Crafting a mission statement is your school’s first chance at achieving transparency into the values, goals and commitments necessary to achieve academic excellence. It allows you to ensure every student is represented in your institution’s plan. However, this priority is often missed by schools.
New data from the Pew Research Center suggests that most schools’ mission statements are quite similar. In fact, 80% of all mission statements recognize the importance of preparing students for their futures past high school. Other topics, however, are rarely mentioned, like mental health and providing a student-centered education, despite mental health being a top concern among parents, according to a recent survey.
Just 12% of school mission statements refer to incorporating student-centered education, and 4% explicitly mention improving mental health for students, the data show. And as far as diversity inclusion go, these values are far underrepresented compared to topics like future readiness and providing a safe and healthy school environment.
Here’s a detailed look at the data from more than 1,300 mission statements from public school districts across the country:
Future readiness and safety are among the most commonly cited topics
- Future readiness: 80%
- Safe and healthy environment: 64%
- Parent and community involvement: 54%
- Academic program: 47%
- Developing academic skills: 38%
- Inclusion, diversity and equity: 34%
- Student-centered education: 12%
- Mental health: 4%
Between red and blue states, mission statements are alike, except when diversity, equity and inclusion are mentioned
- Inclusion, diversity and equity:
- Republican: 26%
- Democratic: 56%
- Academic program:
- Republican: 44%
- Democratic: 55%
- Student-centered education:
- Republican: 10%
- Democratic: 17%
- Future readiness:
- Republican: 79%
- Democratic: 84%
- Parent and community involvement:
- Republican: 53%
- Democratic: 57%
- Mental health:
- Republican: 4%
- Democratic: 7%
- Safe and healthy environment:
- Republican: 64%
- Democratic: 65%
Diversity, equity and inclusion are at least twice as likely to be mentioned in school mission statements in urban and suburban school districts than those in rural areas, the researchers note.
“There was so much consistency, with the exception of this one basket of issues in particular,” the project’s lead researcher Aaron Smith told USA Today. “There’s a real divergence between red and blue districts—and also between urban or suburban districts and rural ones—in the extent to which they outwardly cite issues like diversity and inclusion as a core educational principle.”
Fortunately, there’s always time to reimagine your school’s mission statement to ensure it covers all the important areas. According to Prodigy, a digital game-based learning company, there are six steps:
- Gather stakeholders: Consult staff, students and parents for insight.
- Look at your school: Use data to identify specific areas that ought to be addressed in your community.
- Look at the future: Your mission statement should include a vision. What will it look like years from now?
- Write a draft: Put it into words. Consider bringing together a small staff, including one with a writing talent, to create your first draft.
- Present it to the community: This is your opportunity to gather feedback. What did you miss? What can be added?
- Put it into action: Now that you’ve got a well-written, representative mission statement in hand, put it to work.
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