From Plaques to Practice: How Schools Can Breathe Life into Their Guiding Beliefs

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Mr. Allen describes five problems that help cause schools to ignore their statements, and he recommends six ways by which schools can overcome that shortcoming. THINK BACK to your school days. Do you remember that junior high teacher who, despite your charm, quick wit, and endearing ways, failed to appreciate your many talents? Can you close your eyes and conjure up picture of what your elementary school looked like as you approached it each morning? Remember your high school's mascot and the cheers that were so inspirational - Hit 'em again, hit 'em again, harder, harder or How loose is your goose, how funky is your monkey? Did one of your teachers have favorite saying or tidbit of wisdom that he or she repeated so often it still rings in your ears: If you had just listened to me the first time, you wouldn't have to be asking me that now? Now that your mind is back in the old days, try to recall the mission statement of any one of the schools you attended. Can you bring to mind statement of vision or philosophy that unified the instructional practices of your teachers and inspired and guided your learning? Do you know the vision, mission, or philosophy of the school in which you currently teach, administer, or facilitate? Do you know such things about the school to which you send your children? No peeking at the plaque in the front hallway, no checking out the school's website, and no thumbing through the teacher, student, or parent handbook. And I'm not referring to some catch phrase that might be heard on school's answering machine or read as part of the daily announcements: Good morning, students; welcome to another day at High Hope School, where all things are possible and the skies are not cloudy all day. I'm referring to vision that guides, informs, and inspires teaching and learning strategies, staff development initiatives, teacher evaluations, student assessment, and parent and community involvement. I've asked many groups of people about their school's vision - what it says and what is being done to bring it to life - and generally the response I get includes pursed lips, bemused smiles, and vacant shrugs. Almost everyone in the education community agrees that people associated with schools would benefit from having common vision to guide their individual and collective actions. Michael Fullan writes, vital role of vision appears in every book on educational and organizational excellence.1 Every book written about excellent schools and excellent schooling touts the importance of vision. Bruce Barnett and Kathryn Witaker note, Leadership and management literature are replete with information about the importance of vision formation in organizations.2 In describing the work of the Accelerated Schools network, Henry Levin, its founder, wrote that schools must have unity of purpose [which] refers to an active collaboration among parents, teachers, students, support staff, administrators, and the local community toward setting and achieving common set of goals for the school. These shared goals and values become the focal point of everyone's efforts.3 In A Guide to Authentic Instruction and Assessment, Fred Newmann, Walter Secada, and Gary Wehlage hold that vision is key element for instructional renewal. They found that before people in schools could make instructional changes they had to have a schoolwide vision for the intellectual quality of teachers' work and students' expectations across the different subjects and grade levels.4 It seems that everyone agrees that school communities should have some sort of covenant, vision, mission, philosophy, or values to guide their work. In this article I will use the term guiding The good news is that nearly all schools do have such statements. The bad news is that nearly all schools tend to ignore them. Guiding statements are rarely used for anything other than an occasional, symbolic group hug. …