October 27, 2025

📢 Important Update for C-A Families: Enhancing the Personal Dispositions Rubric

Dear Coxsackie-Athens Central School District Families,

At C-A, our mission is to ensure every student graduates truly ready for college, career, and life. This involves focusing on a holistic view of readiness, not just academic performance. We are proud that our approach already aligns closely with the recently released New York State Portrait of a Graduate, which emphasizes essential skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and innovation.

As New York continues to implement its NY Inspires graduation measures, which focus on these essential readiness skills, we are refining our tools to better support and communicate your student’s growth. We want to announce updates to our Personal Dispositions Rubrics (for both Elementary and Secondary students), which will begin appearing on report cards in the first marking period.

What’s Changing and Why?

We have refined the rubrics to provide even greater clarity for students and families, and to ensure closer alignment with the NY Portrait of a Graduate attributes.

1. Refined Attributes and "I Can" Statements

We’ve clarified the expectations for our five core dispositions, which we refer to as “The New Basics.” These are the essential skills students are building for long-term success.

Personal Disposition	Elementary "I Can" Examples (Grades K-6)	Secondary "I Can" Examples (Grades 7-12)
Collaborator & Global Citizen	I can respect others' opinions. I can participate in a group or partnership.	I can actively collaborate with peers and experts. I can respect others' ideas and negotiate as necessary.
Effective Communicator	I can respectfully listen to others. I can contribute to the conversation by sharing an idea.	I can communicate professionally in writing, verbally, and digitally. I can give and accept feedback appropriately.
Critical Thinker	I can seek help when needed. I can think and work independently.	I can independently generate questions to solve complex problems. I can change strategies when new information indicates a need.
Creative Innovator	I can use my imagination to develop and present my learning. I can try new ways to solve problems.	I can apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. I can find original solutions.
Reflective and Future Focused by Being Self-Directed	I can make positive behavior choices. I can be persistent in my learning.	I can persevere through all tasks. I can take responsibility for and ownership of my learning.

2. Streamlined Performance Targets

To make feedback clearer and more actionable, we have simplified the performance metrics on the rubric from four levels down to three clear levels. OFTEN and CONSISTENTLY are our targets for student success.

Elementary Rubric Levels (Grades K-6)

1: OCCASIONALLY: Demonstrates the disposition occasionally in a structured activity with support.
2: OFTEN: Demonstrates the disposition often in structured and unstructured activities with & without support.
3: CONSISTENTLY: Consistently demonstrates the disposition in structured & unstructured activities with & without support.

Secondary Rubric Levels (Grades 7-12)

1: OCCASIONALLY Recognizes: Occasionally demonstrates recognition of the skill with few prompts in a structured activity.
2: OFTEN Applying: Often demonstrates application of the skill independently and can explain how it applies to their own work and life.
3: CONSISTENTLY Owning: Consistently demonstrates ownership by transferring the skill to an authentic setting and self-reflecting to guide personal growth.

Next Steps: Measuring What Matters

These dispositions, which are tracked alongside academic achievement, attendance, and extracurricular participation on our Readiness Dashboard, help us build college, career, and life-ready individuals. By focusing on “The New Basics” and continually “Measuring What Matters,” we are committed to supporting each student's journey toward achieving their extraordinary success.

These updated rubrics will be visible on your student's report card starting with the first marking period. Your engagement as a parent is an essential partnership in shaping student success.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your child's principal.

Sincerely,

Randy Squier

Superintendent of Schools