Mission Statement:

The following mission statement was constructed for High Peaks Middle School:

The mission of High Peaks Middle School is to establish and foster a successful
learning environment through a culture shaped by integrity, honor, and respect.

This mission statement was created to rebuild the struggling school that is High Peaks
Middle. High Peaks Middle School was struggling on state sponsored examinations, dealing with
incredible increase in behavior issues, and operating the school under the close scrutiny of the
community (led by the Mayor of the town). This mission statement was designed with the intent
to drastically alter the perception of High Peaks Middle School for the students, staff, and
community and put the school on the path towards success.
It was determined that the mission statement for the school needed to be simple by
powerful and easily re-citable by students and staff. The simplicity of the mission statement (in
that it is only a single sentence) provides an opportunity for the statement to be marketed nearly
everywhere within the school as well as outside of the school. For instance, this mission
statement would fit easily on a business card for the administrator of the school, would work
well in the upper margins of handouts, and could be posted all around the school. Having a
mission statement of this size provides these marketing opportunities, which will contribute
towards the growth and establishment of a successful learning environment and vision for
student success.
The first portion of the mission statement deals with establishing and fostering a
successful learning environment. The learning environment at this time is not successful. High
Peaks Middle School has watched their test scores drop, there learning gains disappear, and
behavior issues go through the roof. On top of those problems, the school has a number of
teachers (11%) teaching out of subject. Due to these issues, anyone viewing data on the school
would ponder if this school has established a successful learning environment. They would also
wonder if the faculty was doing everything in their power to foster the continuity of that learning
environment. Up until this point, I would say either the faculty wasnt doing everything in their
power to create this environment or the negative culture of the school was too overwhelming to
make the changes needed towards creating successful learners.
There is a word in the mission statement that is often thrown around in businesses and
schools - that word is culture. When we think of a culture we think of shared beliefs, practices,
and ideologies that belong to a specific group of people. We think of culture as a pertains to the
business world we think of long hours, working overtime, and dad missing out on his sons
baseball game. In education the culture of the school is shaped by the students, staff, and the
administration. Culture can be managed and manipulated, but only when the effort is taken to do
so.
The current culture of High Peaks Middle School is one of failure, poor behavior, and
defeat. The decline on standardized tests, coupled with the inability to manage student behavior
has created a negative culture for the school, which transpired into a storm of scrutiny by the
community. Yet, culture can be managed and manipulated, and thats what this mission
statement is out to do.
The culture of this school is going to be shaped by integrity, honor, and respect. These
three ideas apply across the board towards all the problems plaguing the school. For instance, a
lack of integrity on the part of the students has led to the behavior issues in the client test scores.
Lack of integrity on behalf of the old regime has led to 11% of teachers teaching out of subject.
The level of honor the school is completely gone, and this is illustrated obviously through the
lack of student success, and of course the behavior issues. Respect also is tied into the behavior
issues, but its also part of classroom management-effective classroom management can lead to
engagement, and then engagement can ultimately produce higher test scores and reduce behavior
issues. The lack of respect between students and students and students to teachers must disappear
in order for this school to thrive as an institution of learning.
As stated before, culture can be managed and manipulated. This mission statement was
built behind the purpose of managing and manipulating the culture of the school from poor
performance to preferred performance. This mission statement is concise, believable, and
powerful enough for the whole school to get behind and build momentum towards drastically
changing the culture of High Peaks Middle School. This mission statement, while specific, still
allows for all members of the school to have diversified feelings on how their role within the
school impacts the mission.