Bringing Portraits of a Graduate to Life.
Nearly every district has adopted a Portrait of a Graduate and a competency framework. But educators need tools to design and deliver learning experiences that ensure their students can unfold their human and civic selves and grow into the portrait their community holds for them.
See the Paper on Teen Centered Civics
The 18×18
18×18 is a set of eighteen learning journeys that all teens should have by the time they’re eighteen.
Teachers build them into units they already teach. The experiences deliver the outcomes districts are already asking for while connecting teens to the community in which they're growing up.
A design toolkit for civic formation
“I learned more about history doing this project than I did in all of the rest of school.”
Eighth grade teen who created a Podcast | Pittsburgh
Grounded in learning science
We are a team with deep expertise on how to design learning so that it works for the teen brain.
The 18×18 draw on historical and indigenous models of preparing adolescents for adulthood, but specifically they are designed to reflect and realize
The specific features of the magnificent adolescent brain
The ecology of belonging
The "aha" moments of civic identity formation
The power of aspiration
The centrality of relationships
Also see Doug Yacek’s book
The Transformational Classroom, 2022
New Learning Tools • Beta
Community Connected Projects Card Deck
We designed a set of tools to support educators in schools and community institutions in co-creating transformative 18×18 experiences, including a card deck to support playful, creative, teen-centered design.
Community Connected Projects
Aspirational Identities
Optimize for Teens
Teens asked for this, too
In a national youth study of 2025, teens described not just the adult they want to become, but the portrait of the adult they wish they had in their lives.
Every 18×18 journey puts a teacher in the role of both nurturing an aspirational self in their student, and in being someone who shows up and engages with the same qualities.
Introducing the Anatomy of an Adult
An oral history calls for Ears and Heart. A deliberative body calls for Spine and Hands. A curated exhibition calls for Eyes and Mind. 18×18 doesn't just build toward the Portrait of a Graduate — it equips teachers to become the aspirational adult teens said they need, in the same move.
Source • The Change Equation/Dr. Shereen El Mallah, Youth Civic Thriving Report
“These cards are amazing!”
“They are the best tool to help me think of possibilities I had never considered before, and helped me see how to intentionally design for teens!”
Tara | Teacher
Talk to us about how you can incorporate the 18×18 Learning Experiences into your school and community to support civic thriving.
We would love to hear from you.
