THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION

The School Leader as Developer, Implementer and Steward of Shared Vision and Mission Bradley W. Lands Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Author Note Bradley Lands is enrolled in the course EDEL 6194: Leadership and Change as part of the Principal Preparation program at Virginia Tech. The Principal Preparation program prepares its students to become administrators and supervisors in the field of education. Upon completion of the program, Bradley Lands will receive an Education Specialist Degree (Ed.S.) in Educational Leadership and Policy.

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION

Abstract As a student in the Leadership and Change course at Virginia Tech, I was tasked with analyzing my schools vision and mission statements. After analyzing both statements, I determined that each statement needed significant revision. However, I was able to pinpoint specific examples to show how my middle school was living its current vision and mission. In order to revise my schools written vision statement, I clearly stated specific action steps that would need to be implemented as well as indicating the people that would need to be involved. Overall, I was able to demonstrate the process of properly revising a broken vision statement for a middle school. Keywords: leadership, vision, mission, relationships, beliefs, culture, emotion, context.

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION

The School Leader as Developer, Implementer and Steward of Shared Vision and Mission As a school leader, it is important to know how to successfully develop a vision and a mission statement that accurately reflects and embodies the core values and beliefs of his or her school. By definition, Mission establishes an organizations purpose, vision instills an organization with a sense of direction (Dufour & Eaker, 1998). Furthermore, Vision statements, mission statements and mottos are designed to inform an audience about what the organization intends to accomplish so that the decisions people make along the way will be in keeping with the collective vision (Reason, 2010). In order to simulate the process of reconstructing a schools purpose and direction, I will be analyzing my schools vision and mission statements. I will evaluate the mission and vision statements of Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School (MEHMS) by assessing how well theses statements meet the criteria identified by text cited from credible literature in this course. Moreover, I will identify how the current vision and mission of my school is being implemented effectively at a high level by providing specific examples and evidence. Finally, I will explain the process that I would use, as a leader of my school, to develop a new vision that supports our school culture. The current vision statement at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School reads, MEHMS will foster a collaborative LEARNING community relevant to the needs and interests of our young adolescents. In their work regarding professional learning communities, Dufour and Eaker (1998) argue that an effective vision statement articulates a vivid picture of the organizations future that is so compelling that a schools members will be motivated to work together to make it a reality. Based on their definition of a vision statement, I would argue that the vision statement of MEHMS does not articulate a vivid picture of the schools future. Its current vision statement mentions that it will, foster a collaborative LEARNING community, but it does not project any direction toward the future. Furthermore, Dufour and Eaker (1998)

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suggest that a clear vision statement should be able to answer the following questions: In what ways would we like our school to be significantly different five years from now than it is today? What do we hope to become?. I would argue that my schools vision statement does not depict what it expects to look like in years to come, nor does it provide any insight as to what it hopes to become in the future. Therefore, I can conclude that the vision statement of MEHMS does not meet the quality criteria of a vision statement and can be labeled as ineffective. This is problematic, because until educators can describe the ideal school they are trying to create, it is impossible to develop policies, procedures, or programs that will help make that ideal a reality (Dufour & Eaker, 1998). In other words, until MEHMS has an effective vision statement, its members will be working aimlessly toward a school with no future in mind. The current mission statement at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School reads, To realize our vision, LEARNING will be our focus. We will collaborate to develop an innovative and challenging curriculum which is relevant to the diverse and creative needs of our young adolescents. Professional Learning Communities will focus on best practice and data to identify potential problems. Appropriate interventions will be taken to ensure each student is demonstrating proficient to advanced academic growth. Staff development will provide teachers with strategies to meet the needs of ALL learners. In their work regarding mission statements, Dufour and Eaker (1998) suggest that the focus is not on how the group can do what it is currently doing better or faster, but rather on why it is doing it in the first place. After reading the mission statement of MEHMS, I would argue that it fails to clarify why the school exists and fails to identify the purpose of the school. Rather, the mission statement seems to be more of an action statement by addressing what the school will do to meet the needs of all its learners. For example, the mission statement reads, We will collaborate to develop an innovative and challenging curriculum which is relevant to the diverse and creative needs of our young

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION

adolescents. This part of the mission statement focuses on what the school will do to support its learners, rather than why it is supporting its learners. Therefore, I can conclude that this is not an effective mission statement due to the lack of evidence to support its purpose. Assuming that MEHMS believes that all kids can learn, there are two questions that its mission statement should be able to answer: What is it that we will expect them to learn? and How do we respond when they do not learn? (Dufour & Eaker, 1998). The mission statement does address that learning will be its focus, but it does not provide evidence of what students will be expected to learn. However, the mission statement does address how the school will respond when students do not learn. The mission statement reads, Appropriate interventions will be taken to ensure each student is demonstrating proficient to advanced academic growth and Staff development will provide teachers with strategies to meet the needs of ALL learners. Even though the mission statement addresses how the school will respond when students to not learn, it does not provide evidence as to the specific interventions that will be used and the specific strategies that will be implemented during staff development. Therefore, I can conclude that the mission statement still fails to meet the necessary criteria to be considered as an effective mission statement. Despite that I have concluded that both the vision and mission statements are ineffective and need to be revisited, I have found that MEHMS is still living its core beliefs and values. The vision statement upholds a value of a collaborative learning community relevant to the needs and interests of its young adolescents, and MEHMS provides evidence of this vision being implemented effectively throughout the school. For example, MEHMS offers up to twenty-two extracurricular clubs and activities for students to participate. These extracurricular activities are diverse in nature and accommodate to the multiple intelligences, interests, talents, and learning styles of its members. Some of the clubs and activities that are offered range from the school

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musical, to a programming and robotics club. Therefore, the diverse needs and interests of MEHMS students are able to be met from these enriching extracurricular programs. Another example of the living vision at MEHMS is the outstanding student services that are offered. The guidance department at MEHMS goes above and beyond to ensure that the fundamental needs of all students are being met in order for them to perform at their best. Some of the services that the guidance department offers include a new student group, a student mentor program, a bullying awareness program, a drug-free week, and an open-door policy, just to name a few. Each of these student services provides an opportunity for students to receive physical, mental, and emotional support. The members of MEHMS are also living in a collaborative learning community, which is strongly valued in the vision statement. To effectively implement a collaborative learning community, MEHMS involves its stakeholders in educating its students. For example, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is very involved at MEHMS. The PTA has created a detailed website that describes its own vision, mission, and purpose. In addition, it includes information such as events, fundraisers, and volunteer opportunities for parents at the school. The PTA just hosted our first annual Fall Festival at MEHMS, which was a mini-carnival located in the cafeteria to help raise money and awareness for the PTA. The community also plays a valuable role in the education at MEHMS. The Business in Education (BIE) committee meets once every two months to learn and share creative ways to become involved at MEHMS. Some examples include hosting a Career Fair at MEHMS twice a year and volunteering to serve as judges on panels such as the Science Fair and Project Citizen, which is a 7th grade project for students to create authentic political parties and conduct a mock campaign. It is evident that the parent involvement from the PTA and the community

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involvement from the BIE are contributing to the vision statement by fostering a collaborative learning community at MEHMS. Furthermore, I have found that the mission statement is also being implemented effectively at MEHMS. The mission statement values Professional Learning Communities to develop an innovative and challenging curriculum. At MEHMS, teachers frequently meet as grade-level teams and departments to write curriculum and create common assessments. These teams often plan with the special education department to ensure that they are challenging the minds and meeting the needs of all students. Moreover, team leaders and Curriculum and Instructional Resource Teachers (CIRTs) co-plan with the different departments to ensure continuity in curriculum and to provide support for instruction. The mission statement also values appropriate interventions; therefore, the educators at MEHMS use remediation strategies to ensure that each student is demonstrating academic growth. Intervention is used at MEHMS when evidence suggests that students are underperforming in specific content areas. The educators at MEHMS use the Response to Intervention (RTI) method to first identify students who are struggling in academics, then use remediation for support. Teachers identify these students via qualitative and quantitative data such as observations, formative assessments, and benchmark tests. Students who respond positively to the intervention show academic growth; whereas, students who respond negatively to the intervention do not show academic growth. Students who do not show progress will continue to receive support in the form of remediation using alternative strategies until they begin to respond positively by showing growth. Staff development is the final component to the mission statement which is being implemented effectively at MEHMS. The mission statement reads, Staff development will provide teachers with strategies to meet the needs of ALL learners. There are many

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opportunities for professional growth and development that are provided for the staff at MEHMS to meet the needs of its students. For example, at the beginning of the school year all staff had an opportunity to register for two professional development sessions of their choice. More than twenty different sessions were offered during our in-service week before students arrived. This opportunity allowed teachers to learn and grow in an area of their choice to which they identified as valuable. Teachers were able to attend workshops that tailored to their individual needs and interests as educators. Furthermore, Workshop Wednesdays will be offered after school hours, every Wednesday for the entire school year. I will be leading this professional development in order for my staff to learn how to integrate meaningful technology into their instruction. The staff will be trained to use Apple devices such as Macbook Airs and iPads, as well as being trained to use products such as Google Apps in Education and Schoology, which is our online learning management system. Lastly, I have created the Digital Learning Series blog for teachers to learn and share from each other, using a digital platform. Educators at MEHMS now have access to a digital, communal space to share valuable resources, document student work, and reflect on their own teaching practice. Professional development is clearly a priority at MEHMS and it is evident in its mission statement. I would argue that MEHMS provides substantial evidence of how it is living its vision; however, I still believe that it needs a completely new written vision statement to provide more direction for its stakeholders. In addition, this newly written vision statement must support our school culture. I agree with Reason (2010) that by supporting a school culture empowered by positive emotions, learning leaders can become experts at bringing out the greatness in others. Our new vision must support our school culture, because culture is affected by the conditions and contexts in which it operates (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). In other words, if our new vision statement goes against our schools core values and beliefs, it could directly have a negative

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effect on the culture of our school. Therefore, as a leader of my school, I would develop a new vision that supports our school culture. In order to successfully develop a revised vision for my school, I would need to invest in professional capital. In their work on transforming teaching in every school, Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) define professional capital as a cornerstone concept that brings together and defines the critical elements of what it takes to create high quality and high performance in all professional practiceincluding teaching. With regard to professional capital, some of the critical elements that I would need in order to create high quality performance in my school include leadership, emotional abundance or the capacity of schools to experience emotions with clarity and intensity (Reason, 2010), context, culture, and relationships. It is often difficult to define leadership, but Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) define leadership as doing something first, before anyone else is willing or able to. I believe that one of the biggest difficulties for a leader is to step up and delegate some of his or her leadership to other leaders in order to start building trust and strengthening relationships. As a leader, I would use the power with model, as opposed to the power over when revising the mission statement, because I am aware that the vision will affect all stakeholders in my middle school (Hargreaves & Fullan 2012). Dufour and Eaker (1998) claim that this co-creating strategy is perhaps not the most efficient way to develop a written vision statement, but it is certainly the strategy most likely to result in the shared vision critical to a learning community, which is my ultimate goal. To implement this co-creating strategy, I would first bring awareness to our current vision statement. I would present our current vision statement at a faculty meeting and ask my staff if they feel like it needs revision. I am assuming that my faculty and staff would realize how little direction our current vision statement provides for us and I would hope that they would

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see the value in revising it. I personally believe that it is important to understand why change needs to occur, before change is embraced. I agree with Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) when they say that the idea of inspiring people and drawing them into change must precede the action of bringing change about. After my faculty and staff realize that our current vision needs revision, I would continue with my co-creating strategy. I would plan a meeting well in advance to initiate the discussion for the revised vision statement. I would have all departments in my middle school elect a volunteer representative to attend the vision meeting in each departments best interest. I would also be sure to include the voice of my stakeholders in this meeting by welcoming a representative from each group of parents, community members, business representatives and students. I would include representatives from all of my schools stakeholders because Dufour and Eaker (1998) suggest that although some schools have limited their discussion to the people at the school site, a process that also includes representatives of parents, community members, area businesses, and students is preferable. In order to properly prepare everyone for the meeting, I would effectively communicate to my representatives that they should bring their colleagues core values and beliefs to the table (Dufour & Eaker, 1998). Before the vision meeting, I would ask my representatives to conduct research regarding successful improvement initiatives. I would first have my representatives perform research because Dufour and Eaker (1998) claim that a professional learning community will always begin its exploration of an issue by gathering relevant background information and compiling the best thinking on that issue. Requesting that my representatives perform research on successful improvement initiatives would hopefully increase awareness and knowledge of initiatives that are currently working for other schools. Furthermore, I would also ask my representatives to familiarize themselves with our school culture. I would advise them to ask questions or collect

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION information that is posted on our website. If my representatives come to the meeting well

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informed of both our school culture and successful improvement initiatives in our surrounding area, then our vision meeting should be very productive and successful. In addition to conducting research, I would also ask my representatives to individually answer the following questions before the meeting: In what ways would we like our school to be significantly different five years from now than it is today? What do we hope to become? I would ask my representatives to answer these questions because Dufour and Eaker (1998) strongly suggest that these questions are essential to creating an effective vision statement. If all of my representatives develop thoughtful and authentic answers to these questions, then everyone should be prepared to effectively hold a discussion regarding our collective vision during the meeting. To initiate discussion at the vision meeting, I would present our school districts mission statement, simply because our district does not currently have a vision statement. The Falls Church City Public Schools mission statement reads, The Falls Church City Public Schools, in partnership with our families and community, educates and challenges every student to succeed and become a responsible and contributing member of the global community. I would remind the representatives at the meeting, that our vision statement should be directly aligned to our districts mission. Then, I would open the discussion to begin crafting our new vision statement. After a vision statement has been created, I would be sure that it is reviewed and endorsed by all stakeholder parties. The representatives would take the vision statement back to their groups to seek approval or collect feedback for revision. If all of the stakeholder groups approve the vision statement, then we will have successfully revised and finalized our written vision statement. However, if just one of the stakeholder groups does not approve and suggests feedback for revision, then we would hold another vision meeting in order to revise the written

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION vision statement. This process would repeat itself, until a consensus is reached when the majority of all stakeholder parties approve the written vision statement. In order to build a shared commitment to live the revised vision as a school, all stakeholders must realize that building a shared vision is an ongoing, never-ending, daily

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challenge confronting all those who hope to transform their schools into learning communities (Dufour & Eaker, 2008). In other words, all stakeholders must have buy-in to the vision in order for the vision to thrive. In addition, all of our stakeholders must understand that the development of a defined learning culture is a commitment to a never-ending process (Reason, 2010). The vision of our school should be revisited at least every five years in order to maintain our schools direction and purpose. Furthermore, I feel that if a vision statement is correctly crafted and approved by the majority of all parties involved, then I do not foresee a problem with shared commitment. Reason (2010) believes that we arguably value vision so much because it also ties into issues of safety and emotional security: honest leaders with vision keep the pathway safe enough to allow for innovation and deep levels of learning. In other words, if my schools stakeholders have buy-in to the vision, then they will continue to share this vision, because it provides them with emotional security and a sense of satisfaction. In addition to building a shared team commitment to the vision, I will also implement strategies for incorporating necessary change to uphold our new vision. Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) recommend starting by changing the school culture. They believe that if you change the form of a culture (the relationships among people), then you have a good chance of changing its content too. By positively changing the professional relationships of my school, I should be able to improve the performance of its members. The culture that I would embrace for my school would be a collaborative culture (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). A collaborative culture encourages teamwork and cooperation when making decisions and embraces collective problem-

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION solving. Schools characterized by collaborative cultures are also places of hard work and

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dedication, collective responsibility, and pride in the school (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). In order to sustain a collaborative culture, I would encourage collaboration at all team meetings, department meetings and faculty meetings. In addition, I would have my members collaboratively create a list of norms that would be widely accepted and encouraged at all meetings. Moreover, I would foster co-planning, co-teaching, co-learning opportunities for all of my instructional staff members. For example, I would provide time for my teachers to co-plan together in order to align curriculum and resources that support our school vision. Implementing these necessary changes would also help to establish a professional learning community at my school (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) define a professional learning community as a place where teachers inquire together into how to improve their practice in areas of importance to them, and then implement what they learned to make it happen. By having my school members collaborate to solve problems, they will be able to strengthen their relationships by learning together. Therefore, if I can positively change my school culture by enriching the relationships that are in it and investing in professional capital, then I am confident that my school will prosper in its new vision. In conclusion, as a current leader in my school, I am going to take what I learned from this assignment and recommend to my administration that we revise our current vision and mission statements. If I do not follow through with this assignment, then I would feel like I was doing my school and its professional learning community a disservice. If I recall correctly, one definition of leadership is doing something first, before anyone else is willing or able to (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). I am going to be that person at my school.

THE SCHOOL LEADER AS DEVELOPER OF VISION AND MISSION References

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Dufour, R. & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Hargreaves, A. & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Reason, C. (2010). Leading a learning organization: The science of working with others. Bloomington, IL: Solution Tree Press.