Being that we are focusing on mission statements currently, I figured I would check out my school's mission statement. I has some trouble at first in finding our school's mission statement.
I went to an administrator for some assistance and it took him some time to find it as well. I found our school's mission embedded in our principal's message page:
"Our stated mission is to promote a current, comprehensive curriculum that provides equal access to learning for all members of the school community."
I found our district's mission statement on our superintendent's page:
"The mission of the Dumont school district is to be the center of learning and the inspiration for the community and its children. Our responsibility is to provide the highest quality education in both formal and informal settings. Our purpose is to develop each individual into a productive and successful member of society, both today and in the future."
I was shocked to see that the two statements have different goals in mind.
The school's statement seems to focus on the short-term goal of learning in the school. The district's statement seems more focused on the long-term goal of developing productive members of society who will use their acquired skills and knowledge after their school years.
This lead me to wanting a more thorough look at how our curriculum is developed. I looked at the curriculum for the current freshmen science class I teach. It was basically a list of objectives missing the activities and assessments for how a teacher should accomplish those objectives.
I also took a look at my hometown's web page to look at their mission statement. I found that they have been working very hard to improve their methods of teaching since I last taught there four years ago. They have a page called the curriculum corner. This page explains their instructional philosophy and seems to aim at helping their teachers achieve their goals. I also found a curriculum developing template to assist teachers in writing curriculum. I am going to look further into this site for some possible resources. If interested, check it out: http://www.pequannock.org/index.cfm?sid=41&nav_id=9667
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3 comments:
Pretty interesting that you can have so many different missions in one place. You are lucky that the school and district mission do not directly contradict one another (trust me, it happens). I am glad that you have decided to explore this further. I think you are going to learn a lot about how things don't get done, or conflict with one's intentions.
I'm impressed that the class led you to search for your own mission statement. In one of our initial readings, it did say that mission statements are not intended to be short-term goals. That mission statement may need to expand to encompass the district's goal.
When I read through the both of the missions, 'respect for individuality' seemed to jump out. Do you think that might have been the intent of your school mission? I certainly agree, it isn't crystal clear!
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