Corvallis Community Vision for Education
February 1, 2008 02:03 PM
Last year more than 1300 community members, parents, staff, and students participated in the Corvallis School District visioning process, with 32 face-to-face sessions and 540 people taking an online survey. The purpose of the visioning process was to give the community a voice in shaping our collective vision of what we want for our children’s education into the future. Three guiding questions focused the process:
· As a community, what knowledge and skills do we believe our students need to possess to be successful?
· What learning experiences and opportunities should we provide for our students?
· What kind of culture are we committed to fostering in our district?
The district worked to reach out to as many groups as possible to add breadth to the feedback. Groups that participated included Rotary, NAACP, OSU staff, Elks, realtors, school staffs, parent groups, and student leadership classes at the high schools.
After all the input was gathered, the Synthesizing Committee was formed. This committee included local stakeholders, primarily educators. The group reviewed the themes that emerged from the community process and considered the work of the committee that developed the district improvement plan. Then the committee developed a mission statement, a vision statement, and fourteen recommendations that were ultimately approved by the school board. In addition, the committee helped organize and refine the skills and knowledge lists for elementary, middle and high schools. These were based on participant input to the first guiding question: What knowledge and skills do we believe our students need to possess to be successful?
The recommendations framed by the Synthesizing Committee will guide the district several years into the future, helping district leaders know the most important areas to focus the work. These recommendations are organized into three areas:
Educational Program (individualized learning/class size; unique schools with consistent curriculum and instruction foundation; quality education: curriculum, instruction, and assessment)
District Structure and Support (safe environment; welcoming inclusive schools; quality staff; school grade configurations; equity, access, and school choice; sustainability)
Programmatic Focus (technology/information literacy; hands-on/project-based learning; service learning/civic engagement; career preparation; personal finance; arts and music; global perspective; world languages)
Members of the Synthesizing Committee and the District Improvement Plan Committee will meet second semester to prioritize recommendations in the vision document.
Click here to view a summary of the visioning document:
Click here to view the entire visioning document:
