Scaling Student Success…
Is a California partnership working to nurture the innate potential of each and every student by redefining student success to encompass the competencies and skills needed to thrive in our modern world. We act as both a partner and convener, bringing together educational leaders at all levels to broaden our state’s perspective, unify the field, and create equitable opportunities for youth while strengthening the California economy.
Why We Exist
Each and every one of California’s young people deserves an education that fully prepares them for the challenges and opportunities ahead. But too many California students – especially those from historically marginalized communities – are not getting the education they need and deserve.
California’s current success measures paint an incomplete picture of career and college readiness, as vital career and life skills like critical thinking, collaboration, civic engagement, and self management are left out of our state’s current indicators for student success. Getting California’s students ready to compete in today’s world and workforce will require redefining success to promote academic, career, and life skills side by side. Over the past decade, California communities have done groundbreaking work to pilot efforts that better prepare youth for success. These efforts have led to progress, but the improvements have been implemented in an uneven, fragmented way that benefits only pockets of students.
California is lagging behind other states in our adoption of new success measures:
- At least 35 states have defined college and career readiness (American Institutes of Research).
- At least 20 states (including Virginia, South Carolina, Utah, and New Mexico) have developed a statewide Portrait of a Graduate articulating the skills and competencies they intentionally foster among their graduates.
- The Aurora Institute recently published a policy brief that recommended defining “student success through a Profile of a Graduate” as the #1 recommendation to address in state policy for transforming K-12 education.
In May 2026, the California State Board of Education adopted its own Portrait of a Learner as a policy framework to inform future decision-making around curriculum, assessment, and accountability. That’s a great start! Scaling Student Success will advocate for the state to build coherence around the SBE Portrait to elevate durable skills and drive transformational change statewide.
Why We Exist
Each and every one of California’s young people deserves an education that fully prepares them for the challenges and opportunities ahead. But too many California students – especially those from historically marginalized communities – are not getting the education they need and deserve.
California’s current success measures paint an incomplete picture of career and college readiness, as vital career and life skills like critical thinking, collaboration, civic engagement, and self management are left out of our state’s current vision for student success. Getting California’s students ready to compete in today’s world and workforce will require redefining success to promote academic, career, and life skills side by side. Over the past decade, California communities have done groundbreaking work to pilot efforts that better prepare youth for success. These efforts have led to progress, but the improvements have been implemented in an uneven, fragmented way that benefits only pockets of students.
California is lagging behind other states in our adoption of new success measures:
- At least 35 states have defined college and career readiness (American Institutes of Research).
- At least 20 states (including Virginia, South Carolina, Utah, and New Mexico) have developed a statewide Portrait of a Graduate articulating the skills and competencies they intentionally foster among their graduates.
- The Aurora Institute recently published a policy brief that recommended defining “student success through a Profile of a Graduate” as the #1 recommendation to address in state policy for transforming K-12 education.
In May 2026, the California State Board of Education adopted its own Portrait of a Learner as a policy framework to inform future decision-making around curriculum, assessment, and accountability. That’s a great start! Scaling Student Success will advocate for the state to build coherence around the SBE Portrait to elevate durable skills and drive transformational change statewide.
Portraits of a Learner adopted across California
Over 100 school districts across California have engaged local community members to collaboratively design a new vision of student success through the creation of a Portrait of a Learner or a Graduate Profile.
Portraits have the power and potential to transform education. Realizing whole child outcomes for each and every student requires hard work and takes years. And our kids deserve it. Our goal is to help ensure all districts have the support, knowledge, connections, and resources they need to successfully bring their Portrait of a Learner from “poster to practice.”
See the California school districts and U.S. states that have developed Portraits of a Learner or Graduate Profiles.
Portraits of a Learner adopted across California
Over 100 school districts across California have engaged local community members to collaboratively design a new vision of student success through the creation of a Portrait of a Learner or a Graduate Profile.
Portraits have the power and potential to transform education. Realizing whole child outcomes for each and every student requires hard work and takes years. And our kids deserve it. Our goal is to help ensure all districts have the support, knowledge, connections, and resources they need to successfully bring their Portrait of a Learner from “poster to practice.”
See the California school districts and U.S. states that have developed Portraits of a Graduate/Learner.
California has a unique opportunity…
To weave together the current fragments to benefit students across all California communities. At Scaling Student Success, we seek to build on the progress made and grow the number of communities promoting competencies beyond the narrow lens of standardized tests. Through this shift, we give students a voice and a choice to pursue their interests, and affirm and validate their linguistic and cultural identities as assets, promoting equity across our entire public education system.
To weave together the current fragments to benefit students across all California communities. At Scaling Student Success, we seek to build on the progress made and grow the number of communities promoting competencies beyond the narrow lens of standardized tests. Through this shift, we give students a voice and a choice to pursue their interests, and affirm and validate their linguistic and cultural identities as assets, promoting equity across our entire public education system.
PAST & PRESENT MEMBERS
Scaling Student Success offers support and guidance to districts, schools, and county offices of education eager to bring their Portraits of a Learner to life. Participating in our Community of Practice allows them to close knowledge gaps, challenge biases and assumptions, break down silos, and create efficiencies across our education system. We eagerly support their efforts, embrace their lessons learned, and build on their successes.
See their respective Portraits by clicking on the district names.
PAST & PRESENT MEMBERS
Our community of practice continues to grow. These districts participate in strand convenings and other opportunities to advance their Portraits of a Learner. We eagerly support their efforts, embrace their lessons learned, and build on their success.
See their respective Portraits by clicking on the district names.
Practice Partners
We have established partnerships with more than a dozen organizations with demonstrated success in helping districts operationalize their Portraits of a Learner.
Our current partners include:
Hover over each box to flip for more information.
CommunityShare
Through professional learning and an innovative digital platform that serves as a “human library,” CommunityShare connects students and educators to community partners to co-create real-world, community-engaged learning experiences that helps students see relevance in their learning, connect with caring adults, explore new passions and career paths, and realize their potential.
ConnectED: The National Center for College and Career
Over the past decade, ConnectED has led the field by supporting dozens of school districts to create a Portrait of a Learner as a student-centered, outcome-based, and locally-derived definition of college and career readiness. ConnectED supports district implementation of Linked Learning to inspire and better equip students to succeed in college, career, and civic life.
Crescendo Education Group
Crescendo Education Group supports schools and districts by implementing grading and assessment practices that are more equitable, accurate, bias-resistant, and intrinsically motivating. Which ultimately leverages educational improvements systemwide. Grading for equity serves as an effective gateway for shifting student, parent, and teacher mindsets toward a competency-based approach to learning.
eKadence
Working initially with Anaheim UHSD, eKadence built the first and only Learning Management Solution to marry academics with Portrait of a Learner outcomes. The collision of the two is where eKadence thrives. Now available to any interested district, eKadence is on a mission to help educators unlock true student potential and to empower students to find their purpose — because purpose truly is a powerful thing.
Envision Learning Partners
In California and nationally, Envision Learning Partners leads in supporting schools and districts to establish systems of performance assessment (i.e., portfolio defenses, senior projects), a popular research-based strategy for measuring student progress on Portrait of a Learner skills, like collaboration and teamwork, critical thinking, creativity and innovation, and communication.
Human Intelligence Movement
The Human Intelligence Movement is a grassroots coalition of educators, leaders, and industry partners that champions the capabilities that make us irreplaceable. The mission: ensure every human has the uniquely human skills needed to thrive in an AI world. Through awareness, community, and advocacy, the movement is driving for change across our educational systems.
Impacter Pathway
Impacter Pathway partners with school districts to quantify Portrait of a Learner competencies through advanced natural language processing and real-time analytics dashboards. We help learning communities validate their graduate frameworks by measuring and visualizing student growth in essential future-ready skills, providing educators with actionable insights to support student development.
Inflexion
Inflexion equips principals and district administrators with the professional tools, knowledge and community they need to lead. We help create the conditions necessary for school improvement, including: (1) Shared purpose and school identity; (2) Common vision of student readiness (like a Portrait of a Graduate or Learner Profile); and (3) Commitment to equity in education.
Inkwire
Inkwire makes it easy to align units and lessons to national, state, or district academic standards. Districts also can also import their local competency framework—such as your Portrait of a Learner—so teachers can design learning experiences that build and assess the skills your community values most.
Leading for Transformation
Leading for Transformation partners with school and district leaders to transform school environments and empower teachers to reimagine instruction. Areas of expertise include school and district transformation, school redesign, organizational leadership, student-centered learning, talent development, and essentials of instruction for administrators. They lead the most popular strand of the Scaling Student Success community of practice.
Learner-Centered Collaborative
Learner-Centered Collaborative envisions education ecosystems where all learners know who they are, thrive in community and actively engage in the world as their best selves. They achieve this by defining whole-learner outcomes that take into account skills, habits, knowledge to thrive in a modern world, and by designing meaningful learning experiences and creating enabling conditions support desired outcomes.
Partnership for Children and Youth
The outcomes articulated on a Portrait of a Learner cannot realistically be achieved in 180 days per year, from 8:00am to 3:00pm. The Partnership for Children & Youth (PCY) is an advocacy and capacity-building organization championing high-quality learning opportunities for underserved youth in California, with an emphasis on after school, summer learning, and community schools.
PBL Works (formerly Buck Instutute for Education)
Students have an opportunity to practice and demonstrate Portrait of a Learner outcomes (i.e., collaboration, communication, problem-solving, initiative, etc.) when they are engaged in varied forms of experiential learning. PBL Works builds teacher capacity so that all students have access to high quality Project Based Learning to deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life.
Prospect Studio
Prospect Studio expertly guides districts and communities through a visioning process that results not only in a Portrait of a Learner, but also the adult/educator competencies necessary to foster the articulated outcomes in young people, and the system conditions and organizational culture that enables expected teacher and leader capacity and student progress toward Portrait skills, competencies, and mindsets.
ProSolve
ProSolve partners with school districts to define, measure, and develop human skills through a connected ecosystem of strategic partnerships, benchmark assessments, and play-based curriculum. ProSolve helps educators build clarity and alignment around Portrait of a Learner outcomes, measure student progress with objective data, and create learning experiences that build human skills.
SpacesEDU
SpacesEDU by myBlueprint empowers school districts to bring a Portrait of a Learner to life! Students and teachers capture learning in dynamic digital portfolios, connect evidence to competencies, and track growth over time. With visible feedback, portfolio sharing, measurement of skills, and system-wide reports, SpacesEDU helps document and celebrate the skills that matter most.
Wayfinder
Wayfinder is the complete PreK-12 platform for purpose-driven learning, combining research-backed curriculum, custom Portrait of a Graduate alignment features, and MTSS-ready resources to help students thrive in school and beyond. With Wayfinder, schools have everything they need to teach future-ready skills, measure student growth, and build belonging—from daily lessons to districtwide data tools.
World Savvy
For two decades, World Savvy has worked with schools to transform K-12 learning through teacher PD, leadership coaching, and useful resources. World Savvy helps educators embed Global Competence into all aspects of their school community, which in turn helps students prepare for a rapidly changing workforce, participate in a multi-ethnic democracy, and solve complex problems locally and globally.
Communications, Policy, and Research Partners
Hover over each box to flip for more information.
California PTA
Connecting families and schools for more than 125 years, PTA is the largest children’s advocacy organization in the country. Our members include parents/caregivers, students, teachers and administrators, and community members. We all work together to improve the lives of children and families.
CCEE
The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) is a statewide leader delivering on California’s promise of quality, equitable education for every student. Through newsletter articles, Open Door sessions, Spotlight pieces, and a research-practice partnership, CCEE has advanced the potential of a Portrait of a Learner to transform education, and shared tools to support district implementation.
GENup
GENup is a California-based, nationwide student-led social justice organization and student-activist coalition that strives to advocate for education through the power of youth voices! GENup supports many important causes, including active student engagement and student agency typically found in districts working to realize the whole child outcomes articulated in a Portrait of a Learner.
Parsec Education
Parsec Education improves and transforms K-12 education and student outcomes through modernizing, evaluating, improving, and standardizing the way schools view, interpret, and respond to data. As a partner, Parsec is helping districts re-imagine how to display student progress on Portrait of a Learner outcomes and considering alternative Dashboard displays that equate the importance of state and local indicators.
WestEd
With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, WestEd’s REL serves as a research partner, conducting an analysis of Portraits of a Learner in CA, coaching districts on assessment and accountability, surveying the policy landscape to support expansion of a whole child vision, and developing an evaluation plan for the Reimagining CA Schools Innovation Pilot.
Funders
Education for Economic and Social Mobility
In partnership with…
M.S. Grumbacher Family Foundation
Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund
Advisory Board
Scaling Student Success’ volunteer Advisory Board is made up of innovative and bold educational leaders, executives from our practice partner organizations, and other experts who offer valued perspectives and professional connections. Together, our advisory board members help keep us focused and efficient as we work toward our mission.
Superintendents
or cabinet-level designees from each of the Participating Districts
Executive Directors
or designees from each of our Practice Partners
At-large members
who offer unique perspectives, needed expertise, and professional relationships
Our Team
Roman Stearns
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Professional Summary
Real-life strategy to reach your goals.
Roman operates from a deep conviction that each and every child deserves an education that fosters the qualities and skills needed to advance us toward a sustainable future. Yet, he knows that getting there is a humbling, collaborative process that involves dismantling structural inequities, valuing local experimentation, building trusting relationships, shifting hearts and minds, making strategic decisions, and ultimately adopting or adapting sustainable systems. Together, these create the right conditions for organizational change.
After 10 years serving as a public school teacher, Roman Stearns has spent the past 20+ years successfully directing large-scale projects and partnerships focused on systemic educational transformation in California, designed to make real-world learning the norm for the vast majority of students.
As a father of two mixed-race sons who have experienced the impact of a system that reinforces racist and oppressive policies coupled with implicit bias, this work is highly personal (see personal equity statement).
Rory Brown
Development & Finance
Rory Brown believes we each have a part to play in creating a community where we all flourish – we are stronger together. Her career and expertise is focused on creating a more equitable world where everyone has the opportunity to live their best selves now. Rory brings over 20 years of fundraising experience as both a consultant and director to her role at Scaling Student Success. She has partnered with organizations such as Beyond Emancipation and Youth UpRising to support systems-involved youth ages 14-24 as they imagine and create their own lives. A native of California, Rory is dedicated to building a loving community. She enjoys creating textile art, spending time outdoors and finding any excuse to dance–there are many!
Kimberly Rachelle Ranalla
communications & events
Kimberly Rachelle Ranalla is a creative strategist, producer, and founder of Kimberly Rachelle Consulting, where she helps mission-driven organizations bring bold ideas to life through experiences, storytelling, and thoughtful design. With a background spanning large-scale conferences, brand development, strategic facilitation, and community partnerships, Kimberly is known for turning vision into real-world execution with both heart and precision.
Her work spans education, the arts, nonprofit leadership, and impact-driven events, where she builds meaningful connections between people, purpose, and possibility. Whether shaping a festival, a movement, or a brand, Kimberly believes the most powerful work happens when creativity and community come together.
Liliana Sánchez
PROGRAM ASSISTANT
Liliana Sánchez is currently a student at UC Merced, having spent her freshman year at Spelman College. In high school she was a recipient of the State Seal of Biliteracy, having graduated from a dual language program in the Central Valley, participated in several summer Arabic programs, and studied for a year at the King’s Academy in Jordan. She now serves as the secretary of the META chapter of the California Association of Bilingual Educators. Liliana also was the percussion section leader in her high school band. Professionally, Liliana has co-facilitated strategic planning convenings for several school districts, and Scaling Student Success. She has been a speaker at multiple educational conferences, and invited to be a co-author of a chapter in an upcoming book on language policy and practice.
Austin Webster
policy & advocacy
Austin Webster is the president and founder of W Strategies LLC, a boutique consulting firm with offices in Sacramento and Washington, DC. Austin leverages over two decades of state and federal advocacy experience to help clients achieve their regulatory goals and influence legislative decision-making. He has policy expertise in education, workforce development, climate issues, trade, the state budget, and the federal appropriations process. Austin serves as a policy advisor to Scaling Student Success.