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Assignment 1.1: Assessing and Enhancing Youngsville Elementary Schools Identity Part One Schools Vision Statement: Youngsville Elementary will continue to support the goals of FCS and the North Carolina State Board of Education by producing globally competitive students that are healthy and responsible, incorporating 21st century systems, developing 21st century professionals and leaders who guide innovation. The current status of the vision statement is Proficient, a written statement is in place and used on a periodic basis by the school to lead school improvement. Schools Mission Statement: Youngsville Elementary School focuses on YOUTH, searches for innovative methods with ENTHUSIASM, and believes that SUCCESS is possible for all children. The current status of the mission statement is Proficient, a written statement is in place and used on a periodic basis by the school to lead school improvement. Core Values and/or Belief Statements: The current status of the core values and belief statements is Not demonstrated- no evidence of written core values/and or belief statements. Part Two: Justifying the Assessment of the Schools Identity Youngsville Elementary is well known for its high academic achievement overall when looking at school performance. However, I am not convinced that that success is whole-heartedly tied to the vision and mission. In discussion with my Mentor Principal about the assessment of the vision, mission, and core values and/or belief statements, we both agreed on the current status of each component. We believe that our faculty and staff are aware of the mission but that it may not be intentionally focused on in everyday lesson planning. My Mentor Principal also believes that core values and beliefs should be embedded in the vision and mission statements; therefore, he did not see a need for them to be a separate statement. I believe that they should be embedded as well but still should be written statements. Core values and belief statements get into the specifics, or the details
of the vision and mission statements. They affirm the vision and the mission. I am not sure if our faculty and staff are knowledgeable of the vision statement even though it is written in the School Improvement Plan. The mission statement is nicely framed and posted in each classroom and is easy to remember. However, I do not see that the vision and mission are embodied in the life of the school community as a whole. Specifically the searches for innovative methods with ENTHUSIASM phrase raises concerns for me. I observe few teachers applying innovative methods in their classroom instruction, the use of too many worksheets, and not enough hands-on practice of common core objectives. We have technology in the form of smart-boards, but they are often used to display a worksheet that was assigned for homework-used like an overhead projector. Very rarely are students using the smart-board for hands-on learning. We do not have mini laptops or i-pads for student use. The phrase believes that SUCCESS is possible for all children is not too evident to me. I say this because 16 kindergarten students were retained last school year, that is almost an entire class in some schools. I wonder what was done to help and monitor these students during their first year of kindergarten, did they have PEPs that were used with fidelity, was RtI implemented? I know that there is much resistance to and reluctance to implement RtI as well as Wireless Generation and other new initiatives in our district. I have observed a lot of complacency and stagnation. In conclusion, I feel that our school needs to be refocused on our mission, repurposed as to why we are here and that we should actually develop some core values and belief statements.
Part Three Next steps to Improve or Enhance Schools Current Status of Identity
1. Revisit/reframe vision and mission statements. 2. Envision both- what do they look like for us in our classrooms, throughout our campus, and in the community (done in PLCs) 3. Develop core values and belief statements based on our vision and mission. 4. Revisit our School Improvement Plan possibly revise. 5. Create an action plan for ensuring the vision, mission and belief statements as the driving force for the classrooms, school and the surrounding community.
until our school lives and breathes our vision, mission and core values and beliefs.