Action Research Report
A mission statement is the underlying principal and guideline that allows any given organization to fully function on a day-to-day basis. With the growing trends and changes in education, I found that it was necessary to for Southside Elementary of Palestine ISD in rural East Texas to revamp or change the current mission statement that had served the campus for ten or more years. The district had recently restructured after a bond had been passed for new construction, causing grade levels to transition to new campuses. Southside Elementary now serves as the home for all second and third grade students in Palestine ISD. The new campus mission statement now allows for Southside Elementary to focus and the present and future and to build on values, core concepts, and the safety and nurturing of its students.
“Mission Statement…A Change With A Mission”
Christopher A. Massey
Lamar University
Action Research Report
Introduction / Background
Palestine ISD is a rural school district located in the Piney Woods of East Texas. The school district is made up of six schools, two primary, one elementary, one intermediate, one junior high school and one high school. The campus that I focused on in my action research project is the elementary campus, Southside Elementary. The population of the students at Southside Elementary is seventy percent economically disadvantage. The demographics of the student population is split pretty evenly, thirty-three percent Hispanic, thirty-three African American, thirty-three percent Caucasian, and one percent “other”. My position at Southside Elementary was a third grade self contained teacher. Other duties that I was obligated to were to serve on the Campus Action Team (CAT), District Action Team (DAT), and Math Vertical Alignment Team. As a student completing their master’s degree in Educational Administration, I completed assigned tasks throughout the year as needed by campus administration, as well as completed an abundance of internship hours.
With the completion of a bond project in Palestine ISD approaching the 2011-2012 school year came many transitions through grade levels transitioning to new campuses, campus administration changing positions, a new superintendent being hired for the district, and many other obstacles along the way. With the implementation of these new transitions, Southside had become my new home to teach third grade. Southside Elementary had formerly been home to the districts first and second graders. Southside Elementary is now home to the districts second and third graders. I knew that there would be many adjustments that my team and myself would have to make. We would have to be prone to meeting new staff members that we had never worked with before, as well as serving under campus administrators that were not used to having a state testing grade level on their campus before. Having completed many hours towards my masters’ degree at the time of this change, I knew that there was going to be a needed change to our campus, something that would bond second and third grade together, and something that would allow cohesiveness amongst the campus. I knew that Southside Elementary would need a “new” campus mission statement that would allow all of the faculty and staff to come together to work for a common goal for our students. The previous campus mission statement served for the lower grade levels within the district and not for the third grade level that made the transition.
In order for my action research to come into play, I had to ask myself, “Is my team and the team that we just encroached upon ready for change and to come together for the betterment of our campus?” To do this, I used the same position that the district used when implementing the grade level transition. I proposed the need for change. There were so many things that were “set in stone” within the district that needed to change. I communicated my vision through informational meetings. I used other school districts mission’s statements to my advantage by presenting these as a positive change that occurred in school districts that surrounded Palestine ISD.
The students and staff at Southside Elementary will be the majority population that will be effected and benefit from the change in the campus mission statement. Palestine ISD and stakeholders that play vital roles in the education of students at Southside Elementary will be affected as well. The “new” campus mission statement will add to the knowledge of the elementary students in grades second and third at Southside Elementary.
Literature Review
Steven E. Stemler and Lauren Ann Sonnabend of Wesleyan University, Middleton, CT, and Damian Bebell of Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA completed a research project on school campuses that use and implement campus mission statements and those that do not. Stemler, Sonnabend, and Bebell compared mission statements from fifty high schools from ten states, which were geographically and politically diverse from one another. There were a total of four hundred twenty-one mission statements. The conclusion of their research shows that; “School mission statements are a valuable source of data that can be quantified for educational researchers and administrators interested in reflecting on school purpose, comparing schools with regard to their core mission, and monitoring changes in school purpose over time.” (Stemler, Sonnabend, & Bebell 2011) I think that with the amount of schools that Stemler, Sonnabend, and Bebell used was an ample amount to research whether or not mission statements were the driving force and underlying processes allowing these schools to function educationally and properly. The research shows that schools vary systematically and sensibly according to their mission statements.
Mission statements “sets a tone and a philosophical position from which follow a program’s goals and objectives.” (UFC Academic Program Assessment Handbook 2005) Setting the tone for a particular campus can be validated through the implementation of a mission statement. Each and every school district and its campuses should have mission statements to outline its goals and objectives. Goals and objectives are ways for staff, students, community members and stakeholders to see what they are expected to experience and portray on a daily basis.
Christopher C. Morphew of the University of Georgia completed a thematic analysis on mission statements. His research proves to the beneficial factors of creating and implementing a mission statement for any organization, not just in education. “A clear mission helps organizational members distinguish between activities that conform to institutional imperatives and those that do not. Second, a shared sense of purpose has the capacity to inspire and motivate those within an institution and to communicate its characteristics, values, and history to key external constituents.” (Christopher C. Morphew 2006) According to this statement made by Morphew, a mission statement allows organizations to determine what is best for their beliefs and what they want to portray to all others. The mission statement is almost like separating the “good” from the “great”. If a mission statement is organized, maintained, and implemented to the best of its ability, then only the “great” will be represented.
“Developing strong vision and mission statements can help stakeholders in your school reach such a common understanding. A vision is your school’s goal—where you hope to see it in the future.” (John G. Gabriel & Paul C. Farmer 2009) This reference fits perfectly with creating a “new” campus mission statement for Southside Elementary. Now that the campus has transitioned and is looking into the future, the new mission statement will serve many students and staff for years to come. A district and campus must look into the future because the future is ever changing in education.
“A clear mission statement acts as a setoff discriminative stimuli that guides the behavior of organizational members. This helps prevent organizational myopia in which an organization fails because it loses sight of its mission.” (Malott 2003) The research of Malott shows that a mission statement is a list of rules of sorts that guides the daily behaviors of all those that fall under its umbrella.
Subjects
I chose Southside Elementary because the mission statement at the time of my action research was a mission statement that had been carried over from when it was a first and second grade campus. The mission statement that was previously being implemented had served the campus for ten or more years.
There were several steps that I had to follow precisely in order to have the outcome that I desired. Step one was to meet with my campus administrators to discuss my action research plan. After collaborating we had determined as a group that there was a definite need to rewrite the campus mission statement to ensure that all of the current grade levels were included. In our meeting we discussed who needed to be included in the process. Our campus already had a committee that served the role of implementing change for the campus. After speaking to administration, we determined that this would be the best committee to serve in this matter. The Campus Action Team (CAT) is made up of campus lead teachers from each grade level and subject, campus administrators, specials teachers, and community leaders. The committee made the decision that there needed to be a change to the campus mission statement to ensure that current grade levels were attended to. I used information from my Lamar University classes about mission statements to propose change.
The action research idea was then presented to each grade level to receive input from all parties that would be involved. In meeting with the grade levels, each grade level team really bought into the idea and thought that it was a great idea and a welcomed change for the campus. I allowed for teachers to have input making it known that their values were important. After the input of the staff, the CAT met to sort through ideas and input from teachers. We then took the input and created three very unique and distinct mission statements for the campus to vote on. After votes were taken we met back as a team to tally votes and review teacher responses. The CAT ultimately made the decision to implement one of the new campus mission statements.
The final step in the process of my action research was to implement the “new” campus mission statement. It was decided that the upcoming 2012-2013 school year would be a great start to roll out the campus mission statement.
Data Collection
The method that I used to collect data was in the form of a survey. The change in the mission statement would adversely affect the entire campus; so therefore, every staff person at Southside Elementary was surveyed. The survey included checklist type questions, as well as open-ended questions. The reason for both types of questions were so that teachers were able to give their input and opinions, while the checklist type questions allowed for more specific details that I needed to outline when going back to the CAT to create draft mission statements. Sample questions were; “What would you like to see written in a new mission statement that would help to increase learning and growth on our campus?” “What do you think the benefits are of creating a new campus mission statement?” “What was in our previous mission statement that you feel would still need to be valued in a new mission statement?” and “Ideas/Suggestions or Wonderings?” Teachers were allowed one week to return surveys, to get them back sooner than later and make data collection easier; teachers were given a small prize when their surveys were returned. The data was collected and the CAT met to desegregate the data from the surveys.
I believe that action research of creating a “new” mission statement had its limitations based on the simplicity of the matter. However, in seeing that the majority of the campus wanted to see change and was welcome to change, I believe that it made a great impact on the campus of Southside Elementary. I strongly consider that Southside Elementary is going to move into being a more successful school. I believe that schools should examine their mission statements to see if this may be an underlying cause for academic loss. Now that the new mission statement is into play for Southside Elementary, the mission statement has now become a living and breathing document that guides all of the day-to-day practices of the students, faculty, and staff.
Having achieved the desired outcome of creating a new campus mission statement, I would strongly encourage all school districts who are not have desired outcomes on a day-to-day basis to look into the underlying cause. I would suggest that school districts look into the organizational aspect and the schools purpose to determine whether or not the mission statement is laying out the guidelines that the campus should be following. If there are flaws, an ineffective organization, or the mission statement has not been updated in quite some time, I would suggest that the Site Based Decision Making team or a team of some sorts to look into starting the process for revamping the mission statement. As education is constantly changing and growing, revamping would allow for current trends to be met, new and fresh ideas of current trending educators, and an overhaul that would greatly benefit any campus.
Works Cited
(n.d.).
Gabriel, J. G., & Farmer, P. C. (2009). How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Malott, M. E. (2003). Paradox of Organizational Change: Engineering Organizations with Behavioral Systems Analysis. Reno, NV: Context Press.
Morphew, C. C. (2006). Mission Statements: A Thematic Analysis of Rhetoric Across International Type. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
Radtke, J. M. (1998). How to Write a Program Mission Statement. Los Angeles, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Stemler, S. E., Bebell, D., & Sonnabend, L. A. (2011). Using School Mission Statements for Reflection and Research. Middletown, CT: The University Council for Educational Adminstration.
