Governing Board - Policies
Policies/Regulations
Governing Board Policies
Section A: Foundation and Basic Commitments
Policy Title: District
Mission, Vision, Strategic Priorities and Values
Policy Code: A
Lead Department: Superintendent's Office
Print Version: In MS Word | In Adobe PDF
Strategic Goals: In
MS Word | In
Adobe PDF
Translations:
Arabic
| Chinese
| Russian
| Somali
| Vietnamese
The Governing Board recognizes the value of adopting broad statements of purpose, goals and fundamental values. These statements provide guidance to the Board as it develops policies and annual goals and to staff as it conducts the business of the District.
A mission statement is an expression of the organization's reason for being. The vision describes what the future will be when the District achieves its strategic priorities and fulfills its mission. The strategic priorities are long-term goals for the organization and are the foundation on which schools and departments make all decisions. The core values are useful in delineating the culture of the organization and providing the governing board, administrators and staff with standards of organizational behavior.
Mission Statement
The mission of the Tucson Unified School District, in partnership
with parents and the greater community, is to assure each
pre-K through 12th grade student receives an engaging, rigorous
and comprehensive education.
Vision
Tucson Unified School District is a professional learning
community that ensures every student learns, exceeds all expected
performance standards, graduates, and is able to compete and
succeed in a global economy.
TUSD's strategic priorities are to ensure that
- student achievement is our primary focus.
- Professional Learning Communities exist and are supported at all levels.
- results are available, analyzed and used in all decision-making.
- collaboration, courtesy and cooperation are expected from everyone.
- sound strategic and financial planning are practiced.
Definitions:
Collective Inquiry -- a process in which
a team of individuals is relentless in questioning the status
quo, seeking new methods, testing and reflecting on results.
Culture -- the totality of ideas, beliefs, values, knowledge, language, and way of life of a group of people who share a certain historical background. Manifestations of culture include art, laws, institutions, and customs.
Diversity -- the unique characteristics that all persons possess that distinguish them as individuals and that identify them as belonging to a group or groups.
Effective -- is causing a desired or intended result.
Efficient -- is able to produce a result without waste or a minimum of resources.
Global -- refers to the interconnectiveness of societies that are establishing progressively closer contact through marketplace, economies, laws, social movements, ideas and cultures unhampered by time zones or national boundaries.
High Expectations -- is a standard of conduct or performance for individuals, teams, school, department and District well above the norm or average.
Intercultural Proficiency -- is the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, reasoning, emotions, values, and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of each individual and community in a diverse world.
Interventions -- actions taken to change what is happening or might happen with a student or situation to produce a desirable result.
Professional Learning Community -- is a collaborative team working interdependently to analyze and improve professional practice, individual and collective results.
Results -- a performance measure that determines the impact or benefit achieved.
Organizational Values
As Tucson Unified School District strives for excellence in
planning, delivering educational programs and decision-making,
processes and behaviors will be guided by the following organizational
values.
| What Our Values Are | How We Demonstrate Our Values |
| We value classrooms as the core of successful education. | We make decisions that are always driven by the focus on improving student achievement. We focus our work around what benefits students so they can function productively in a diverse and technological world. We competently demonstrate the use and teach others the skills needed to be productive in a technological world.We ensure all school time is used for learning. |
| We value diversity through intercultural proficiency. | We foster understanding and acceptance of cultural differences. We will habitually use all our skills to benefit each individual in our diverse world. We provide students with equal access to quality educational programs and learning experiences. We always use inclusive language and successfully work with people from all backgrounds. We design and implement appropriate school-based experiences to combat racism and prejudice. |
| We value each student as an individual who will learn. | We have high expectations for student achievement and accept responsibility for helping students meet those standards. We identify what students will learn, we define how we know when the student has acquired the intended knowledge and skills, and we respond to early warning signs from students when they experience difficulty so we can make the necessary interventions to improve upon current levels of learning/achievement. We provide a safe and orderly learning environment. |
| We value teamwork among students, parents, colleagues, and the community to achieve common goals. | We collaborate regularly with one another on job effectiveness and efficiency, curriculum and instruction, interventions, individual students and school/department improvement. |
| We value collective inquiry to find new methodologies for success. | We continually strive to improve instructional effectiveness. We continually ask questions, respectfully challenge the status quo, seek new methods, test and evaluate those methods to make significant changes to our work and culture. We are life-long learners, mastering new skills to contribute to school and District improvement efforts. |
| We value and celebrate positive results, taking pride in our efforts that produced them. | We take responsibility for our own work, the work of our team and our school/department to accomplish the goals and results of the District. We know, understand and achieve the results required of our position, team, school, department and District. We use a systematic process to identify criteria and assess results. |
| We value exceptional service to students, parents/ guardians, colleagues and community. |
We listen and observe in order to understand the needs of students, parents/guardians, colleagues and the community. We provide a warm, inviting climate that enables students, parents/guardians, colleagues and the community to share a sense of pride in the school and District. We respond in a friendly, fair, and prompt manner with appropriate information and/or action. We provide opportunities for student, parent/guardians and colleagues to participate in community service. |
Adopted: August 9, 2005
Revision: September 20, 2005
LEGAL REF.: Arizona State Constitution, Article XI, Section
1
Replaces TUSD Policy # None