Two components of MNPS' Instructional Framework are positive culture and distributed leadership.  Danette Warren, Whites Creek High School Freshman Academy Principal, began addressing these two areas by having her team included in the development of vision and mission statements for their academy. 

Using the collaborative inquiry process, Dr. Margie Johnson facilitated the one hour meeting during their academy planning time.  Below are their current vision and mission statements and if you would like to read more about the process, go to http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/whites-creek-high-freshman-academy-vision-and-mission.html

Vision
WCHS Freshman Academy will be a bridge to success for students on their journey through high school and beyond.

Mission
Our mission is to promote a welcoming, safe, caring and supportive environment to prepare our scholars to become successful and productive citizens by providing them with educational opportunities and experiences on their journey through high school.
(While we did not get to draft the mission statement during the planning meeting, team members submitted drafts and a consensus was reached via online voting.  This statement is the current draft.  They do plan to revise it in the next meeting.)

If you have a story about collaborative inquiry to share and/or would like support with the collaborative inquiry process, please contact Dr. Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

According to John Hattie (2015), “the largest barrier to student learning is within-school variability” (p. 1).  He recommends that what works best in education is empowering schools to leverage the collaborative expertise of the educators within a building.  If often tell teams that I work with that if we had the answer, then we would have implemented it already.  However, education faces complex issues today.
 
Therefore, MNPS’ Collaborative Inquiry process, developed by the MNPS Community of Practice (Haynes Middle, Margaret Allen Middle, Two Rivers Middle, West End Middle, and Wright Middle), is about empowering MNPS educators to use data and educator expertise for addressing a variety of complex issues in order to ensure all MNPS students are successful. 
 
I am excited to share that three schools started the 2017-2018 school year off by engaging in collaborative inquiry to have deep conversations about a variety of topics. 

• In JE Moss Elementary’s session, they reviewed last year’s vision and mission statements.  Then, they reviewed multiple sources of data to establish SMART goals for literacy and numeracy for 2017-2018.  To read about their collaborative inquiry meeting, click http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/je-moss-elementary-leadership-team-meeting--2017.html
• Ms. Beatriz Salgado is new to Goodlettsville Middle, so she wanted to leverage educator expertise in developing new vision and mission statements for the 2017-2018 school year.  The leadership team convened on Monday, July 24th.  To read about their use of the collaborative inquiry process, click http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/goodlettsville-middle-vision-and-mission.html
• A cohort of CTE teachers learned how the MNPS Data Warehouse can help them support student success.   The collaborative inquiry process was modeled while teaching them about the most common data warehouse reports.  To see their work, click http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/cte-cohort--july-26-2017.html
• Mr. Todd Irving, also being new to Joelton Middle, wanted to leverage educator expertise to develop new vision and mission statements for the 2017-2018 school year.  On Friday, July 28th, Joelton Middle’s leadership team convened and used the collaborative inquiry process to develop vision and mission statements.  To read about their collaborative inquiry journey, click http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/joelton-middle-vision-and-mission.html

 
If you have a collaborative inquiry story to share and/or need support with the collaborative inquiry process, please feel free to contact…
 
References:
Hattie, J. (2015).  What works best in education: The politics of collaborative expertise.  London, UK: Pearson.

In June 2017, Mariana Merritt, MNPS Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement, Pre-K, attended the Leading Collaborative Inquiry Teams workshop.  A challenge at the end of the workshop was to use some of the structures, strategies, and principles at your next meeting.  Mrs. Merritt was up to the challenge and is willing to share with us strategies she used and how it affected her meeting.
 
On July 15, 2017, Mariana Merritt facilitated the Parent Ambassador Annual Meeting.  Since this group just formed, their first task was to develop a vision and mission statement to guide their work for the 2017-2018 school year.  During her reflection, she shared three strategies that helped her effectively lead this collaborative team.

Thanks to Mariana Merritt for allowing us to learn with her.

If you have a collaborative inquiry story and/or need support with collaborative inquiry, please email Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

References:
Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2015).  Leading groups: Effective strategies for building professional community.  Charlotte, VT: MiraVia, LLC.
MNPS Community of Practice. (2017).  MNPS collaborative inquiry toolkit website.  Retrieved from http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/
Wellman, B. & Lipton, L. (2017).  Data-driven dialogue: A facilitator’s guide to collaborative inquiry.  Charlotte, VT: MiraVia, LLC.

Drs. Erin Anderson and Craig Hammond have been part of the collaborative inquiry journey since 2014.  They were part of the initial workshops with Dr. Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman, helped inform the IC Map, and participated in the Spring 2016 and 2016-2017 Collaborative Inquiry Community of Practice.  It has been an honor having them part of our collaborative inquiry learning experience. 

Wishing you all the best in your new leadership positions.  I look forward to see how collaborative inquiry is used to inform your work.

The wordle represents the words used during the day to describe the staff's vision for John Early.

To access the vision and mission statement drafts, use this LINK.