MISSION AND VISION

LAST UPDATED: 05.18.15

A mission statement, or simply a mission, is a public declaration that
schools or other educational organizations use to describe their founding
purpose and major organizational commitmentsi.e., what they do and why
they do it. A mission statement may describe a schools day-to-day
operational objectives, its instructional values, or its public commitments to
its students and community. A vision statement, or simply a vision, is a
public declaration that schools or other educational organizations use to
describe their high-level goals for the futurewhat they hope to achieve if
they successfully fulfill their organizational purpose or mission. A vision
statement may describe a schools loftiest ideals, its core organizational
values, its long-term objectives, or what it hopes its students will learn or be
capable of doing after graduating.
The terms mission statement and vision statement often used
interchangeably. While some educators and schools may loosely define the
two terms, or even blur the traditional lines that have separated them, there
appears to be general agreement in the education community on the major
distinctions between a mission and a vision. Generally speaking, a vision
statement expresses a hoped-for future reality, while a mission statement
declares the practical commitments and actions that a school believes are
needed to achieve its vision. While a vision statement describes the end goal
the change sought by a schoola mission statement may describe its
broad academic and operational assurances, as well as its commitment to its
students and community.

Reform
In most cases, mission and vision statements result from a collaborative,
inclusive development process that may include students, parents, and
community members, in addition to administrators and teachers. Schools
may also be required to develop the statements, or modify existing
statements, as an extension of an accreditation process or a grant-funded
school-improvement project.
Educators and school-leadership experts contend that compelling, well-
articulated mission and vision statements can:
 Help a school community reflect on its core educational values,
operational objectives, purpose as a learning institution, and hoped-for
results for students. By asking tough questions about what the school
was founded to achieve, and by looking at where it is in relation to where
it wants to be, a school can become better organized to achieve its goals
and more focused on the practical steps needed to achieve them.
Act as a call to arms, or a way to rally support for its core educational
values or an improvement plan, or to mobilize the staff and community
to move in a new direction or pursue more ambitious goals. By creating a
shared mission or shared visionthat is, developing the public
commitments with the involvement of teachers, staff, students, parents,
and community membersa school can increase general understanding
of what it hopes to accomplish, why it matters, and what may need to
change to realize a stronger academic program.
Focus a schools academic program on a set of common, agreed-upon
learning goals. In some schools, teachers may work in relative isolation
from one another, and each academic department may operate quasi-
independently when it comes to making important decisions about what
gets taught and how it gets taught. Mission and vision statements,
therefore, have the potential to focus school leaders and educators on
making decisions that are aligned with the vision and mission, that
lead to greater curricular coherence, and that use staff and classroom
time more efficiently, purposefully, and effectively.
A school may periodically review its mission and vision statementssuch as
every year or few yearsto assess whether it is making progress toward its
goals, reflect on setbacks that may have occurred along the way, and
reconfirm its commitments. During this process, schools may choose to
revise the statements to better reflect the schools evolving educational
values, operational strategies, and learning goals.

Debate
Mission and vision statements and their attendant processessuch as
bringing people together to reflect on the noble purpose of education,
spending time debating nuances of meaning and word choice, and publishing
the mission statement on a school website or in course-of-study booklet
may be viewed with skepticism by some educators, students, parents, and
community members, particularly if the resulting statements are perceived
to contradict or be inconsistent with the existing culture and day-to-
day learning experiences in a school. In other words, the statements may
be perceived as inauthentic or hypocritical representations that might only
serve to mask deeper contradictions. Others may question whether such
statements are worth the effort or if they will actually effect positive change
in the school. In many cases, however, criticism of mission and vision
statements arises in response to previous experiences in schools that
undertook the process, but then failed to enact substantive changes or honor
the spirit and intent of the expressed commitments.