The entire staff is represented on the improvement team, including (staff titles e.g., teachers, social worker, librarian, etc.), all working jointly toward our goals. Secondly, we noted as DeFour emphasized, this is a continuous process to constantly make improvements where necessary. At this first session, we created new mission and vision statements. The mission answers the question why do we exist? In one form or another we are here to help all students achieve at a high level. However, we did not wish to create a lofty mission statement where goals are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Rather, we wanted a mission that was specifically directed toward learning and developing accountability on what our school needed to improve. As a result, we established the following statement: MISSION STATEMENT

The vision gives a picture of a school...

The values are guidelines for the way we collaborate to accomplish this vision. The goals provide the continuous steps that will move forward. The vision statement we jointly created is:
VISION STATEMENT.

We all know it is essential to keep the momentum going on this process. Too many times, mission and vision statements are designed, and the continuous improvement goals die out. To be successful, all the staff has to buy in to the values set and convey their support to the students and parents.

During this first session, we created an effective template to be used with the DeFour Professional Learning Community. Now the real hard begins -- inquiry, assessment, improvement and more inquiry and assessment. We will work as a team to ensure the school and its students reach higher levels of performance.