Schooling by Design Chapter 9: What Are the Desired Results of School Reform?

The Cheongna Dalton School Leadership team has committed to reading Schooling by Design and we are currently reading Chapter 9. This chapter, in particular, has got me thinking about our upcoming WASC accreditation visit in the spring of 2021. Next year I will take on the role of Director of Professional Learning at CDS and one part of my job will be to facilitate the re-accreditation process. Reading this chapter really made me aware that we have not really included the faculty in learning about our mission statement and making it something visible in our school's curriculum. One conversation we need to start having with teachers is how they are putting the mission into action in their teaching.


Our school's mission statement:

Cheongna Dalton School pioneers to develop global citizens who will engage in a diverse and changing world with creativity and compassion. Building on the foundation of the Dalton Plan, our mission is to empower students with the habits of mind necessary to lead fulfilling and ethically responsible lives.


Have we been helping our teachers think through the implications the mission has on their classroom instruction and planning? We will need to begin that dialogue so that we will all have a shared understanding of what the mission means in action and in terms of what assessments are going to provide evidence of the learning in the mission. I have an idea for where to start.


We will need to have a discussion framed around departments answering the following questions with evidence.

Please provide specific examples to answer each question.

To what extent does your department help develop global citizens who engage in a diverse and changing world?

To what extent does your department department help develop creativity and compassion?

To what extent does your department help develop students with habits of mind to empower fulling and ethically responsible lives?


I believe this is the launching pad to supporting teachers in understanding what types of assessment changes need to be made to put our mission statement into action.