MaryBeth Merritt writes: "Each community has its own set of issues that need to be addressed." Indeed this for me is an essential aspect of all matters of education reform. A decade or so ago, I volunteered to serve on a committee to rewrite the mission and vision statements of the school district with which I was employed. It was during this process that I discovered the singular importance in these messages for both the community and for the legal structure of public education. Crafting, what at first seems an analogical aphorism, or worse a disquieting platitude, for a community as a whole requires envisioning sets of possibilities for the future of the community and its subsequent generations.
I found in my research that most districts ( i suspect this holds true across the US) are burdened with antiquated mission and vision statements. Attention to rewriting these helps tremendously in gaining the community's attention to the future impacts of education for their children. Charter groups then find it easier to adjust their messages and their own mission/vision statements to comply with and address issues within the local educational community that are left wanting under the mandated mission/visions of the districts, counties, and states. A quick example might suffice: Suppose a district's statement says something like "providing education that will make students successful..." I am relatively confident that standardized test scores do not and will not provide any measure of successfulness for how students will participate as citizens in the future within that community. It might be that that community has a significant industry that requires accumulation of skills. The public system is required to provide the state's curriculum while a charter school might better address the success needs of the future. Making these points early on through active open discussion of communities expectations as proposed in mission and vision statements can be most beneficial for all concerned.
Posted as a reply to:
transparency, community and charter schools by MaryBeth Merritt
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