How Do Facilitative Leaders Define a Schools Mission?
Early descriptions of instructional leadership emphasized the importance of “setting high expectations,” which normally meant establishing academic goals and raising test scores. This idea has since evolved into a more comprehensive concept, “establishing the school’s mission,” or “creating a vision.” School mission has sometimes been viewed as the personal creation of the principal, who is expected to articulate it, publicize it, and promote it, but recent discussions have emphasized the collaborative dimensions of the process. At a minimum, major stakeholders (teachers, parents, community, students) should be invited to participate in formulating the mission (Joseph Rogus 1990). Thomas Sergiovanni (1994) argues that schools should be “purposeful communities,” in which firmly held core values “permeate every aspect of the school organization.” Teachers in such schools don’t need a committee to tell them what the mission is. Achieving such strong consensus requires a deft touch. Conley
