Many school administrators and scholars in the public management sector have argued that mission statements serve an important purpose towards meeting objectives (Weiss & Piderit, 1999). An analysis of three hundred four public schools suggests that a strong mission statement is correlated with performance. Similarly, the study also suggests that strong mission statements can help guide school administrators towards implementing effective curriculum and instruction strategies (Weiss & Piderit, 1999).
The mission statement in my own school is a simple but strong goal for overall student performance. “Vision + Commitment = Educational Excellence for all Learners” is short but powerful and the idea behind such a mission statement is to make it easy to remember and therefore always in the forefront of educators’ minds. In this way, educators will never fail to remember their purpose of being in the classroom instructing students based on a required curriculum. An analysis of the three parts of the mission statement follows.
Vision is the first step towards implementing effective curriculum and instructional strategies. Teachers and school administrators must first have the desire to truly educate students according to their high potential. Without a vision, curriculum and instruction have no hope of being engaging and effective. Commitment is similar in that educators must all have the desire to collaborate with one another to make learning fun and rewarding for students. This means that educators must be willing to make necessary changes in order to constantly improve the educational outcome for all students.
When these two components are able to work together to form a strong mission statement than my school can rest assured that students are receiving access to quality curriculum taught by effective instructors. Ultimately, this mission statement guides curriculum decisions as well as instructional planning in order to provide students with authentic learning experiences that allow the vision and commitment of teachers to shine through.
Weiss, Janet A. & Piderit, Sandy Kristin. (1999). The value of mission statements in public agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 9 (2): 193 – 224.