and no state agency needs to revisit an adopted portrait because of the transition.
Evidence that the service line is operating under AASA is straightforward to check. AASA lists Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait to Practice, and Portrait to Impact under its District Services, and has published case studies of the work since the transition, including Portrait to Practice Frameworks for Learning with Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin, which used the process to align curriculum and embed its graduate profile skills into everyday learning.
Two things are genuinely new rather than relocated. The portrait work now sits inside AASA’s wider The Public Education Promise initiative, which places it alongside the association’s other district services rather than standing alone as a nonprofit’s flagship program. And the audience relationship changed: AASA is a membership association of superintendents, so the service now reaches districts through an existing membership channel.
For a district leader, the operational consequence is small but real: the contact point, the contracting entity, and the resource library have changed, while the method and in many cases the individual consultant have not.
Portrait to Practice and Portrait to Impact
Portrait to Practice and Portrait to Impact are the two named service frameworks that follow portrait adoption, and both are registered marks that should carry their symbol on first use in formal materials. They exist because adopting a portrait and delivering one are different problems.
Portrait to Practice addresses instruction. It is described as purposefully integrating essential academic content with the durable skills a portrait names, which in practice means curriculum alignment, task design, and frameworks for learning rather than a separate skills program. The Howard-Suamico case study is a representative example: framework development to align curriculum, then embedding graduate profile skills into everyday lessons with consistency across grade levels.
Portrait to Impact addresses evidence. It is framed around using data and storytelling to show student growth, assess knowledge and skills, and demonstrate real-world application. Battelle for Kids also published a Future-Ready Journey Map intended to guide organizations through the sequence from Portrait, to Practice, to Impact, which is the clearest available statement of how the three are meant to relate.
The sequence itself is the useful takeaway, independent of any provider. Naming attributes is the first step, changing instruction is the second, and evidencing outcomes is the third, and the third is where most district portrait work is currently thinnest.
What This Means for Districts Mid Implementation
For districts partway through portrait work, nothing about the framework requires revisiting. The attributes a community authored remain valid, existing rubrics and materials remain usable, and the design process is unchanged. The transition is administrative rather than methodological.
Four practical checks cover most of what a district actually needs to do.
- Confirm the contracting entity. Any live or renewing engagement now runs through AASA District Services rather than Battelle for Kids. Check purchase orders, statements of work, and renewal dates against the correct entity.
- Re-verify your resource links. District pages and staff handbooks that link to Battelle for Kids resources should be checked, because some materials are now hosted or referenced through AASA.
- Note your consultant, not just the organization. Continuity was delivered through staff transfer, so naming the individuals who supported your work is the most reliable way to preserve institutional memory.
- Update citations in board materials. Where a portrait’s provenance is documented for a board or accreditation body, cite Battelle for Kids and the EdLeader21 Network for the framework origin and AASA for current services, with dates.
One genuine benefit is worth noting neutrally. AASA is a membership association of school superintendents, so placing the portrait service line inside it puts the work closer to the audience that commissions it. Whether that improves delivery is not yet demonstrable, and any district evaluating a new engagement should ask the same questions it would have asked in 2024: who specifically will do the work, what artifacts are produced, and how the outcome is evidenced.
Where the Evidence Sits
The transition changes who a district contracts with. It does not change the underlying problem, which is that a portrait creates an obligation to provide evidence the moment anyone asks to see it. Attributes have to be demonstrated in student work, that work has to be judged against criteria, and it has to remain findable across four years and several teachers. That obligation is the same under AASA as it was under Battelle for Kids, and the same again for a district that built its portrait alone.
Sources
- Battelle for Kids: joined forces with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, on July 1; AASA acquisition of Battelle for Kids strategic assets and staff; transition of a contingent of staff on July 1 for continuity with district clients and network participants; continued support for The Public Education Promise through Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait to Practice, and Portrait to Impact; Battelle for Kids continuing to partner on projects requiring a personalized technology solution. battelleforkids.org
- Battelle for Kids, How We Help: more than a decade of Portrait of a Graduate development with the EdLeader21 Network; student success framed across enrollment, enlistment, entrepreneurship, and employment; Portrait to Practice integrating academic content with durable skills; Portrait to Impact using evidence and storytelling to show student growth; Future-Ready Journey Map guiding organizations from Portrait to Practice to Impact. battelleforkids.org/how-we-help
- AASA, The School Superintendents Association: Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait to Practice, and Portrait to Impact listed under District Services within The Public Education Promise; Portrait to Practice Frameworks for Learning case study with Howard-Suamico School District, Wisconsin, December 2025. aasa.org
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and Battelle for Kids: partnership from 2021; three-phase development process involving more than 1,200 educators, employers, students, and parents; seven durable skills; rubrics and I Can statements published August 2023. dpi.nc.gov; battelleforkids.org
- Education Week: AASA Portrait of a Graduate Academy launched in partnership with Battelle for Kids, December 2023. edweek.org
- New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District, via Patch community reporting: Portrait of a Learner developed during the 2018-19 school year based on the Battelle for Kids Portrait of a Graduate model. patch.com
