How Pittsford Schools Are Teaching 16 Habits of Thinking — Not Just for Tests

This fall, Pittsford schools are asking students a different kind of question. Not "what is the answer?" but "how are you thinking?" Starting with the 2026-27 school year, the Pittsford Central School District has embedded the Habits of Mind framework into its curriculum — 16 thinking dispositions developed by Dr. Arthur L. Costa and Dr. Bena Kallick that shift the focus from getting the right answer to developing the right thinking process. The change is already in classrooms.

More Than Answers: The 16 Habits Pittsford Is Building Into Every Classroom

More Than Answers: The 16 Habits Pittsford Is Building Into Every Classroom

The Habits of Mind framework isn't a test-prep program or a social-emotional learning module grafted onto existing instruction. It's a set of 16 intellectual dispositions — persisting through challenges, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, thinking flexibly, striving for accuracy, thinking interdependently, remaining open to continuous learning, and nine more — that teachers are now being asked to name, model, and reinforce across subjects and grade levels.

In practice, this means teachers redirecting students who get stuck. Instead of supplying the answer, they prompt students to name what strategies they have tried, or to consider how a different approach might work. The goal is for students to build habits they carry out of the classroom — the reflex to pause before reacting, to check their work without being told to, to listen before responding. These are not skills that show up on a standardized test — they show up everywhere else.

What Superintendent Cutaia Wants Every Pittsford Student to Carry Forward

What Superintendent Cutaia Wants Every Pittsford Student to Carry Forward

Superintendent Shana Cutaia has been direct about what this shift means for the district's priorities. In her statement on the 2026-27 Habits of Mind implementation, she was plain about the goal:

"Ultimately, our goal as educators is not simply to produce students who can succeed on tests, but to develop thoughtful, resilient, and engaged citizens."

— Superintendent Shana Cutaia, Pittsford Central School District

She went further: "This is the work that matters most. It is work that will shape not only the future of our schools, but the future of our communities."

That framing signals something parents should notice. The district is not adding Habits of Mind as an enrichment add-on. It's treating this as the central commitment — what teachers are now primarily asked to build toward. Test scores still matter. But they are no longer the primary definition of what Pittsford schools are trying to produce.

A Strategic Plan Shaped by Pittsford Itself

A Strategic Plan Shaped by Pittsford Itself

The Habits of Mind implementation didn't arrive from a district administrator's desk. It grew from a community process. Pittsford's new strategic plan was built with input from hundreds of participants — students, staff, families, and community members — gathered through surveys, focus groups, community conversations, and a May 2026 Community Input Day.

Three priorities came out of that process: Academic Excellence, Meaningful Belonging, and Continuous Improvement. The second is the more telling one. A district that lists "Meaningful Belonging" as a strategic priority — equal in weight to academic excellence — is describing something its community said it valued. The Habits of Mind framework maps directly to that: listening with empathy, thinking interdependently, and remaining open to learning are habits that shape how students treat each other, not just how they solve problems.

Superintendent Cutaia described the plan as a commitment "to align resources, focus efforts, and measure progress toward shared goals — not merely a document."

The 2026-27 school year is underway. The 16 habits are on the lesson plan now.