Share clear rationale, vision, and definition of instruction

Start professional learning programs and activities with clearly defining the rationale of the instructional model and what it looks like over time.

Challenge: Misalignment and/or lack of investment in a common mission and vision of instruction can lead to diverging systems and top-down sentiments.

Details: In order to execute and deliver a comprehensive, cohesive education program to students, schools must be designed around and operate with a foundational, unified mission and vision of instruction. To ensure that all staff are aligned to the mission and vision, onboarding and ongoing professional learning should always start with ‘the why’ and ground the activities in the unified goals of the school.

• Mission – The Why: This communicates the end goal and the rationale for a model. Often focused on student outcomes, ‘the why’ should inspire all staff to support and implement the model.
• Vision – The How: This defines the tenets, principles, or key components of a model that achieves the mission. Instructional visions can vary widely in level of prescriptiveness, but strong visions build common understanding for all functions. All activities (hiring, onboarding, professional development, coaching, performance evaluations, etc.) and resource allocation (staffing, schedules, procurement, etc.) should revolve around the instructional vision.

In order to develop a strong mission and vision that all stakeholders are invested in, schools must intentionally partner with community members, scoping out ‘the why’ and ‘the how’ based on the values of that community. While these may continually evolve over time, having a common ‘North Star’ ensures that all programs are aligned and that students experience a cohesive education.

Examples:

• Chicago Public Schools launches personalized learning professional development sessions with variations of ‘the why’ based on the type of session and needs of the group. Variations of ‘the why’ of personalized learning include: the Chicago Public Schools Why, student perspectives, from factory to future, American schools today, and ‘The End of Average’.
• Distinctive Schools starts professional development not only by defining what personalized learning means in their network but also by sharing the design journey to their current model. The components of their personalized learning model were co-designed and continually developed with key stakeholders in the organization, ensuring deep alignment and investment in these pillars. In all professional development sessions, personalized learning principles are embedded as part of the overarching instructional philosophy, rather than seen as an additional component.
• Natick Public Schools designs all programs and professional learning around their Profile of a Graduate — the vision for what is valued for students to learn within the school community. The aligned profile defines and invests stakeholders in the competencies for graduates at all levels. All teachers new to Natick also take a course within their first few years focused on the Profile of a Graduate and the vision for Teaching, Learning and Innovation in the Natick Public Schools.
• Dallas Independent School District very comprehensively defines their personalized learning model through their Personalized Learning Coaching and Development Tool, breaking down into five domains and twenty high-leverage teacher and student actions. The tool, which includes an in-depth rubric and school-level readiness continuum, is developed to be the aligned vision for effective personalized learning environments, informing all coaching and professional learning.