Overview:
Narrative Description of the Process of Defining the School’s Beliefs
and
A review of research was
completed by the chair of the SIP and an Executive Summary of research was
given to the group on January 25, 2005.
This research covered four areas and implications for PCA of those four
areas. This included Future Trends in
education, society, technology, economic trends, and social trends. The summary also included effective schools
research, effective instructional strategies, and research concerning changing
expectations in the workplace. The group
evaluated the profile to see if there was any significant information that
would help guide this process or help to know what beliefs to include in the
statements.
The chairperson and
co-chairperson met to reword the NSSE beliefs survey to better reflect a
Christian school’s perspective. This
revised survey of beliefs was disseminated to faculty, staff, and
administration after the committee for part two took the survey themselves.
A faculty meeting occurred on
February 2, 2005. In this meeting the
faculty, staff and administration broke into small groups to discuss the survey
and the results each one had. The small
groups also discussed how some statements could be combined, deleted, and/or
reworded. The groups chose the top five statements for their group based upon
an average score. In the same faculty
meeting the small groups convened as a large group to share the results of
their discussions including the top five items in each group to help see what
consensus existed. The group discussed
combining, rewording, and defining some items in the statements.
After the faculty meeting an
initial draft of the beliefs statements was developed, as well as the mission
statement being printed out for possible revision. This initial draft was developed from a
discussion by the committee for part two on February 15, 2005, to determine the
top ten beliefs based on the survey averages.
The beliefs and mission statements were sent to faculty, staff, parents,
and community members through email and letters. Input was requested as to any gaps between
current practices and ideal beliefs.
Input was also given for further rewording, and combining statements
that were closely associated, etc. This was discussed further at the faculty
meeting on March 2, 2005.
The committee then met on
March 17, 2005 to discuss input from stakeholders and made changes
accordingly. The handbook was evaluated
to ensure the alignment of the handbook with the beliefs and mission
statements. This led to the addition of
an eleventh belief statement. A final
draft was disseminated to stakeholders via email and letter, and is available
on the website with the narrative. At
the April 6 faculty meeting the steps of this process were reviewed with the
faculty along with a review of this part’s purpose and importance. The committee chair and co-chair met on April
7, 2005 to word the narrative. On the
following pages we have included our beliefs and mission statements.