MAKING YOUR MAGNET THEME
WORK
Vision, Mission and Goals
Gladys Pack
Jordam@comcast.net
Identify A Design Team
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A design team should include key staff members who
are decision makers. These individuals will help you
review data, identify programs and themes and make
the case. These should include staff in charge of:
Research and data
 School administration including principals
 Staff development
 Curriculum and instruction
 Key teachers
 Parents
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KNOW YOUR COMMUNITY AND YOUR
TARGET POPULATION
What does your community and your target
population value.
 Identify community resources (parks, museums,
artists, colleges, libraries, arts groups, businesses)
 Conduct informed focus groups (Work with parents
and community resource persons to vision the school
 Share research on the theme and information about
other like magnet schools.
 Share this plan and garner support from parents and
community.
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Start Researching Excellent Research-Based
Programs
Contact Magnet Schools of America for a list of
Magnet Schools of Excellence. Write to them ask for a
description of their schools, their curricula and
schedules. Look at award winning schools with similar
themes. Go online and look under United States
Magnet Schools, Magnet Schools and Blue Ribbon
Schools, Math Science Magnet Schools .
 Visit excellent schools.
 Write to schools with similar themes and request
curriculum and schedules.
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Visioning
VISIONING IS A PROCESS OF IMAGINING ANDACTUALLY
SEEING THE TOTAL SCHOOL AS IT IS WHEN YOU WILL
GET TO WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE. IT IS BACKWARD BY
DESIGN AS YOU START WHERE YOU WANT TO BE AND
WORK BACKWARDS. IT INVOLVES A CREATIVE PROCESS
OF MAKING A LEAP INTO THE FUTURE AND LOOKING AT
ALL ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL. VISIONING INVOLVES
ALL OF THE SENSES AND THEREFORE YOU ARE SEEING
THE SCHOOL IN ITS TOTALITY. WHAT IS YOUR VISION OF
EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Visioning
 Close
your eyes and dream the theme
 Use no educational jargon. Just describe what
you see.
 Describe it in such a way that we all can see it,
hear it, smell it.
 Don’t tell us that you see student work. That
doesn’t tell us anything. What is the work?
Visioning
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What do you see as soon as you walk into the school or before
you walk in that tells the theme?
What is in the hallways? What student work tells me about the
theme? Describe it!
What do the classrooms look like? How are they arranged?
What magnet related work do you see in each grade?
What are teachers doing in the classroom and out of the
classroom that is magnet related?
What are students doing in the class and out of the class that is
magnet related?
What are parents doing in the school?
The Result of Visioning
Once you and your design team have the vision
you need to share the vision with the staff and
have them vision as well. Have parents vision
and students.
Once you have most of the staff on board with the
vision, you then need to determine how you will
get there, working backwards “by design”.
Your vision leads to your mission.
Key Elements of Your Magnet Program
List 5 key elements of your magnet program that you
will expect to achieve in the next 3 years that grow out
of your vision that include both the equity and
excellence you expect to achieve. Do this in single
words.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Mission Statement
A Mission Statement is a statement that expresses the
belief of what a school is committed to accomplishing.
 It should represent the broadest perspective of your
mission, your magnet focus and how it will effect
students and achievement.
 It should reflect diversity.
 Everything the school does- curriculum construction,
grouping students, instructional strategies,
professional development- must fit the mission.
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The Mission Statement
The purpose of the Mission Statement is to:
 Express why this magnet school exists
 Define the school’s intentions and overall
purpose
 Serve as a framework for everything the school
does
 Focus energies when preparing School Plans
Mission Statement Guidelines
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The statement should be clear, concise, understandable, flexible,
realistic and results-oriented
It should address both excellence and equity
Fit your six key elements into your mission statement.
Mission Statement Format
The Statement should include the answers to
these questions:
 Who is committed?
 To what?
 For whom?
 To what degree/with what result?
Goals
Goals are broad-based and represent your
hopes and dreams.
 There should be goals for your students, for your
teachers, for your parents and for the school.
 As a magnet school you will have desegregation goals
that are based on data about your school, your
community, feeder schools and other factors.
 Goals should stretch your school and go beyond your
reach today but within your reach tomorrow given
your magnet program.
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