Seven Helpful Constructs for Building a Coherent Future-Focused School System

Whether it is the World Economic Forum's Top 10 Job Skills, the McKinsey White Paper Defining the Skills Citizens Need in the Future World of Work (Dondi, et. al., 2021), Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, or the explosion of generative AI, it is clear that schools must redesign their systems to ensure that they support whole child growth and development and prioritize learning experiences that foster the development of transferable skills in addition to mastery of traditional academic standards.

My first Superintendent's Conference Day Keynote Address in the Northport-East Northport School District Union Free School District last April was titled Caring for the Present, Enabling the Future. The point of the presentation was to acknowledge and honor the outstanding opportunities available to our students due to the hard work of our staff and the tremendous support of our community. It also introduced some concepts for future-focused thinking that I believed we needed to consider as we began our journey together.

In an effort to begin to establish a foundation for future-focused thinking, we brought a team of teachers, Board members, and administrators to the Future-Focused Schools Conference in Washington, D.C., last June. At our opening Superintendent's Conference Day this past September, Dr. Bill Daggett delivered a Keynote Address titled Preparing Students for Their Future, NOT Our Past. Our goal was to deepen our collective understanding of concepts related to future-focused approaches in schools.

In November, at this year's Superintendent Conference Day, the title of my Keynote Address was Building a Coherent System for Future-Focused Excellence. The goal was to begin the process of making the concepts that we have been working through with our administrative and teacher teams a reality in our district. It was time to move from acknowledging that the needs of our children and society are different and changing rapidly to developing a manageable plan for how to support future-focused learning in our classrooms.

One important part of the process of building a future-focused system began last year with the development of a district Profile of a Graduate. The district identified five competencies: Critical Thinkers, Effective Communicators, Innovative Problem Solvers, Global Citizens, and Collaborators.  It then established definitions for each competency. It is currently in the process of operationalizing what this looks like at each grade level span.

While teachers have embraced the Profile, engagement with this work has led to other questions. People realize that we need to reflect on what students need to be successful in life upon graduation and that the answers to those questions must drive the classroom experience and instructional approaches. They are not struggling with the idea of future-focused learning. They are struggling with the tangible implication of what this means for their professional practice.

One important action step embedded in our work this year is supporting teachers by increasing our emphasis on teacher collaboration. Working in isolation is no longer a realistic option for schools. The increasing needs of children and complexity of the work necessitates high levels of teacher collaboration. While there was always some degree of teacher collaboration in our district, we were not maximizing the time that we had available, nor was that time always focused on the right work. Northport-East Northport is utilizing the DuFour Professional Learning Communities Model (PLCs) as the foundation of its work.  

One strategy that I have employed throughout my career is investing in my administrative teams to build their capacity to lead the work. All of our meetings are structured as professional learning workshops to support the district priorities. I do not believe that teacher professional learning alone is sufficient to achieve desired learning outcomes for students. Last year we spent time with our team on principles of future-focused learning and life readiness, innovation, and change management. This year we are focusing on deepening our collective understanding of PLCs and school improvement planning by utilizing the Learning by Doing Handbook by DuFour, et. al. and 100-Day Leaders by Reeves and Eaker as primary resources to support our work in building a collaborative culture.

A second important action step is creating an organizational definition of what it means to be a Future-Focused District. A common definition will ensure that we are intentional about our work and assist us in communicating effectively, both internally and externally. In my presentation, I outlined seven characteristics of Future-Focused School Districts. I am not suggesting that this list is definitive or that there aren't other perspectives on how to approach building a future-focused system, but I do believe that focusing on the following seven actions will serve as a good starting point for us as we strive for clarity throughout the organization:

  1. Shift from a focus on College and Career Readiness to a focus on Life Readiness;
  2. Commit to high levels of teacher collaboration with intentionality;
  3. Shift from a focus on content to a focus on skills;
  4. Move from providing equal opportunity to ensuring equity;
  5. Personalize learning for all students;
  6. Embrace innovation; and
  7. Emphasize interdisciplinary learning and relevance.
In my next blog post, I will share some of my thinking on key aspects of each of these future-focused concepts.

Dondi, et. al. (2021), Defining the Skills Citizens Need in the Future World of Work,                     https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/defining-the-skills-citizens-                  will-need-in-the-future-world-of-work (retrieved, November 17, 2025).

DuFour, et. al. (2016). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at               Work (3rd ed.), Solution Tree Press: Bloomington, IN.

Haidt (2024), The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic     of Mental Illness, Penguin Press: New York, NY.

Reeves and Eaker (2019). 100-Day Leaders: Turning Short-Team Wins into Long-Term Success in             Schools, Solution Tree Press: Bloomington, IN.

World Economic Forum (2023), Future of Jobs 2023: These are the Most In-Demand Skills--Now             and Beyond, https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/05/future-of-jobs-2023-skills/ (retrieved                 November 17, 2025).

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