Guidance for Developing School Profiles
Think of your school profile and transcript as communication tools for an external audience. The goal of these tools is to ensure that your school’s graduates are best positioned as candidates for higher education, employment, or military service. Time spent on formatting and presentation is important, as the school profile and transcript are key to communicating to colleges and universities what your school is all about and what you value. It is important to consider how a reader might interpret the information provided on a profile or transcript, and to provide the reader with any supporting information necessary to understand these documents. Use the guidance and examples below to assist you in developing or revising your school profile. You may also want to view our guidance on developing transcripts.
As you look at school profiles online, you’ll notice a range of quality and criteria. We recommend that you use this checklist to review and revise your school profile regularly to ensure that the information is up to date and represents your school and students well.
All school profiles should include:
- School mission statement
- Key staff and contact information
- Information about the school community
- Graduation requirements
- Grading and reporting procedures, including a clear explanation of how a grade is derived
- A description of student learning experiences and opportunities, including those that might be unique to your school
- Portrait of a Graduate (also known as Vision of a Graduate) or transferable skills that the school values
- Test scores such as SAT, ACT, AP, or IB scores from the most recent cohorts
- Co-curricular activities
Many profiles also include:
- College and university acceptances
- Post-secondary plans, including college, military and career information
For ease of use, profiles should also:
- Be easy to find online through your school's website
- Be in a format that is easy to download and access (such as a PDF)
- Have section headings that are consistent and informative
Secondary schools have a wide range of school profiles that meet these criteria to varying degrees. Understanding that no one example is perfect, the examples below were selected because they highlight many of the criteria that make a strong school profile.
Baxter Academy for Technology and Science — Portland, Maine
Strengths of this example include:
- Learning experiences unique to this school
- Graduation requirements
- Clear explanation of how a grade is derived
Farmington High School — Farmington, Connecticut
Strengths of this example include:
- Vision of a Graduate
- Key staff and contact information
- Information about the school community
Souhegan High School — Amherst, New Hampshire
Strengths of this example include:
- Learning experiences unique to this school
- Clear explanation of how a grade is derived
- Test scores and performance data from recent cohorts
This resource was produced by the Great Schools Partnership and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Interested In Learning More? Let's Talk.
Personalized, equitable, and student-centered education is too important to put aside. Together, we can improve learning for all your students.
Contact Us