In successful schools, staff, students and their families, and community members share a vision, mission and set of values. When these three elements are held securely in common, everyone in the school community knows why their work is important, what the school wants to accomplish and how their belief in what is possible translates into their day-to-day actions and interactions with one another.

	Small schools devote considerable time and energy to ensuring that all stakeholders are personally committed to the school and see their ideas and priorities reflected in it.

With the autonomy to establish flexible schedules, collaborative teaching and learning, and shared leadership, small schools regularly engage staff, students and their families, and community members in a dialogue about what is important to them. Building a shared vision, mission and set of values requires knowing and respecting each person’s dream for the school. Small schools devote considerable time and energy to ensuring that all stakeholders are personally committed to the school and see their ideas and priorities reflected in it.

• Vision. A vision describes a compelling future. In its simplest terms, it is an answer to the question, “What do we want to become?” When people share a vision they are connected by common aspiration.
  
  
• Mission. A mission describes what a school is about; it describes the framework of the school—be it an arts academy or a school that uses internships as the foundation for curriculum and instruction. The mission outlines what makes a school unique, reminds everyone what it wants to accomplish and maintains a focus on student learning.
  
  
• Core Beliefs . Core values are a set of fundamental, guiding statements that define what the school values and describe how people should behave to reflect those values. When school staff, students and their families, and community members embrace a set of core beliefs, they are dedicating themselves to what they consider important and making a commitment to model those beliefs through their behavior whether in the classroom, at football games or during parent-teacher meetings.

Review this element on the Oregon Small Schools Initiative School Change Rubric Self-Assessment Tool.

This text is based on Oregon Small Schools Initiative fieldwork and the synthesis of ideas from the following source(s):

Darling-Hammond, Linda. (2002). Redesigning Schools: What Matters and What Works (10 Features of Good Small Schools), Stanford, CA: School Redesign Network. Available:  Click Here