What do the old goal statements look like for comparison?
Somewhere, will this statement say we have the support of Missouri State as a whole?
Goals Comments
Regarding the Mission Statement, do you have any
additional thoughts and ideas?
It is too long.
It is really a definition.
Needs to include “intellectual” diversity.
The first sentence is a mission statement.
It is not action oriented. It is more descriptive.
We like the positive-ness of it. It should be positive, brief, and action-oriented.
It is redundant within the Philosophy.
Our version:
The Mission of the Greenwood Lab School is to provide educational opportunities that produce educated persons by developing competent, confident, creative and caring citizens who are lifetime learners.
With this type of
statement we are setting ourselves up for failure. It is ridiculous to say we are economically diverse when we have
$3,000 tuition. There is nothing in place
now to bus kids here, feed them before school and provide free spots for them.
Whenever you charge
tuition, it places limits upon issues like multicultural diversity, economic
diversity, etc.
Regarding the Philosophy, do you have any additional thoughts and ideas?
What do we believe about learning, teaching, etc?
Regarding the Goals, do you have any additional thoughts
and ideas?
Regarding education of youth and collaboration with Missouri State.
We have a problem at GWD in that we have very few electives. This is because of limited space, faculty, and curriculum.
What if we, at the end of the sophomore year, give the students an opportunity to declare and emphasis? In this emphasis they could choose music, math, LA, science, etc. At this point we could plan with the departments on campus to put together existing courses to build plans (4 courses) that the students could take their junior and senior years as dual credit. This way the students would not be without classes to take during the senior year…it would be part of their educational plan. They could have enough dual credit hours to enter college as second semester freshmen!
This would retain students in the secondary grades because it would be a calling card.
This would be in place of perhaps going to a Music/Science Theme throughout the school, which would limit students’ choices.
Acknowledge and implement a tuition system consistent with a diverse student population.
Changes from first draft: no mention specifically in service learning. That sometimes has mixed reaction from those inside and outside of education.
A statement deleted from a previous draft is a statement saying GLS exists Missouri State further its mission and goals, implicating Missouri State support for GLS to fulfill that mission.
Not seeing a strong emphasis on academics. I like stronger language than to produce education persons.
Suggestion made to put K-18. The laboratory school does not enroll past K-12, although it serves K-18. On the 3rd line, re: “economically, ethnically, and socially diverse student body” Prefer to leave it more general because in the past 19 years we have not met these criteria. However, no numbers (%) to evaluate representativeness of these categories. It’s diverse in relative terms.
That was not included in the first draft. Potentially, you could set yourself up for failure is GLS is evaluated on meeting its mission statement. Perhaps, language needs to be added to indicate that limitations are imposed by demographics, etc.
If training teachers is a goal of the school, than minimally diverse population is not realistic. Do we want to recruit or attract a more diverse population. Then you have the financial factor. It is a struggle to achieve a balance given the tuition elements. Classrooms may be diverse by other characteristics other than economics and ethnicity. So there are more challenging issues than ethnic diversity.
Parent: finds it watered down compared to previous drafts, when language regarding academics is moved to “goals”. Remove how the school will reflect diversity, and simply include “diverse.”
Mission statement is talking about university’s perspective and does not reflect what it will do for GLS students.
Hiring of excellent resources and the hiring of the very best is very important. Salary is a deterent to attracting the best candidates. Salary is on par with University personnel, retirement systems must be changed if one switches from public school to university retirement systemn. Ranks are instructor, assistant, associate, and full. Instructors at GLS may make 8-10000 dollars less than Kickapoo or other public schools.
Last paragraph is from the University’s strategic planning document (countdown to the 21st century) and gives a stronger description of the type of student they would turn out.
Reference to diversity must be made more general. We are not opposed to multicultural diversity, but it may not be satisfactorially obtainable in Springfield. The more general the terminology, the better
Three sets of goals are categorized according to: How we serve GLS student, how we serve the University, and how we serve regional schools. Goals related to the education of youth (GLS students K-12): Preference to ere on the side of being too general rather than too specific, e.g., commitment of summer school to future years is not firm. Is “location” the key word, rather than committing GLS per se, perhaps the wording is acceptable. Is wording strong enough with reference to academic emphasis?
Being too specific may cause fear of parents putting too much in that is doomed for failure. Curriculum with reference to an “integrated multi-cultural curriculum” may be difficult to achieve. Research projects conducted in technology classrooms has provided more integration in the 3rd grade classroom than previously experienced. Elementary tends to provide integrated curriculum, but in secondary grades where disciplines diversify, social studies tends to carry the “load” with regard to multicultural studies.
Check grammar for uniform wording with regard to “curriculum” and “curricula”
Is extra curricular contests included in bullets 1 and 2? Possibly.
I’d like to see “hands-on” activities struck. Instead rely on appropriate activities for the subject matter. However, the language may be less “jargon-like” than previous language.
Next set of goals refers to collaboration with the University. “living multicultural laboratory setting” may not be achievable. It is something to strive for, but may not be obtainable in evaluations.
Strike multicultural reference and replace with revised language recommended in mission and philosophy statements.
Does language in this section refer to GLS faculty activities that assists other teachers to get information from around the state? Perhaps the 3rd bullet.
Parent comment: I feel language needs to be incorporated that refers to support of teachers so that they will stay. When faculty are valued people, administration must make them feel valued. E.g., assessing work load, providing resources, creating a supportive environment.
The Dean hires – implicating the COE as a layer of support needed by GLS.
The cornerstone of the school is the faculty.
1-Regarding the Mission Statement, do you have any
additional thoughts and ideas?
The group discussed that Greenwood is not currently very diverse either economically, ethnically, or socially.
It was also asked if culturally should be substituted for ethnically or added to ethnically.
The discussants suggested adding bulleted study points for:
· The influence of actively involved parents, family, and alumni on learning, behavior, and public service by the students.
· The influence of older and younger classes across the K-12 spectrum on learning, behavior, and public service by the students.
2-Regarding the Philosophy, do you have any additional
thoughts and ideas?
The group recommended a stronger emphasis on the partnership with parents, curriculum infusion with community leaders, and service learning with community partners.
3-Regarding the Goals in section C, do you have any
additional thoughts and ideas?
It was recommended that further bulleted points be added for:
* Encouraging students to interact longitudinally with other school and college students in areas such as; shared debate and drama activities, shared real-time tele-classes, continued encouragement of students to take appropriate college classes,
and involve Greenwood students in the Missouri State summer public service high school institute.
Respectfully submitted by Dan Imhof, Kathy Gibson, Sarah Muegge, and Dave Muegge.
February 26, 2002
GROUP 5
Regarding the Mission Statement, do you have any
additional thoughts and ideas?
Line 2 Expand “Missouri and other educational institutions” expanding from Missouri to all educational institutions
Retain the idea that Greenwood Lab school provide the highest quality education and exposure to higher level education such as that Missouri State and other universities can provide.
Note: Definition for “economically, ethnically, socially diverse student body population”. How will this be determined? There is concern over the strong emphasis on diversity. Difficult to increase economically diversity because of tuition increases…. Academic diversity not addressed, difficult to have at Greenwood
Current student body is diverse, How is it determined that it is or isn’t?
Maybe offer offsite learning to title 1 schools.
Reduce the words in the mission. Too wordy. Be more concise. Try this: The mission of Greenwood lab school is to utilize the research and resources available to develop the best educational experience for all.
In bullets: drop “for staff” in the 5th bullet
Drop “student learning” bullet
Drop “linking scholarship and citizenship through community service”
Regarding the Philosophy, do you have any additional
thoughts and ideas?
7th line: The school is designed to facilitate the integration of Missouri State…….
9th line: The school will maintain a close working relationship……
Regarding the Goals, do you have any additional thoughts
and ideas?
Why the “provides…….” format? Use more concise descriptive verbs.