mission statement for inclusive education

Caltech's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

A Statement of Mission-Based Values

Caltech's mission.

Caltech's intertwined research and education mission is grounded in a belief in the profound importance of diversity , equity, and inclusion in realizing our goal of " expand[ing] human knowledge and benefit[ing] society through research integrated with education. "

At Caltech, we value each other's different experiences and perspectives, and we strive to cultivate an environment of learning, discovery, and innovation where " our preconceptions are challenged, our research is broadened, and our ideas are refined through the expansive exchange of ideas. " This environment is essential if Caltech is to remain a destination of choice for the most outstanding scholars. While talent is distributed broadly, opportunity is not. This reality requires us to emphasize the linkage between our position as a leader in scientific and technological innovation and the importance of cultivating a diverse and inclusive institutional community. " [O]nly when individuals from all backgrounds share equitably in the privileges of the academy " will we " realize fully the potential of science and engineering to create knowledge for the ages and improve people's lives today. "

Our commitment to cultivate an environment in which all of our members can " thrive and realize their full potential, irrespective of individual backgrounds and circumstances " is unwavering. And, as reflected in decades of scholarly research, as well as our own institutional experience , our commitment is tied expressly to our belief in the compelling power of all forms of diversity to enhance and expand educational experiences and scientific insights that benefit all of our community members. Such diversity encourages individuals to question their own assumptions and appreciate the complex and increasingly diverse and modern world. It promotes dialogue and the " robust exchange of ideas ," which in turn advances discovery, innovation, and advancement of knowledge and accomplishment—including with a more engaged and informed citizenry. Tapping into the power of diversity requires us to be intentional in our efforts to foster inclusive academic, research, and work environments for all members of our community.

In short, our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is but one manifestation of our commitment to institutional excellence. Diversity is essential to achieving and maintaining scientific excellence.

How Caltech's Mission is Realized

Caltech's success depends on pursuit of our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in all aspects of institutional life. We pursue the " most challenging, fundamental problems in science and technology " in a " collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere " of innovation, creativity, and collaboration. And we are committed to pedagogical, instructional, and research practices that engage, motivate, and support students from all backgrounds and reflect the full range of methods and materials in our fields of study . For example, in the Inclusive Caltech Core project , the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO) and faculty who teach in the Core curriculum formed a community of practice to explore whether and how approaches to teaching and assessment have differential impacts on first-year students' learning and academic self-concept. Student-Faculty Programs (SFP) and the Caltech Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CCID) provide training to Caltech faculty, postdocs, and graduate students to promote the use of effective, inclusive approaches to mentor and advise. Within the academic divisions, faculty, teaching staff and postdoctoral instructors provide opportunities for students to explore the ways in which science, technology, and the pursuit of knowledge can contribute to and better society.

More broadly, we support numerous campus-based initiatives designed to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within our community. Our efforts include: increasing representation of students, postdocs, faculty, and staff from a range of diverse backgrounds; fostering an inclusive culture and campus climate; and creating more equitable experiences and outcomes for members of our institutional community. Campus-wide activities and initiatives include:

• Building community and strengthening connections through programs across the Institute and within the Divisions (e.g., First-Year Success Research Institute , Graduate Summer Research Institute , affinity organizations , and employee resource groups );
• Supporting outreach activities that engage diverse communities in STEM-focused educational experiences and events;
• Providing education and training to students, faculty, postdocs, and staff on how to incorporate inclusive approaches to their work;
• Providing incoming low-income undergraduate and graduate students with start-up funding to mitigate financial barriers associated with the transition to Caltech.

Caltech's Organizational Structures to Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work

Across the Institute there is broad engagement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work. A variety of committees, offices, and governance structures are charged to advance and support Caltech's DEI priorities. These include the:

President's Diversity Council , where Caltech faculty work to support, advise, and provide recommendations to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion across the Institute in the service of academic excellence.

Caltech Center for Inclusion and Diversity , where we provide education, advocacy, and allyship to create a community of equity and inclusive excellence.

Divisional DEI Committees , where each academic division promotes and supports diversity, equity, and inclusion within their specific options and academic disciplines to further their intellectual mission.

Office of Strategic Communications , which enhances the visibility of the rich diversity within our institutional community by capturing the stories of and providing a platform for individuals to share their contributions to science and engineering in addition to their backgrounds and experiences.

There are also a significant number of scientific organizations and clubs that support the academic, personal, and career development of students, postdocs, staff, and faculty from numerous, including historically-excluded, backgrounds and amplify the voices, actions, and successes of a diverse range of Caltech scholars, students, and staff.

Each of the above organizational structures work to further our DEI-related priorities in an effective and coordinated manner. At Caltech, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion is a shared responsibility pursued collaboratively to fulfill our commitment to these values and to the research and educational mission of the Institute. Doing so is imperative to strengthening our institution and contributing to the public good.

Diversity at Caltech refers to a sufficiently robust representation of people along many dimensions of identity, background, and lived experience within the institutional community as a mechanism to enhance learning and research, and to sustain institutional excellence.

Inclusion refers to how individuals experience the institution; how they are valued, supported, and welcomed. We seek to transform organizational culture and structures so that all community members, and importantly including those from historically excluded and historically underrepresented groups, feel a sense of belonging within the Caltech community.

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Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Mission Statement and Plan of Action

Scholarship, research, practice and teaching.

• Establish an annual Dean’s Lecture focused on health equity
• Add a new course on racism and health
• Work with the YSPH Office of Academic Affairs to develop a plan to evaluate course syllabi for bias and inclusive teaching practices
• Work with the YSPH Education Committee to develop and add questions related to DEIB classroom environment and inclusive teaching practices on the semester-end course evaluation form

Diversity of the Yale Community

• Support the recruitment and retention of outstanding students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds
• Increase outreach to minority-serving institutions to further diversify the student applicant pool
• Increase the number of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Diversity Supplements awarded to faculty with an eligible grant
• Enhance staff search and hiring process to achieve greater diversity

Equitable Process, Procedure, and Responses

• Support informal resolutions, including use of restorative justice principles and practices, for student complaints of discrimination and harassment
• Assess the portraits, photographs, and other images and artifacts in all the common spaces at YSPH to ensure a welcoming environment that reflects the diversity and inclusivity of the school

Professional and Personal Development of Inclusive Practice

• Create a DEIB training plan for all students, faculty, and staff
• Arrange for faculty training on inclusive teaching practices

Acknowledgment, Recognition, and Respect

• Participate in initiatives to hire local New Haven residents, particularly from diverse backgrounds, as summer interns and staff members
• Partner with 1stGenYale alumni association and Yale Office of Career Strategy to provide undergraduates on financial aid with summer research internships with YSPH faculty

Communication, Transparency and Accountability

• Work with the YSPH Office of Faculty and Staff Affairs to add DEIB-related questions to faculty and staff year-end reports/performance reviews
• Conduct climate/culture studies of faculty and students

Accomplishments

• Appointed inaugural Associate Dean for DEI

• Implemented changes to the faculty search process

• Completed staff climate/culture survey

• Created Student Diversity Ambassador positions

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TIES Inclusive Education Roadmap

Step 1b: review your organizational mission and vision.

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An organization's vision is what it wants its students to attain. It is the organization's "North Star" for its students and families that is meant to guide all of its work. The mission is what the organization is committed to doing to achieve that vision for each student.

In inclusive education systems, the vision and mission capture the direction and commitment for ALL students. This includes all students with disabilities, inclusive of students with significant cognitive disabilities. When leaders at all levels of the system begin to prioritize building an inclusive system of education, revisiting and unpacking the organization's mission and vision should ground the work. Having a clear and consistently communicated vision is critical for successful change . This commitment becomes directional guidance when a shared vision drives an organization.

Estimated Time Commitment

Reflecting on the organization’s vision and mission does not take a lot of time, but is powerful in its message to an EILT. Depending on the size of the group and how the reflection is designed, Step 1C takes between 20-30 minutes. Periodically revisiting the vision and mission to ground the work and capture what the team is striving to create can take as little as 5-10 minutes in a meeting.

Using the Vision and Mission in Building an Inclusive Education System

Early in the EILT's formation, an agenda item should include reading the organization's vision and mission. A discussion should follow the reading of the mission and vision. Possible reflective discussion questions include:

• Is the intent of our vision and mission to include each and every student, including students with significant cognitive disabilities? What does this look like in practice?
• Does our commitment to building an inclusive education system align with the organization's vision and mission? How?
• Do you see a linkage between our vision and mission and our strategic and/or continuous improvement plan? Do you see this for each and every student in our day-to-day work?

Periodically during the year, revisit the organization's vision and mission as part of the EILT's meeting agenda. This helps prevent losing focus on what the team is striving to achieve. Also, the team can use this as a barometer of its work by asking if implementing the action plan is meaningfully moving the organization closer or farther away from achieving its vision for all students . Based on the discussion, they can decide to proceed with their plan or make adjustments to achieve the desired goals.

The organization's vision and mission statements are written to be universal and apply to all students. In practice, some groups of students, including students with significant cognitive disabilities, may not benefit from the commitment. When discussing the vision and mission statements, you might hear, "Well, we didn't mean those students" or "We did not consider those students." When this type of response is heard, discussing the discrepancy between the organization's commitment and the "othering" of students can be enlightening. It is an opportunity to walk through the open door to share the research, law, and data related to inclusive education systems and the T-I-E-S outcomes that a system needs to address for all students.

If your district or school does not have a vision and mission or has one that could be strengthened, engaging leadership in the need to revise them would strengthen the commitment to system-wide change for inclusive education. Developing vision and mission statements often are part of more extensive strategic planning efforts. If your organization is moving in this direction, ensuring a clear and explicit focus on inclusivity for all students from the beginning will increase alignment across the system. This means that the system commits to the success of each and every student, including those in traditionally marginalized populations. Develop a process where diverse voices have input. Since vision and mission are based on an organization's values, consider using the TIES Core Values to ground the discussions.

Real-World Example

At an early planning meeting about inclusive education for students with disabilities, district leaders and the Equitable Inclusive Leadership Team (EILT) focused on the district’s vision and mission statements. They read their vision and mission statements aloud. Next, they reflected on three questions:

• Did the district’s vision and mission include students with disabilities?
• Did the district’s vision and mission include students with significant cognitive disabilities?
• Did the district “walk its talk” in its vision and mission statements when looking at the practices for all students?

The team agreed that the district’s vision and mission were inspirational and aspirational for all students. Students with significant cognitive disabilities were not explicitly considered when they discussed implementing the district’s priorities aligned with the vision and mission. They are committed to ensuring that cross-department priorities be inclusive of students with disabilities, including those with significant cognitive disabilities.

What's Next?

• Complete Step 1B in the IER Inclusive Education Action Plan by filling in the key points from the EILT's discussion.
• Having begun building a solid groundwork related the why of inclusive systems and reflected on the organization's vision and mission, move to Step 1C where the team will review the organization's Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) data.

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Mission & Vision

The KU Department of Special Education’s commitment to effective teaching, excellent field supervision and support for novice special educators, innovation, and leadership makes KU a great place to begin or further a special education career.

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Mission Statement

The faculty integrates research with practice, serves as social advocates, and advances education, social policies, public service, community building, and research to enhance the quality of life of persons with (dis)abilities and their families. We recognize the evolving nature of our field with its roots in medicalized notions of (dis)ability that have historically ignored a range of social constructions of ability and diversity. We acknowledge the ways in which disability has served as a proxy for other kinds of diversity and how other forms of diversity have been used as a code to mean (dis)ability. We trouble these notions because we are a faculty actively engaged in a range of epistemological, theoretical, policy, and empirical scholarship. This reflexivity about the field and our collective identity, as well as scholarship deeply grounded in practice, provides international leadership in pursuit of equity in educational and social outcomes that enhance the quality of life of persons with (dis)abilities and their families.

Further, we commit to excellence in research, teaching, and service built on a foundation of mutual trust, active engagement in the pursuit of equity and social justice, and respect for ALL people. Faculty and staff invest their talents, creativity, scholarship, and energy to prepare civic professionals who pursue these ends in support of persons with (dis)abilities and their families in the following ways:

• Value persons with (dis)abilities and their families
• Respect diverse views, contributions and achievements
• Promote education as a fundamental human endeavor and social right
• Participate in emancipatory policies, practices, and research
• Influence professional and civic communities
• Enhance quality of life
• Engage educational, social, political, and institutional interests
• Employ cutting edge technologies and methods in the pursuit of meaningful solutions
• Contribute to relevant knowledge bases through integrating research and practice
• Collaborate on micro, meso, and macro levels to address complex challenges

Preparing Educators as Leaders

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How a DEI Rebrand Is Playing Out in K-12 Schools

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Should school district mission statements explicitly mention diversity, equity, and inclusion? If a district ensures that all students feel a sense of inclusion and belonging, does it matter how it brands that work? Do all districts need to examine how inequities play out within and outside of school buildings?

These are some of the questions district and state leaders and researchers are grappling with as national debates on the role of DEI initiatives in public education continue, and as DEI more generally sustains a barrage of political attacks that have led some universities to cut DEI jobs and corporations to downplay their embrace of DEI principles .

In public schools, at least 18 states have imposed bans or restrictions on instruction about race, gender, and other related topics. These efforts stem from a September 2020 executive order signed by then-President Donald Trump, which banned certain types of diversity training in federal agencies. President Joe Biden revoked the order, yet momentum for such prohibitions has continued in Republican-led states.

In a 2023 analysis of more than 1,300 mission statements from districts nationwide, the Pew Research Center found that only 34 percent of these documents directly referenced DEI.

Of all the topics in these statements, DEI proved to be the most politically divided. Fifty-six percent of districts in Democratic-voting areas mentioned DEI efforts in their mission statements, compared with only 26 percent in Republican-voting areas.

This complicated political landscape has led some district and state leaders to focus less on explicit references to DEI and more on promoting and supporting work focusing on inclusion and belonging for all students.

Yet even under a rebrand, education leaders need to think carefully about the work involved in making sure their schools actually fulfill the ideals of inclusion and belonging, said Decoteau Irby, an associate professor of educational policy studies and qualitative researcher at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

“In the perfect world, inclusion would be really changing the conditions of the school, a learning environment, such that students know when they walk into a building that they belong there … not only them individually as a person, but that belonging becomes exemplified through the kinds of educational resources and opportunities that are there,” Irby said.

Education leaders in Illinois and Kentucky offer some insights into how they can engage in such holistic efforts while keeping them as broadly politically palatable as possible.

How a mission statement’s terminology matters

Matthew Montgomery, superintendent of the Lake Forest district in Illinois, and a group of fellow district leaders and community members spent weeks poring over the draft language of the district’s updated mission statement earlier this year.

They examined “every single word,” Montgomery said.

There were more than a dozen iterations, trying different words and phrases to get the district’s statement just right, and avoiding any potential political trigger words that could have “distracted from the intent and mission” of the exercise.

Ultimately, what the group landed on—and what the school board in the district located north of Chicago approved—was a statement that incorporates what can be political buzzwords, like “diversity,” “inequities,” and “inclusion,” but in a way that its members felt would appeal to everyone, regardless of political persuasion.

The statement— eight sentences in total —says the district “espouses the importance of fostering an inclusive environment for all students and staff” and that an inclusive environment “encourages the affirmation, appreciation, and exploration of multiple identities and multiple perspectives.”

“We understand that excellent and exemplary school districts foster a culture of inclusion where the lives and needs of all students are validated, recognized, and appreciated, and are centered in the educational experience provided,” the statement said. “[The district] knows that ‘every student has an incredible capacity to learn. Our responsibility is to create an environment that maximizes the possibility for each student’s growth.’”

The focus is not on explicitly referencing specific groups of historically marginalized students. Rather, it aims to encompass the views and experiences of all students, Montgomery said.

“There’s nothing here that anyone can argue is the wrong thing to do for every single student,” said Erin Lenart, the principal of the district’s high school, who helped lead the work on crafting the statement. “What we’re saying is ultimately that we are inclusive of your ideas and views until it becomes exclusive of someone else. If you say that to anyone, they can’t really argue with it.”

Focusing too heavily on making sure one group of students is included can inadvertently make other groups feel singled out or excluded, Lenart said.

“Any time you enter the world of making groups of people feel excluded, then you’re kind of defeating the purpose of some of what you’re trying to accomplish,” Lenart said.

The work to develop the districts’ vision statement is just one piece of a larger mission to fully incorporate every voice, perspective, and lived experience into guiding the schools’ work. But it is emblematic of what district leaders hope to achieve: A district whose work is reflective of every student and community member, without excluding anyone, even if they disagree with one another.

“It’s a fine line to navigate—not necessarily to get a statement approved, that’s not what it’s about—but to make sure that we really are meeting the words of seeing and hearing and valuing every single student in this building,” Lenart said.

Now that the statement is developed and approved, the real work of putting it into action begins, Montgomery said.

Any time you enter the world of making groups of people feel excluded, then you’re kind of defeating the purpose of some of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Montgomery said that will include frequently, consistently, and respectfully communicating with the community; staying focused on the shared vision for students’ success; and getting comfortable with tension, knowing it won’t always be easy work.

“If we say these are our values, that you’re going to be seen and heard and valued, how are we making sure we’re finding a way for every student to feel that as a reality?” he said.

State leadership can set an example for districts

When Thomas S. Tucker was hired as the Kentucky department of education’s deputy commissioner and chief equity officer in 2020, he was tasked with developing an office that would advance the goals set out in the state board of education’s 2019 anti-racism and equity resolution.

His first order of business was to challenge himself and others to think about the purpose of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

He and his team came to define that as: “Regardless of our political beliefs, regardless of what political aisles we represent, we want our kids to have a sense of belonging.”

“We did not make this about ethnicity alone. We didn’t make it about the nebulous term ‘race.’ It covers every aspect of what it is to be American—to respect one’s religion, ideas, and practices; to respect one’s sexual orientation; to respect one’s military or veteran status; to respect one’s socioeconomic status,” Tucker said.

Similar to the Lake Forest district, this broader conceptualization of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, or DEIB, allowed the Kentucky state division to withstand political wars in a politically conservative state, Tucker said. The state is now among the 18 with a law restricting how teachers can teach about race, after the Republican-dominated legislature in 2022 overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto to pass it.

About 17 school districts in the state have hired DEIB officers over the last several years, with some doing so prior to Tucker’s start in 2020. His team now brings these officers together to share ideas on developing and fostering DEIB initiatives across the state.

That work includes: establishing an equity dashboard that allows schools and district leaders to look at aggregated achievement data by student population to discover inequities; challenging educators to use a problem solving analysis tool to address those inequities; offering a Kentucky academy for equity in teaching where school and district staff can use online modules to learn more about self-awareness and others’ awareness of how education systems function to find solutions to inequities; and distributing grants to help schools build out infrastructure for social-emotional learning.

Tucker’s team also reviews graduation requirements that allow students to personalize their coursework in later high school years. Such a structure makes it easier for students to take courses like Advanced Placement African American Studies for graduation credit.

Regardless of our political beliefs, regardless of what political aisles we represent, we want our kids to have a sense of belonging.

One challenge Tucker has faced is helping districts whose students are predominantly from one racial or ethnic group to realize that they too need to engage in work that helps all students belong.

“Many times, folks think that if you do this work, you’re only dealing in the area of race and racism, that this is affirmative action work,” Tucker said.

But a predominantly white school can still face a situation in which schools are disproportionately suspending students with disabilities, or students from low-income households can’t access the same educational opportunities as their higher-income peers, he added.

“If you bring more people to the table, more people see that this is not just a benefit for people of color,” Tucker said. “This is about improving and saving the lives of all young people.”

True inclusion and belonging requires hard work

Irby, the University of Illinois, Chicago, researcher, understands why district and state leaders are moving toward a more generalized branding of DEI work by focusing on inclusion and belonging.

Part of the reason discussions around DEI have tended to focus on race- and ethnicity-based inequities is because “the primary goal of educational institutions specifically is to increase the learning opportunities for students who have historically not received the quality of education, the access, and opportunity that we know from the research provides them with high educational outcomes,” Irby said.

Historically, students of color have been among those underserved students.

Yet DEI work goes beyond race and ethnicity, Irby said. What ultimately matters is how willing school systems are to put in the hard work needed to enact change.

Schools can modify policies to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students taking AP courses, for example. But if the only AP history courses offered focus on European and Western history, that doesn’t necessarily foster an authentic sense of belonging and inclusion for these students, Irby said.

Schools can recognize the importance of making students with disabilities feel included, in part by ensuring students with wheelchairs can physically access school buildings as easily as their peers.

And for LGBTQ+ students, allowing students to use the restroom where they feel most comfortable is a more concrete way of fostering a sense of belonging, Irby added. Of course, this is complicated in the 11 states that have passed laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity in K-12 schools.

While districts may face political backlash for measures aimed at fostering belonging, a silver lining Irby has found through his research is that many districts across the country, including predominantly white districts, are willing to bring about systemic changes that benefit all students.

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School of Education

School of school of education five-year equity-in-action plan introduction, message from dean, school of education.

In the School of Education, we believe that there is no stronger force for inspiration, innovation, leadership and opportunity than education provided by reflective professionals. In support of the University of Mississippi’s vision, the School of Education seeks to be a leader in the development of equity-minded educators, counselors, leaders and higher education professionals dedicated to the “transformation of individuals and communities to advance educational equity and excellence” as advocates for all learners in Mississippi and beyond.

During the next five years, the School of Education will strengthen accountability for diversity, equity and inclusion through five strategic activities that reach across our three academic departments. These tactical activities with related tasks will focus on further developing and enhancing: 1) the structure and organization of the school’s Diversity Office; 2) the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority faculty, staff and students; 3) initiatives to expand opportunities for inclusion of underserved populations within the school and field of education; 4) training and professional development for students, faculty and staff; and 5) resources and external funding for critical scholarships and academic programs.

In alignment with an overriding commitment to continuous improvement and diversity standards advanced by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and three specialized accreditors, these five strategic commitments will better foster excellence in learning through a shared commitment to a vibrant, more equitable School of Education community.

MESSAGE FROM DIRECTOR OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION; DIVERSITY LIAISON TO THE DIVISION OF DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The University of Mississippi School of Education will promote and celebrate diversity, and we commit ourselves for the long term. In doing so, we recognize that we must constantly change as we prepare students for the future. We also recognize that progress is sometimes made in a day but often requires months and years. The School of Education embraces within its campus culture those values and experiences that enrich human understanding. We choose to be a school where civil discourse triumphs over ignorance. We choose to be a school that prepares our students for participation in a world that may transcend geographic borders but embraces the unique identity of each individual. We believe that creating and sustaining a diverse university community serves our educational mission, our values and our purpose. We will begin our plan by documenting our thoughtful consideration of the ways in which we can promote diversity in the School of Education. This document is our starting place, our plan. This plan takes life through our actions and through an equally thoughtful implementation strategy. We look toward the future with optimism and with a sense of commitment to the success of our graduates through the learning environment we build with them.  

GUIDING STATEMENTS FROM ASSOCIATE DEAN, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

As a foundational conception, the School of Education seeks to produce educators who use reflective thinking to acquire knowledge, refine skills and cultivate dispositions for lifelong learning in an ever-changing and increasingly diverse society. Among the five outcomes identified for the unit, producing educators who are “advocates for diverse learners” gives purpose to what we do, both philosophically and practically. In many ways, we know that education environments are enriched when diverse individuals come together in a spirit of open discovery and learning. Yet many forces – historic, socioeconomic and cultural, to name a few – work against diversity in the educator workforce and equitable educational opportunity for all.

In a multiphased, community-driven process, faculty and staff revised the unit’s vision statement to include the word “equity” in 2014. When we affirmed this objective commitment and “imagined” how innovative professional educators could spark transformation for individuals and whole communities when dedicated to equity  and  excellence, we lacked recognition of the institutional changes we would need to make to enliven our espoused commitment. As we approach the strategic actions and tasks identified in this plan, we will build upon the unit’s conceptual framework as well as the priorities articulated in the university’s vision, mission and core values. As we do this important work, we will be reflective professionals in action, cognizant that we cannot transform others without self-transformation.

PATHWAYS TO EQUITY: University of Mississippi Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan

The University of Mississippi continues its commitment to excellence and making a positive difference in society through higher education. Pathways to Equity stands as our institutional guidepost for addressing and advancing our institutional mission through centering on diversity, equity and inclusion. Our complex institutional history coupled with our rich culture of students, faculty and staff striving for inclusive change has led us to the solidification of this institutional plan. Pathways to Equity  works in concert with the university’s strategic plan to leverage university-wide, college/school-level and departmental transformative initiatives that cultivate a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus.

With Pathways to Equity, the University of Mississippi aspires to achieve the following statements by the conclusion of this plan.

• The University of Mississippi consistently and comprehensively articulates diversity, equity and inclusion as essential in fulfilling the mission, vision and values of the institution.
• The University of Mississippi is organizationally and culturally equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to continue advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
• A campus climate is fostered that ensures all individuals are valued, supported and feel a sense of belonging at the University of Mississippi.
• The University of Mississippi has decreases in disparities across underrepresented groups in the enrollment, retention and graduation rate at undergraduate and graduate levels.
• The number of underrepresented groups employed at the University of Mississippi is increased to reflect a talented and diverse workforce at all organizational levels, especially tenure-track faculty, managerial positions and executive leadership positions.

Guiding Principles

The development of this plan requires us to address individual, social, organizational and systemic factors that create and sustain inequities that prevent all members of our community from fully participating and thriving. We view this as central to the mission of the University of Mississippi. As we embark on this journey together, we must commit to the following shared principles:

• Equity-mindedness [1] – We embrace the institutional responsibility and agency to actively address the challenges and disparate outcomes at all levels of our community. This requires us to be data informed and connect best and promising practices to generate high-impact change for underserved groups in our community.
• Institutional Accountability – We must ensure efforts outlined throughout Pathways to Equity are acknowledged in the established systems of recognition, performance and accountability. It is vital that we work to account for the advancement of these goals in our ideas of success, merit and reward. Further, we must account for, honor and recognize faculty, staff, administrators and students in their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Transparency – In our execution of Pathways to Equity, our success is predicated on a highly accessible and collaborative process that actively involves university stakeholders to work as virtuous partners. To that end, we will consistently, publicly and broadly share our intended actions, goals and measurable impacts of this plan.
• Innovation – Actualizing diversity, equity and inclusion will require us to deeply examine and rethink our policies, practices and procedures at the University of Mississippi. Each unit and individual across campus is invited to offer new thoughts, ideas and perspectives as we thoughtfully consider ways to make our institution more equitable and inclusive through an intersectional lens. This disposition will create a community of learning, growth and development as we collectively engage in this complex work.
• Alignment of Critical Resources – During this planning process, we have navigated a global health pandemic that has shown the vulnerabilities in our systems that disparately affect underserved and underresourced communities. As we continue to navigate these unprecedented times, we must not falter in our commitment to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. Instead, we must recognize that our commitment to equity is even more important today than ever.

OVERARCHING GOALS

The following goals represent the University of Mississippi’s commitment to the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). These overarching goals represent interconnected priorities that are applicable to UM broadly, from our comprehensive divisions, down to individual teams. We aim to have all units see meaningful alignment of these goals with their work. We will ensure UM embraces the transformative nature of diversity, equity and inclusion across all levels of the institution, addressing challenges to DEI at every corner of our institution by combining contextual understanding with internal and external expertise.

• Advance Institutional Capacity for Equity Infrastructure, Information, Systems, Education and Processes
• Cultivate a Diverse and Equitable Community Recruiting, Retaining, Advancing and Succeeding
• Foster an Inclusive Campus Climate Support, Value and Belonging

OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL OF EDUCATION EQUITY-IN-ACTION PLAN

The University of Mississippi School of Education values and celebrates diversity without regard to national origin, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, disability or intellectual perspective. The education environment is enriched by the diversity of individuals, groups and cultures that come together in a spirit of learning. The School of Education’s vision and plans encompass being committed to leading the school in the continued establishment and maintenance of a campus culture that embraces the diversity of cultural backgrounds, personal characteristics and life situations represented at the University of Mississippi.

DIVERSITY PLANNING COMMITTEE

Karen V. Davidson Smith, director of diversity, equity and inclusion in the School of Education, is the central resource for the facilitation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the School of Education.

She has created the following set of equity working groups for fall/spring 2022 to facilitate ongoing discussion and feedback to guide further development of and implementation strategies for the School of Education’s strategic goals.  The new committee members were established fall 2021.

SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council

• SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee (currently named SOE Inclusion Advisory Committee)

(Current) SOE Inclusion Advisory Committee members include Joel Amidon, Jill Cabrera, George McClellan, Mandy Perryman, Sara Platt, Karen Smith, Hunter Taylor, Amy Williams and Kenya Wolff.

*The purpose of each group is listed below:

The inaugural members will include representation from the undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Education. Undergraduate programs include early childhood education, elementary education, secondary education, special education, and health and physical education. Undergraduate membership will also include representatives from the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program, Teachers of Tomorrow and UM Education Ambassadors. Graduate programs include counselor education, higher education/personnel, secondary education, alternate route, early childhood education, special education, educational leadership and elementary education. Graduate membership will also include representatives from the Mississippi Teacher Corps, Chi Sigma Iota (the international honor society for professional counseling), the UM Student Personnel Association (higher education student group) and the Doctoral Education Network in the SOE.

Members can volunteer and/or be recommended by faculty in each program. Members will regularly meet with the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at least twice a month per semester and as needed to discuss developing and/or unexpected diversity, equity and inclusion matters.

The goals and purpose of the SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council include the following:

• Create a process for SOE students to express diversity-related concerns.
• Publicize university, community and SOE diversity-related events.
• Create diversity-related educational and professional development for SOE students. For example, SOE seniors will attend diversity-related training as part of their required professional development days.
• Advise the SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee on ideas to include in student orientations to support recruitment of students from underrepresented populations.
• Provide peer support for diverse students during unforeseen circumstances and as needed.

SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee

The inaugural members will include representation from each School of Education department, including the Department of Higher Education, Department of Leadership and Counselor Education and Department of Teacher Education. Members will regularly meet with the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at least twice a month per semester and as needed to discuss developing and/or unexpected diversity, equity and inclusion matters. Members will be selected voluntarily and recommended by the department chairs.

Within this committee, we will form subcommittee s based on voluntary selection. Subcommittees will include the categories of student recruitment/retention, faculty recruitment/retention, international faculty and student engagement, community engagement, faculty mentoring and inclusive pedagogy, faculty recognition/awards, and bias reporting processes/search committee bias training, fundraising and grants, and gender/LGBTQ equity.

The goals and purpose of the SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee include the following:

• Tap into leadership and faculty expertise already existing in the school, especially among faculty doing equity work and faculty from underrepresented global majority.
• Support specific equity projects as imagined and designed by the SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council.
• Provide regular advice to the dean and associate dean on critical equity matters.
• Provide and make statements of support for all underrepresented faculty/staff/student groups.
•  Support specific equity projects as imagined and designed by the SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee with the goal of measurable outcomes that work to “move the needle” on equity in line with current strategic goals.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES

Strategic activity no. 1:.

Promote, integrate and take action to create a diverse SOE and university community:  The University of Mississippi School of Education will promote, integrate and take action to create a diverse SOE and university community. To enhance ongoing support and visibility for underrepresented faculty, students and staff, the SOE must consider reorganizing the SOE Office of Diversity. The reorganization will include the following tactics of implementation.

Tactic No. 1:

Develop/revise a mission statement for the SOE Office of Diversity. The general purpose of the SOE Office of Diversity is to foster a climate that promotes and nurtures diversity and equity for all stakeholders in the SOE and university community. While the general responsibilities of this office could include assessing the effectiveness of diversity initiatives across the campus, a more detailed portfolio of responsibilities should be developed in the SOE.

Tactic No. 2:

Revise and update the current webpage for the Office of Diversity with a diversity statement from Karen V. Davidson Smith, current director of diversity, equity and inclusion. Updates will include additional information from the SOE Diversity Office and include website organization and links to the University of Mississippi Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and the University of Mississippi Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement.

Tactic No. 3:

Reporting relationship/credibility. The SOE Office of Diversity will report monthly to the SOE dean and associate dean. Discussions will include updates from the faculty and student diversity committee meetings and activities.

Tactic No. 4:

Accountability. SOE will have open lines of communication from other campus initiatives and any recommendations for improvement reported to Shawnboda Mead, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement, and shared with the university community in the spirit of promoting continuous improvement.

Area(s) Responsible: SOE director of diversity, equity and inclusion; SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee; SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council Committee

Resources Statement: No funding needed

Institutional Capacity

• Mission statement of the SOE Office of Diversity established and approved
• SOE website updated with DEI efforts
• SOE Office of Diversity holds monthly meetings
• SOE Office of Diversity reports recommendations for improvement to leadership.

Diverse and Equitable Community

On the SOE webpage, we will have a section where feedback is welcomed and will be reviewed for potential updates as needed.

Mission statement outlines general responsibilities including assessment of DEI effort efficacy.

Inclusive Campus Climate

Mission statement outlines general responsibilities including monitoring departmental climate for students, faculty and staff.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITY No. 2:

Increase the recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty, staff and students:  The University of Mississippi School of Education will increase the recruitment and retention of minority faculty, staff and students. Our implementation of this strategy includes the following tactics:

Establish relationships with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), partnerships with universities that serve other underrepresented groups and other recruiting mechanisms to create a more diverse pool of candidates.

Establish relationships with various recruiting sources and professional societies targeted at minorities to enrich applicant pools with qualified underrepresented applicants.

Streamline what is needed to receive SOE faculty tenure and promotion to clarify expectations, processes and resources. For example, organize workshops to assist ALL SOE faculty with promotion and tenure applications.

Work collaboratively with the Office of Human Resources and Office of Institutional Research to conduct a diversity needs assessment of each major division of the university (academic affairs, student affairs, business & financial affairs). Then identify goals, develop initiatives and set timetables for achieving goals based on the needs assessment.

Tactic No. 5:

Scholarships. Work closely with SOE associate director of development, SOE development officer, SOE Scholarship Committee and SOE Graduate Studies Office to assure a diverse pool of nominations and recipients. Enhance student awareness of scholarship opportunities and criteria for awards.

Area(s) Responsible: SOE director of diversity, equity and inclusion; SOE associate director of development; SOE development officer; SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee; SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council; SOE Scholarship Committee; SOE Office of Graduate Studies; University of Mississippi Human Resources; University of Mississippi Office of Institutional Research

Resources Statement: One example of a new scholarship opportunity is the Education Equity Undergraduate Scholarship, which was implemented fall 2021.

Education Equity Undergraduate Scholarship:  The Education Equity Undergraduate Scholarship will support undergraduate students in the School of Education who   demonstrate a strong commitment to racial equity in the classroom ,  contribute to the diversity of our School of Education and   plan   to teach in Mississippi public schools following graduation .  All education majors, including first-year and transfer students, are eligible for the scholarship, and recipients can retain this award for up to eight semesters.

Access to current participants involved in the Education Equity Undergraduate Scholarship was granted to the director of SOE DEI in fall 2021. Current numbers of participants in this initiative will be used as a baseline to develop future goals.

Number of established recruiting relationships with HBCUs and minority-serving institutions or number of touchpoints with groups from HBCUs or MSIs

Tenure and promotion process, resources and expectations clarified

• Registration status on Handshake for HBCU undergraduates will be checked.
• National Pan-Hellenic Council members attending events will be monitored.
• Registration status of those attending career expos at HBCUs will be counted.
• Relationships, targeted to enrich applicant pools, will be established by creating a list of minority-serving organizations and sending a list to all search committee chairs and HR.
• To streamline what is needed to receive SOE faculty tenure and promotion, we will get feedback once we pair junior faculty with a mentor as they prepare the dossier.
• A diversity needs assessment will be conducted after receiving previous assessment data from HR and the Office of Institutional Research.
• After meeting with the SOE Development Office, Scholarship Committee, Graduate Studies and program coordinators, we will recruit a robust pool of applicants for awards/scholarships.
• Insight into tracking mechanisms and scholarship applications will be obtained from advertising the scholarships on social media, print media and SOE websites.
• The baseline data will be received from the feedback and tracking mechanisms.

Increasing resources to lessen financial barriers for underrepresented populations.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITY No. 3:

Develop initiatives that enhance the representation of faculty, staff and students in the SOE without regard to national origin, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, disability or intellectual perspective:  The University of Mississippi School of Education will develop initiatives that enhance the representation of faculty, staff and students in the SOE without regard to national origin, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, disability or intellectual perspective. The implementation strategies would first focus on faculty and staff by integrating the following tactics. Students need providers/professors who not only look like them but can identify with them. Currently, the SOE has a low number of minority faculty and staff members compared with other ethnic groups. By addressing these issues, we will be better able to accomplish our recruiting goals and connect with current underrepresented students.

Search committee membership. Build up a protocol to establish how people will be selected to serve on SOE search committees. Work with ALL departments within the SOE to ensure diverse representation on search committees. Ensure that the “charge” to the search committee emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion, and that committee members understand the need to increase interview opportunities among applicants prior to selecting finalists for on-campus interviews.

Ensure opportunities for minority faculty members to chair SOE search committees.

Focus on assessment to gauge progress; we will develop mechanisms to acknowledge progress as seen in the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation annual reporting measures and from students and staff. The SOE would help to develop custom-tailored survey instruments for different groups: administration, faculty, staff, students/student groups. The review will include a summary of reports submitted to the SOE Office of Diversity. The plan should be reviewed annually. Revisions, updates and additions are anticipated. This will be done to ensure the plan’s continual development and reaffirmation of the university’s and SOE’s commitment to diversity.

Area(s) Responsible: SOE director of diversity, equity and inclusion; SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee; SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council; SOE admissions counselor

Resources Statement: Discuss current resources available and additional resources needed.

Institutional Capacity:

Develop a current baseline by reviewing search committee members involved in the past five years in all departments of the SOE. Through reviewing past search committees, note how many times underrepresented members appear in relation to majority faculty.

SOE assessment system administrators will be contacted to access faculty demographic data that will be used to create a platform (Google Sheets) to record all searches from the previous academic year (2020-21). This information will help in creating a baseline data/starting point.

Previous year(s) search information will be retrieved after meeting with HR to create baseline data.

Results will be reviewed, recorded and analyzed. Conclusions will be drawn from applying the chosen instrument to analyze the effectiveness of creating a diverse and equitable search process.

The results of this endeavor will serve as a baseline data point to measure the effectiveness of the SOE in creating a diverse and equitable job search process and will also guide the next steps of creating initiatives that enhance the representation of faculty, staff and students in the SOE without regard to national origin, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, disability or intellectual perspective.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITY No. 4:

Diversity, equity and inclusion training and professional development. The University of Mississippi School of Education will commit to diversity training for all SOE faculty, staff, search committees and students.

Encourage attendance at internal training workshops for search committees with Human Resources. These workshops will ensure that all search committee members are informed of how implicit bias may operate in the selection process.

SOE faculty and staff will attend diversity training by experts through webinars and professional development speakers to ensure that all faculty, staff and students network and advance racial equity across the SOE and university community.

Implement a way to create a more diverse pool of graduate assistant (GA) applicants.

Organize engagement opportunities for faculty, staff and working students to create a more familiar working environment, an environment where titles and roles are clear but do not serve as a barrier for open and inclusive communication.

Area(s) Responsible: SOE director of diversity, equity and inclusion; SOE Department/Unit Equity Faculty and Staff Committee; SOE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council; SOE associate director of development; SOE development officer

Resources Statement: Internal financial resources will likely be necessary to bring in training workshop facilitators. Currently, the DEI budget consists of approximately $12,000. Workshops may include (but are not limited to) Implicit Bias and Microaggressions Training, Inclusive Teaching Practices, Anti-Racism Training (by Kelly Wickham Hurst). Faculty, staff and students will be required to attend one training session and complete a survey at the end of the training.

After each training, a survey will be administered to faculty, staff and student participants to gain insights into desired themes outlined in the mission statement.

Encourage 100% participation among faculty, staff and students to complete at least one training per semester. Following the training, participants will complete the post-survey and a short open-ended questionnaire at the end of the academic year. Desired progress among faculty, staff and students will spark change, and faculty, staff and students will push past their fears of being vulnerable. The training will ensure that the SOE community has equal access to opportunities to succeed.

After encouraging attendance at internal training workshops for search committees, we will determine the types of workshops that are offered, specifically what topics need to be addressed. After that task is completed, requirements will be determined for training in order to serve on a search committee.

The committee will seek out opportunities to promote DEI trainings that exist outside the university with outside experts in the field. These experts will be chosen based on specific types of programming. Then afterwards, we will do a pre-assessment of “Where are you now when it comes to DEI?”

Determine and recruit a more diverse pool of graduate assistant applicants by viewing demographic information on applicants. The GA applicant data will be the starting point. We will measure it by looking at data from the previous five years of GA applicants with baseline data being the next term of GA applicants.

By organizing engagement opportunities for faculty, staff and working students, we will first determine what type of engagement opportunities would best suit our community of faculty, staff and students. We would measure it by using a survey instrument and are unsure if this type of data has been collected in the past.  

STRATEGIC ACTIVITY No. 5:

Replenishing ongoing budget through grants and donors.  Create funds for the SOE Office of Diversity and/or see if any existing funds already qualify.

Increase new grant proposals for funding, with focus on inclusivity activities and processes in grant projects at the School of Education.

Collaborate with the associate director of development and development officer to engage in Pre-Ignite/Ignite campaign initiatives. These initiatives will enable us to reach out to businesses and possible donors.

See the current IGNITE campaign(s) in the SOE .

Resources Statement:  

The SOE has two existing projects described below.

Transfer to Teach : Transfer to Teach is modeled on the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program to provide talented Mississippi community college transfer students full cost-of-attendance service loans from the University of Mississippi School of Education. Transferring students will be able to complete their bachelor’s in education from UM and earn scholarship funds if they agree to serve in Mississippi public schools for at least three years following graduation. Participants may pause their service agreements if they enroll in graduate school, and if participants are unable to complete their three years of service, their scholarship will convert to a prorated student loan.

[1] Bensimon, E.M., Dowd, A.C., Witham, K. (2016). Five principles for enacting equity by design. Diversity and Democracy, The Equity Imperative. Winter 2016, Volume 19, No. 1.

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School District Mission Statements Highlight a Partisan Divide Over Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in K-12 Education

Table of contents.

• Diversity, equity and inclusion
• Social and emotional learning
• Future readiness
• Safety and health

About this essay

• Data collection
• Identifying topic-related distinctive terms
• Word-count analysis

In recent years, K-12 education has emerged as a political flash point in American society. Lawmakers in numerous states have proposed laws that limit what educators can say in the classroom about topics like race or gender identity – even as other states have mandated greater emphasis on these topics. And a recent Pew Research Center survey found widespread partisan divisions in the topics that parents of K-12 students across the country believe are appropriate for children to learn about in school.

A new content analysis by the Center of 1,314 mission statements from public school districts across the country finds these same themes playing out in how school districts themselves describe their mission in educating students.

School district mission statements form the core operating principles of educational institutions across the United States. These documents provide a set of unifying goals for the different schools operating under the same district administration. They seek to give clarity to the district’s beliefs and values, as well as the steps they are taking to uphold their broader educational vision. As such, they provide a valuable tool for examining how school districts across the country view their own role and approach to educating and caring for the students they serve.

For this content analysis, researchers from the Center first assembled a representative sample of 1,500 regular public school districts from a comprehensive list maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics. Then, they found the website for each school district and searched the site for any documents that “define and reflect the district’s role in education and its prioritized goals for educating students.” This process identified 1,314 mission statements for which sufficient information about the district itself could be found to facilitate the analysis. These 1,314 documents make up the basis of this study.

Two researchers were assigned to code the collected mission statement texts based on whether or not they mentioned certain broad topics of interest (such as the strength of their academic programs or a safe and healthy environment for students). This analysis also used pointwise mutual information to identify distinctive terms related to these topics.

For more on how this study was conducted, read the full Methodology .

These mission statements present a wide range of educational commitments and priorities. They most commonly emphasize preparing students for their futures after graduation: 80% of all mission statements mention this issue, which might include goals such as college and job readiness, developing lifelong learners and creating productive citizens.

Around two-thirds of mission statements (64%) mention the importance of providing a safe, nurturing and healthy environment for students. Just over half (54%) mention the need for parent and community involvement in the districts’ educational efforts. Somewhat smaller shares focus on the academic programs the district offers (47%) or the importance of developing academic skills such as problem-solving or analytical and critical thinking (38%).

Other topics are far rarer. Just 12% of these documents refer to providing a student-centered education. And although parents cited mental health as a top concern in a recent survey , just 4% of mission statements explicitly mention improving the mental health of students as a core educational function.

Overall, 34% of school districts highlight the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in their mission statements. This is much lower than the share of districts that mention topics like future readiness or providing a safe and healthy environment. But in contrast to these subjects, there is much more variation across the country in whether school districts mention issues related to diversity and equity in their mission statements at all.

Consider, for instance, the mission statements of schools in Republican or Democratic districts – where the majority of residents voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden, respectively, in the 2020 presidential election. Similar shares of districts in each group mention topics like the future readiness of their students, providing a safe and healthy educational environment, or including parents and the community in their educational efforts.

By contrast, a 56% majority of districts in Democratic-voting areas mention their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in their mission statements. That is true of just 26% of districts in Republican-voting areas, a difference of 30 percentage points.

This trend – diversity, equity and inclusion standing apart from the relative consistency with which other topics are mentioned – also holds true across other demographic traits of school districts. Most notably, urban and suburban school districts are at least twice as likely as those in rural areas to mention this issue. (Nine-in-ten rural districts in this analysis are located in areas that voted Republican in the 2020 general election, compared with 41% of suburban and 31% of urban districts.) Diversity-related topics are also more common in school district mission statements from areas with relatively high median incomes, as well as areas with a lower proportion of White residents.

How language varies across school district mission statements: A closer look

School mission statements vary widely in their length, content and complexity. The median document in this collection is 125 words in length. But the shortest is just five words and the longest is 1,691 words. Districts in non-rural areas tend to be more verbose in describing their missions. The median rural school district mission statement is 102 words long, but the median statements from urban and suburban districts use 189 and 172 words, respectively. And the median mission statement for school districts in Democratic-voting areas is also longer than the median district in Republican-voting ones (158 vs. 112 words).

In addition to categorizing the broad topical issues that are mentioned in school district mission statements, researchers from the Center examined the textual content of these statements. These findings offer nuance for how school districts across the country describe their mission in their own words. To conduct this analysis, the Center identified terms that are distinctive to each of the broader topical categories – that is, terms that are common in mission statements mentioning a particular topic (such as students’ future readiness or school safety) but relatively rare in those that do not.

How school districts discuss diversity: ‘Diversity’ and ‘culture’ mentioned more often than ‘equity’ and ‘inclusion’

Some of the most distinctive terms used to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion are “culture” and “diversity” – each of which is mentioned in around a quarter of all mission statements – along with “equity” and “inclusion,” each used in roughly one-in-ten mission statements.

Comparatively modest shares of school district mission statements from rural and Republican-voting areas mention each of these four terms, in part because districts in these areas are less likely to mention the broad topic of diversity in general. At the same time, school districts in these areas are also less likely to use some of these terms even when discussing the issue of diversity in a general sense.

Direct mentions of race or origin are much less common: Only 3% of all mission statements use terms like “race” or variations on “closing [the achievement] gap,” and fewer than 1% of the documents mention “nationality.” However, the phrase “closing [the achievement] gap” is somewhat more common in school districts with a below-median share of White residents: 5% reference this term, compared with fewer than 1% of mission statements from districts with a larger share of White residents.

Within the subset of mission statements that mention diversity-related issues, comparable shares of school districts located in Democratic- and Republican-voting areas use terms like “diversity.” But those from Democratic-voting areas are more likely to mention terms like “equity” (51% vs. 25%), “inclusivity” (33% vs. 20%) and “closing [the achievement] gap” (11% vs. 3%).

“[S]tudents will become contributing citizens in a global society while respecting individual differences.” Rural school district in a Republican-voting area

“The school staff will assist students in gaining mastery of the fundamental tools for learning so that the student will apply these skills to … develop respect for people of all races and nationalities, and cultivate an attitude which will enable the student to reconcile individual interests with the common good.” Rural school district in a Republican-voting area

“Recognizing the value of diversity and being inclusive of differing cultures make our community strong.” Urban school district in a Republican-voting area

School districts from Republican-voting areas less likely to mention social and emotional learning terms in mission statements

In addition to using diversity-related language in different ways, larger shares of school districts in Democratic-leaning areas than in GOP-leaning ones incorporate the language of social-emotional learning into their mission statements.

Social-emotional learning is an educational paradigm that stresses self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills as prerequisites for educational success. The concept has recently received extensive criticism from conservative groups, although a recent Pew Research Center survey shows that majorities of Democratic and Republican K-12 parents say it is very or extremely important to them that their children learn social and emotional skills at school.

Among all statements analyzed, around one-in-three school districts in Democratic-voting areas (34%) and 25% of those in Republican-voting districts use the term “social.” And larger shares of school districts in Democratic-voting areas use terms like “critical thinking” (28% vs. 16%) and “creativity” (25% vs. 14%). At the same time, nearly identical shares of each type of district use terms like “physical,” “intellectual” or “confidence.” Some of these terms (such as “critical thinking” or “creativity”) are also used more often in areas with a lower than median share of White residents, although these differences tend to be relatively modest.

“Social, physical, emotional and cognitive developments are recognized as factors which influence student learning.” RURAL SCHOOL DISTRICT IN A REPUBLICAN-VOTING AREA

Each student is a valued individual with unique physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs. Students need to develop a deep understanding of essential knowledge and skills.” Urban school district in a Democratic-voting area

“Mission: Inspiring a love of learning in all students so they develop as critical thinkers and innovative creators who contribute to the world with integrity and purpose beyond themselves.” Suburban school district in a Democratic-voting area

Future readiness: Raising ‘global’ citizens, preparing students for career or college

School districts across the country use a variety of distinctive terms to emphasize the rigor of their academic programs. For instance, 24% of all mission statements use the term “curriculum,” with no significant variation across school districts based on vote shares in their areas, or whether they are urban, suburban or rural districts. Another distinctive term related to academic rigor – “academic excellence” – is used relatively rarely but fairly consistently across district types.

Other concepts related to individual student development vary more in usage. Terms like “citizen[ship],” “lifelong [learning],” “society,” “career,” “global” and “college” are among the most distinctive terms that deal with raising future-ready students. By and large, the mission statements of school districts in Democratic- and Republican-voting areas use these terms to describe the future readiness of their students.

But a key difference is in the term “global.” Some 31% of school district mission statements from Democratic-voting areas – but just 14% of those from GOP-voting districts – use this term, often in the context of students’ integration into global society. The word “global” is also more prevalent in mission statements of suburban school districts: One-third use the term, compared with a quarter of urban and 12% of rural districts.

Meanwhile, terms like “college” and “career” are especially common in the mission statements of urban districts. “Career” is used in 36% of urban school district mission statements, nearly double the share among rural districts (19%). “College” also appears in a larger share of urban school district mission statements (30%) than in suburban (18%) or rural (15%) areas. By contrast, a slightly smaller share of urban districts (26%) mention the concept of “lifelong” learning compared with those in suburban (40%) or rural (34%) areas.

Safe and healthy schools, parent and community involvement: How school districts discuss the schooling environment

The safety and health of the educational environment is the second-most frequently mentioned topic in school district mission statements, and half of all districts use the term “safe” in describing their mission. This comes at a time when about a third of K-12 parents are extremely or very concerned that a shooting could happen at their children’s school , and when many public schools are taking steps to tighten security on campus .

While “safe” and related terms like “secure” are used in similar shares of mission statements from school districts in urban, suburban and rural areas, there are notable differences in the use of health-related terms. For instance, the term “support” is used in half of both urban and suburban school district mission statements (50%), compared with 34% of those in rural areas. Similarly, “trust” appears in 17% and 13% of mission statements from urban and suburban school districts, respectively, versus 8% of those in rural areas.

Parent and community involvement in the educational process is another relatively common topic, mentioned in more than half of school district mission statements overall. And the distinctive terms “family” and “parent” each appear in more than a quarter of all mission statements. A larger share of school districts in Democratic areas use the term “family” relative to those in Republican areas (35% vs. 25%). But there are no such differences on terms like “parent,” “stakeholder” or “business.”

“Student learning will be enriched by cultivating family, community, and business partnerships.” Rural school district in a Democratic-voting area

“We believe in open, non-judgmental communication with families, staff, students, and the community. … We believe in collaboration of schools, families, and the community to benefit the lives of children.” Suburban school district in a Republican-voting area

This essay benefited greatly from the work and thoughtful comments of many individuals at Pew Research Center. Nimisha Sharma, Eliza Smith and Henry Forteith collected and coded the school district mission statement data. Athena Chapekis contributed her expertise to developing the codebook. Gonzalo Rivero and Andrew Mercer provided invaluable suggestions on survey methodology, and Rakesh Kochhar gave his insights on using economic metrics for the analyses. Aaron Smith, Kim Parker and Juliana Horowitz provided editorial guidance. Graphics were created by Alissa Scheller, and Sara Atske handled digital production. David Kent offered extensive copy editing of the finished product, while Sono Shah conducted quality checks on the analysis and underlying code.

For details on how this analysis was conducted, read the full Methodology .

Lead photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

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Strategic plan for diversity, adopted spring 2023.

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Vision Statement

We aim to create an equitable and inclusive environment for learning, research, and service by honoring,respecting, and embracing diversity within the School of Education and the surrounding communities.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to improve teaching, learning, and human development in a global, diverse, rapidly changing, and increasingly technological society. We

• Prepare reflective, caring, and highly skilled educational practitioners and scholars who lead in their chosen professions;
• Inform educational theory and practice through research;
• Work in partnership with a range of constituents to effect change from the local to national levels throughout the world; and
• Prioritize diversity, inclusion, and equity in all our work.

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• We are an exceptional and engaged community of educators that believes that integrity and excellence are foundational to our identity as Indiana University’s SoE.
• We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are vital to who we are and the work that we do as educators.
• We believe that the diversity within the SoE should be a reflection of our world and society and utilized to extend and create new knowledge that illuminates the teaching, learning, and research practices needed to engage the world around us and combat educational and social inequalities.
• We are committed to ensuring that all SoE stakeholders, especially those from historically excluded groups 1 , feel valued and are able to flourish and grow personally, professionally, and intellectually.
• We value an environment that is accountable and acknowledges diversity across many dimensions, including race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, (dis)ability, language, citizenship, national origin, body size, and age.
• We recognize and acknowledge historical inequities and discrimination within the United States for those from historically excluded groups and are prepared to advocate and provide opportunities and resources that seek to disrupt generational legacies that have been intentionally and unintentionally perpetuated by institutionalized discriminatory and inequitable practices and policies.

Purpose and Scope of the Faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan

This DEI plan is a living document that requires vigilance and ongoing engagement to ensure that our mission and values are consistently reflected throughout the SoE. As a living document, this plan will be displayed publicly on the SoE’s website, revisited and updated annually by the SoE’s Diversity Committee, with recommendations for changes reported to the SoE’s Policy Council and shared with the larger SoE community electronically. Further, this plan is designed to hold us accountable and to ensure that we are building a national and international reputation that competitively positions us as a school that not only recruits and retains a diverse faculty 2 , staff, and student body, but also engages in teaching, research, and service activities that address current DEI challenges and issues in the field of education. It is our hope that our plan will facilitate an environment that attracts and supports faculty, staff, and students of color and those from other historically excluded groups.

Historical context of this plan

During the 2016-17 academic year school, we 3 collected data from various SoE stakeholders, via administrator diversity baseline training, faculty roundtables, an all-day faculty diversity retreat, a staff diversity training, and two schoolwide diversity talks. In addition, in 2014, the SoE’s Committee on Diversity conducted a survey to assess SoE faculty, staff and students’ perceptions of the cultural climate and the SoE’s DEI related efforts. In the spring of 2015, a town hall meeting was held in which the findings from this survey were shared with the SoE community, with faculty, staff, and students invited to further share their experiences within the SoE related to DEI and offer feedback. As we developed this plan, we took each of these data points into consideration. More particularly, our approach to developing this plan was not simply to generate a list of best practices that might recruit and retain a more diverse community, but to strategically think about the areas that we needed to examine to do so. Further, we sought to engage in collective action.

Across this yearlong process, we collectively identified five critical domains for fostering and promoting DEI and have thus developed our plan in relation to these intersecting domains, which include: 1) Climate, 2) Communication, 3) Policies, 4) Hiring Faculty of Color, and 5) Leadership. Figure 1 illustrates how these domains are intersectional and inform one another. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first domain, Climate, includes the largest number of strategies/actions given that it is foundational to the process of promoting and sustaining DEI within the SoE. In addition, we developed two goals specific to each of these domains, and recognize that the domains and goals are interconnected.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first domain, Climate, includes the largest number of strategies/actions given that it is foundational to the process of promoting and sustaining DEI within the SoE. In addition, we developed two goals specific to each of these domains, and recognize that the domains and goals are interconnected.

In Fall of 2022, the Committee on Diversity revisited this document in an effort to revise and update it based on both progress to-date, and new visions of DEI for the school. Additional feedback was provided by the entire faculty via survey and discussion in the 2023 retreat.

More about the key domains

1 The Faculty Diversity Plan Subcommittee was developed and charged by the SoE’s Committee on Diversity to lead a schoolwide effort to engage in dialogue about DEI within the SoE and collectively develop a Faculty Diversity Plan.

2 Note that when we refer to faculty, our intention is to be inclusive of all faculty regardless of whether they are on a tenure-line or not, and regardless of whether they have achieved tenure or not.

3 The Faculty Diversity Plan Subcommittee was developed and charged by the SoE’sCommittee on Diversity to lead a schoolwide effort to engage in dialogue about DEI within the SoE and collectively develop a Faculty Diversity Plan.

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Home › DEI › Diversity and Inclusion Mission Statement Examples

Diversity and Inclusion Mission Statement Examples

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A diverse workforce can become more productive than a homogeneous workforce by bringing together different perspectives and ideas to improve the final product or service. It allows employees or freelance contractors to share their experiences, leading to companies reaching untapped markets and creating new business opportunities by creating alternative ways.

Organizational systems that possess diversity, equity, and inclusion can better adapt to changes in the environment and respond by providing their unique contributions. They also help in building leadership capability among staff and organizational capacity.

A diversity and inclusion statement is a declaration that an organization makes to create awareness of the diversities of the employees within the organization. Leaders should have diversity and inclusion competencies to create a diversity statement tailored to their company’s culture.

Here, we’ll talk about the diversity and inclusion mission statements of various organizations to create a diverse and inclusive work environment.

1. Justice for the Earth

Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity: Our organization’s statement is to cultivate a worldwide, inclusive culture where harnessed differences between key stakeholders benefit our patients and staff.

Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity and Persons who care about our environment, justice, and each other come together to create a collective effect via EarthjEarthjustice’son statement. That is at the very core of our identity and the organization’s commitment.

We urge that, as we consider how we come into a communal setting with each other and how we think about diversity, equality, and inclusion, we recognize our experiences and differences, be present for one another, and focus on compassionate action at all times. Our mission statement is to showcase our humanity by engaging and expressing our concern for one another, which requires a dual understanding of all parties involved. We focus on developing an effective communication plan and giving an ear to different viewpoints to achieve the milestones.

2. Ford Motor Company Foundation

At the Ford Foundation, our fundamental values are diversity, equality, and inclusion. We have been providing opportunities to everyone regardless of their background, sexual orientation, and race for more than a century. We welcome diverse candidates to apply for our open positions even when they do not meet the posted qualifications.

In all of our endeavors across the globe, we are steadfast in our adherence to these principles. We couldn’t do what we do and won’t be considered an inclusive organization without them. We realize that a changing, more diverse, and inclusive workforce needs creative solutions derived from several points of view.

Looking to master diversity, equity, and inclusion skills? Our top-rated diversity and inclusion course allows you to upskill your knowledge, learn the strategies, tactics, and latest market trends. This course also offers you the best secret knowledge on how to prepare your resume for a diversity and inclusion job post, and how to prepare well for interview questions and answers. Don’t forget to enroll to avail these advantages:

Indeed’s the mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion is to assist individuals in obtaining employment. To do this, we place proactive talent and employers who utilize Indeed at the core of our business. In 2019, we made a public declaration about the culture and values we want to promote. Our mission statement aims to put the needs of job seekers first. This means our organization aims at creating an atmosphere where everyone can make their authentic selves work and make it simple for others to do likewise – are some of the principles of this organization.

A company’s success is linked with its ability to assist all individuals find work; thus, we dedicated ourselves to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. It has become one of the core values we want to promote and strengthen inside our company.

We are committed to cultivating a workplace where everyone’s ideas and opinions are heard and valued and where everyone is free to bring their whole selves to work. We aspire to build a welcoming workplace that values racial equity, intersectionality, and accessibility as we work to make full diversity and inclusion mainstream.

4. The Johnson and Johnson Corporation

The mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion is to make D&I a part of everything we do. Our focus is to make D&I a way of life in our organization. Throughout Johnson & Johnson, we will continue to build a culture of belonging, where open hearts and minds unite to unlock the potential and differences of a bright mix of workers.

Our vision is “Be yourself, change the world.” We appreciate and value the differences and similarities that we share and engage in a workplace where we feel empowered to bring their best ideas forward to make an impact. Our key stakeholders understand that a workforce that reflects the customers we serve will create a more substantial business and make us better able to meet their needs.

5. Noodles & Company

Our commitment at Noodles & Company is to provide constant nourishment and inspiration to our employees, customers, and the communities we serve. To do this, we live our core values of caring, showing pride, passion, love for life, and above all, diversity inclusion.

All the employees in our organization have ambitions and interests. Since everyone has a different take on the same dish, it makes sense that Wisconsin Mac and Cheese is a Wisconsin Penne Rosa to someone else. Whether you’re looking for a few hours per week or a full-time position, we have a job for you.

When it comes to finding a job, our organization will help you explore your hobbies and discover the ideal match for you, whether you’re working in a restaurant, on the road, or in our Colorado Central Support Office.

Our noodle recipes are diverse, ethnically diverse, and bursting with flavor. We feel the same way about the people that work with us. Our proactive talent may bring their whole self to work in a diverse, accepting atmosphere that celebrates their uniqueness as job seekers. A team that reflects the diversity, equity, and inclusion we serve is better for everyone involved.

Listening, learning, and acting are the cornerstones of our inclusive and diverse strategy, which makes the central part of our diversity and inclusion mission and vision statement. A group member’s reference library and continuing listening sessions throughout the organization are just some of its initiatives to improve its inclusiveness and diversity. It expanded employee benefits concentrating on mental health and implementing inclusion and diversity programs.

6. Oak Hill Advisors

One Team, One Firm” is how we function at OHA, and we believe in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where we appreciate and grow individuals from all walks of life. To better serve our investors, workers, and the community at large, our mission and commitment are to work together with employees from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints leads to more insightful decisions.

The following are the goals we are pursuing:

• Developing and Maintaining a Diversified and Inclusive Workforce.  Develop and maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce that is genuinely committed to the success of the company and each other. A diversified workforce can lead to more innovative products and services. By creating a workplace that is inclusive of everyone, employees will also feel empowered to bring their best ideas forward, knowing that their voices will be heard.
• Increasing the influence and involvement of the community.  It’s important to embrace an inclusive organization by increasing organizational competence and leadership capacity to supervise an engaged workforce. To become successful, every one of your employees must pitch in. To maintain a motivated staff, managers and leaders alike must become well-versed on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. You must show respect for others by listening to others’ views, thoughts, and concepts and fostering a workplace that values diversity.

Uber has also released a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement to build a diverse and inclusive environment. It has included women to make the workplace gender-balanced. It has added black and Latinx to its staff to improve employee diversity. Differences in thinking style, physical ability, gender, and background bring richness, new ideas, and experiences. Such differences connect employers with the health needs of workers and lead to more innovative products and services for the benefit of the company.

Proactive talent acquisition and leadership development are the key components for creating a diverse and inclusive organization. The members of the Executive Leadership Team are making diversity and inclusion efforts to gain visible diversity. It aims to fight racism and other types of discrimination. Uber is also committed to increasing the number of women in leadership positions by having a balanced workforce that will be inclusive of more women.

Uber’s inclusion mission statement is to create a world of opportunity by bringing like-minded, proactive talent together. When it comes to igniting opportunities for our firm and ourselves, we find many similarities. D&I is more than just checking boxes, developing mission statements, or hitting targets, as we know, but we also recognize that a data-driven strategy will never be enough. Just like t mobile, Our commitment focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion and considers aspects such as sexual orientation.

Statistics are an integral part of diversity and inclusion, but they only serve as a starting point. Our bold objective is to create Uber the most diverse, egalitarian, and inclusive workplace on Earth because we know this is possible. Unlike other organizations, our high standards aren’t just a self-serving move. When it comes to lowering and eliminating unfairness, we know from practice that gradual reform isn’t going to achieve the job.

Above we have provided some diversity vision statement examples for you to understand how big tech industries lead the competition with their vision statements. A vision statement is what makes an organization stand apart from the rest of the crowd. Keep yourself updated with the knowledge, and don’t forget to check out the attached course above to upskill your comprehension.

Here are answers to some most asked questions regarding diversity and inclusion:

How to Write a Diversity and Inclusion Mission and Vision Statement?

Here’s a brief method on how you can write a diversity and inclusion mission statement:

• Be authentic, write with clarity and follow a purpose.
• Make sure to compose the statement with a global lens.
• Briefly write the initiatives your organization take to support diversity and inclusion.
• Speak from stakeholders’ point of view.
• Publicize and market your statement in the right way.

If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into a Diversity and Inclusion role, we recommend taking our Diversity and Inclusion Certification Course , where you will learn how to build your skillset in D&I, build a diverse network, craft a great D&I resume, and create a successful diversity and inclusion job search strategy.

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Barnard College Columbia University

Our Mission

Mission statement.

Barnard College aims to provide the highest-quality liberal arts education to promising and high-achieving young women, offering the unparalleled advantages of an outstanding residential college in partnership with a major research university . With a dedicated faculty of scholars distinguished in their respective fields, Barnard is a community of accessible teachers and engaged students who participate together in intellectual risk-taking and discovery. Barnard students develop the intellectual resources to take advantage of opportunities as new fields, new ideas, and new technologies emerge. They graduate prepared to lead lives that are professionally satisfying and successful, personally fulfilling, and enriched by a love of learning.

As a college for women, Barnard embraces its responsibility to address issues of gender in all of their complexity and urgency and to help students achieve the personal strength that will enable them to meet the challenges they will encounter throughout their lives. Located in the cosmopolitan environment of New York City and committed to diversity in its student body, faculty, and staff, Barnard prepares its graduates to flourish in different cultural surroundings in an increasingly interconnected world.

The Barnard community thrives on high expectations. By setting rigorous academic standards and giving students the support they need to meet those standards, Barnard enables them to discover their own capabilities. Living and learning in this unique environment, Barnard students become agile, resilient, responsible, and creative, prepared to lead and serve their society.

79 Examples of School Vision and Mission Statements

School vision statements outline a school’s values and objectives. They provide parents and the community a brief but clear overview of the overall ethos of the school. On the other hand, school mission statements explain what the school is currently doing to achieve its vision. Schools need both vision and mission statements to show their community what their values and beliefs are.

Importance of Vision and Mission Statements in Schools

Statements of a school’s vision and mission are important for keeping a school focused on its core purpose. The statements can act as a guiding north star for school administrators who aim to make decisions that live up to the statements. They are also important because they are documents that parents use to see whether the school meets their family’s values.

Common Words in Vision Statements

The most common words in school vision and mission statements are:

Read below for our full list of the best school statements from around the web.

Related Post: A List of Education Slogans and Mottoes

Best Preschool Mission & Vision Statements

• We foster our students’ love for learning, encourage them to try new and exciting things, and give them a solid foundation to build on.
• Our vision is to develop well rounded, confident and responsible individuals who aspire to achieve their full potential. We will do this by providing a welcoming, happy, safe, and supportive learning environment in which everyone is equal and all achievements are celebrated.
• We believe that a happy child is a successful one. We are committed to providing a positive, safe and stimulating environment for children to learn, where all are valued. We intend that all children should enjoy their learning, achieve their potential and become independent life-long learners.
• Our early learning center exists to provide a safe, developmentally, inclusive environment for toddlers, preschool, kindergarten and school age children.

Our focus is to provide a stimulating early learning and child care experience which promotes each child’s social/emotional, physical and cognitive development.

• Our goal is to support and nurture the children’s and our own natural desire to be life-long learners. We are committed to the families we serve, providing support and encouragement.
• Our Vision is a community where all children feel loved, respected and encouraged to develop to their fullest potential.
• Our Mission is to provide high quality education and childcare in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment that builds a foundation for life-long learning.
• We aim to provide a safe learning environment with a welcoming atmosphere which creates a sense of belonging amongst the families. We maintain an inclusive environment which acknowledges and respects children from diverse family and cultural backgrounds.

Our Kindergarten provides a safe, developmentally appropriate, nurturing environment that promotes social, emotional, cognitive and physical growth, as well as a positive self-image and a love of learning. T

• Our goal is to build skills that set children up for success in kindergarten and beyond.
• Our vision is for each child to develop a curiosity of learning, discover their interests and grow in their love of learning. We also desire to have strong families through parent support/fellowship and skills training.
• We aim to offer a safe, happy place where everyone is known and valued, and where differing needs are acknowledged, accepted and met
• We aim to encourage each child to be independent and develop a sense of responsibility for themselves and respect for others in the environment

Our mission is to lead and support the early learning community in building the best foundation for children birth to five.

• Our Kindergarten aims to provide a meaningful child centered, play based curriculum that builds life skills, independence, confidence and resilience to support each child in achieving their potential and to make a smooth transition to school and society itself.
• Our mission is to work together to build a safe, respectful and nurturing environment focused on maximizing each child’s sense of wellbeing and acquisition of skills for life and learning.
• Our mission is to provide exceptional care to children while fostering each child’s intellectual, social, physical and moral development in an academic-rich environment.

Related Post: 5 Early Childhood Philosophies Compared

Best Primary and Elementary School Vision & Mission Statements

• Our goal as a school is to equip our young people with the skills and mindset to thrive and then take on the world.
• We foster an enthusiastic, creative community of learners prepared to continue their intellectual, emotional, and physical development.
• To educate all students to the highest levels of academic achievement , to enable them to reach and expand their potential, and to prepare them to become productive, responsible, ethical, creative and compassionate members of society.

Our vision is to prepare young women to pursue their aspirations and contribute to the world.

• We strive to consciously create an environment of respect and inclusion and to support ethnic, racial, religious and socio-economic diversity among all the constituencies of the school.
• We strive to support this environment by building a more inclusive curriculum, addressing a range of learning styles, offering a wide array of diversity efforts and programs, and by participating in the wider community.
• Our school empowers all students to embrace learning, achieve their personal best and build their emotional, social and physical well-being.

Our vision is to empower students to acquire, demonstrate, articulate and value knowledge and skills that will support them, as life-long learners, to participate in and contribute to the global world and practise the core values of the school : respect, tolerance & inclusion, and excellence.

• We believe that education should take place in a fully inclusive environment with equal opportunities for all and that all children should learn to value religious and cultural differences. Our school strives to be at the centre of the local community with positive and effective links to the wider and global communities.
• Our statement “DREAM, BELIEVE, ACHIEVE” reflects our understanding and beliefs. We aim to ensure that the children at our school are provided with high-quality learning experiences based on a broad and balanced curriculum.

Related Post: Childcare Mission Statement Examples

Best High School Mission & Vision Statements

• Our vision is to forge strong, positive connections with students so they can achieve independence, build confidence, and gain academic knowledge.
• We aim to develop well-rounded and thoughtful students prepared to cope with a changing post-modern and globalized world.

We strive to provide our graduates with an academic foundation that will enable them to gain admission to the colleges or universities of their choice as well as to succeed in those institutions.

• We are committed to recognizing the importance of communication and to encouraging dialogue among all constituencies; to promoting intellectual and social growth and development within the school community; to providing a safe, supportive setting so that students have the opportunity to explore and to clarify their own beliefs and values, to take risks, and to think and speak for themselves; and to recognizing and responding to individual and institutional prejudices, both overt and subtle, based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, and physical and mental ability.
• Our vision is to prepare and motivate our students for a rapidly changing world by instilling in them critical thinking skills , a global perspective, and a respect for core values of honesty, loyalty, perseverance, and compassion. Students will have success for today and be prepared for tomorrow.
• Our mission is to provide a safe haven where everyone is valued and respected. All staff members, in partnership with parents and families are fully committed to students’ college and career readiness. Students are empowered to meet current and future challenges to develop social awareness, civic responsibility, and personal growth.

We are dedicated to a continuing tradition of excellence in an ever-changing world. Within a safe and supportive environment, we provide a relevant, high-quality education and prepare our diverse student body for future endeavors. We honor achievement and promote pride in ourselves, in our school, and in our community.

• We strive to prepare all students to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens ready to meet the challenges of the future. In partnership with families and community, our goal is to create relevant learning opportunities for students — both inside and outside the classroom — that help them develop the knowledge, critical thinking skills, and character necessary to succeed in a technologically advanced world.
• Our High School is a student-centered organization delivering excellence in education. Our team is committed to our students, our communities, and each other. We believe that our cohesion and morale help us to achieve excellence in our school. Our commitment to our students and our dedication to impacting their education through innovative methods makes us unique.
• Graduates will be motivated life-long learners and productive global citizens.

Cultivating excellence in every student.

• Our school’s vision is to provide student-centered educational programs that challenge all students to perform at their highest potential.
• Our school prepares students for success in the 21st century by engaging them in rigorous and relevant learning opportunities that promote academic, physical, and emotional growth.
• Our school creates a pathway to assist students in achieving their educational and personal goals leading to a fulfilling future within the greater community.

Our school will continue to create a safe, effective learning environment that enables each individual to reach his or her greatest potential through ample opportunities to excel.

• Our school will foster an environment to nurture individuals academically, socially, and emotionally so that they are equipped to tackle academic challenges and become productive members of society.

Related Post: Library Mission Statement Examples

Best Christian School Vision & Mission Statements

• Our Christian School believes that each child is a treasure, bearing God’s image. We seek to partner with Christian families who are committed to our vision and mission.
• Vision is the insight God provides to instruct and direct the path of an organization. Our Vision Statement is as follows: Our school will be known as a diverse Christian community which, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, provides families with Christ-centred education through dynamic programming, dedicated professional staff, in facilities most conducive to learning, in order to develop responsible servants in God’s world.
• Our Mission is as follows: To provide a Christ-centered, high quality education and to work in unison with the home and local church to nurture our students’ intellectual, spiritual, social, emotional, and physical growth to prepare them for responsible service in the kingdom of God.

It is the vision of Our Christian Academy to engage students in a quality Christ-centered education that equips and challenges them to reach their unique potential spiritually, academically, socially, and physically.

• We endeavor to foster a nurturing, mutually supportive school community of students who enthusiastically pursue learning and Christian character, parents who wholeheartedly support the school’s mission, Bible believing churches who actively reinforce a biblical worldview, and qualified, caring Christian faculty and staff who sacrificially invest in the lives of students.
• To engage and educate young people to know Christ and be equipped to impact the world for God’s Kingdom.
• To capture and equip the hearts, minds and energies of young people for the sake of knowing Christ, and unleash them to engage the world they live in and make an impact in it according to God’s principles and power.

The mission of our Christian School is to transform this generation through sound academic education with a distinct Christian worldview. We are committed to transferring our passion for serving Christ to our students for their benefit and for the glory of God.

• The vision of our Christian School is to provide a comprehensive educational facility that will accommodate a life-developing curriculum and graduate students who express a passionate faith, a biblical world view philosophy and are practitioners of true Christianity.
• Our Christian School seeks to provide an excellent educational experience from a biblical worldview in order to produce the next generation of well-rounded servant leaders.
• Our Christian School will be a compassionate community where knowledge is pursued with excellence, where faith is rooted in Christ, and where character is exemplified through service. We are dedicated to creating a caring and nurturing environment, producing life-long learners, creating disciples of Christ, and enriching students’ lives.

Our Christian School is a loving community that spiritually and academically equips, challenges, and inspires students to impact their world for Christ.

• Our Christian School will be grounded in God’s Word and challenged to achieve academic excellence as they prepare to use their gifts and abilities effectively to follow God’s plan for their lives.
• Our Christian Academy works together with parents and their local church to provide a Christ-centered spiritual, academic, and physical foundation. Our goal is a nurturing environment that produces godly citizens who will be a transforming influence in the world.
• To form a partnership with believing parents in order to establish their children with a total biblical worldview.

To help train up a generation of godly leaders who love learning and are sought after for their wisdom.

• To prepare students spiritually, academically, and in accordance with their God-given potential, enabling them to handle the rigors of life with courage.
• Our mission is to build a Christ-centered school to equip students to be Christ-honoring critical thinkers, clear communicators, and compassionate leaders, through the pursuit of academic excellence, in the tradition of classical Christian education.
• Our vision is be recognized as the leading Christian School in the Kansas City area, preparing students for a love of learning and service, to the glory of God.

Related Post: Classroom Vision and Mission Statements

Best College and University Vision & Mission Statements

• Our university aspires to be a national leader in developing educated contributors, career-ready learners, and global citizens, and in generating meaningful, high-impact scholarship.
• Pursuing enlightenment and creativity.
• To create a transformative educational experience for students focused on deep disciplinary knowledge; problem solving; leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills; and personal health and well-being.

Learning. Discovery. Engagement.

• The university aspires to be known for its excellence in teaching, intensive research, effective public service and community engagement. The university prepares diverse and competitive graduates for success in a global, interdependent society.
• We aspire to be the exemplary comprehensive research university for the 21st century.
• To impact society in a transformative way — regionally, nationally, and globally — by engaging with partners outside the traditional borders of the university campus.

To contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

• To educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society. We do this through our commitment to the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education.
• We will have a transformative impact on society through continual innovation in education, research, creativity, and entrepreneurship
• Educating students to the benefit of all.
• To recruit and develop the world’s most promising students and most outstanding staff and be a truly global university benefiting society as a whole.

The University will become a national leader in collaborative career-focused liberal arts education and will equip its graduates to visualize and achieve excellence in a dynamic global community.

• To be dedicated to the advancement of learning and ennoblement of life.
• To promote learning by engaging with students in advancing scholarly inquiry, cultivating critical and creative thought, and generating knowledge. Our active partnerships with local and global communities contribute to a sustainable common good .
• We will continue to frame and solve the greatest challenges of the future.

Read More University Mission Statement Examples Here.

Vision and mission statements tend to explore themes that are important to a school’s community. They also focus on the age of students. Preschool vision statements tend to explore themes of safety, development and love. High School vision statements are about preparing students for the world. Universities tend to focus on inspiring future leaders.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Animism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 10 Magical Thinking Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Social-Emotional Learning (Definition, Examples, Pros & Cons)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What is Educational Psychology?

3 thoughts on “79 Examples of School Vision and Mission Statements”

Wow, Very interesting and achievable visions and missions.

I am highlighting a few statements and citing your website in my book, The Technology-ready School Administrator, for publication in January, 2024. Thanks for wonderful information.

Thank you for your insightful words.

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10+ Examples of Awesome Inclusion Statements

Inclusion Statements appear on web pages, in job postings and, sometimes, in bigger reports (see PepsiCo below).

They have become vital copy to attract the best talent. After all, the best talent values inclusivity.

Below are 10+ examples of Inclusion Statements I hope you draw inspiration from.

Note: If you like this article, you might also check out these 4 diversity tools  to help you write more inclusive content.

10 Inclusion Statement Examples

IBM’s web site has an Overall Inclusion Statement and   Inclusion Statement for Employment .

Here’s their overall Inclusion Statement:

That’s a short-and-sweet inclusivity statement that also ties in milestones of progress and stories of employees.

IBM also puts a combo EEO Inclusion statement on most job postings. Here it is:

Being You @ IBM IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Highlights of the job posting EEO/Inclusion Statement:

• Header — IBM uses a headline/header for their Inclusivity statement:  “Being You @ IBM”. People (candidates included!) think in terms of headlines and this shows candidates that IBM took an extra step on inclusivity.
• It’s a combo EEO inclusion statement
• It mentions citizenship and immigration (a progressive move by IBM)

Gusto has an Inclusion Statement is in its About Us section of each job that reads:

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.

Highlights:

• It’s short
• First person/2nd person (you/we) is conversational
• It sounds like it’s written by a human (doesn’t have mumbo jumbo words)

Gusto also has multiple pages on its site about Inclusivity such as its Special Report: Diversity and Inclusion with Gusto .

Apple’s Inclusion Statement is the key paragraph

• Headline (“Different together.”) — Most readers respond to headlines. It helps remind them why they’re reading.
• Short (4 sentences)
• No mumbo jumbo
• Ties diverse employees to diverse products/customers

Compass Group offers an interesting combo EEO Inclusion Mission statement on its job postings:

At Compass, our mission is to help everyone find their place in the world. This means we continually celebrate the diverse community different individuals cultivate. As an equal opportunity employer, we stay true to our mission by ensuring that our place can be anyone’s place.

• It combines EEO, Inclusion Statement and Mission in 3 sentences

Compass also has a more in-depth  Inclusion Statement page.

Coca-Cola Company

Coca-Cola has this Inclusive statement on its job postings:

Inclusive Include, value and trust each other. We are smart alone but together we are genius. This means being inclusive, giving the benefit of the doubt and being responsible for each other. Because, for our company to thrive for the next 100+ years, smart isn’t enough. We need genius. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.

• Header — People think in headlines and seeing the word “Inclusive” in bold before their Inclusive statement shows that IBM emphasizes it.
• First Person/Second Person (we, you, etc.)
• Combo EEO/Inclusion Statement

IBM also has these on its Web site:

• Inclusion Mission Statement
• Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Policy Statement  (pdf)
• Inclusion Vision Statement (with 4 Strategic Imperatives)
• Inclusion Global Office of Diversity & Inclusion Infographic PDF of their 4 Strategic Pillars

Deloitte’s Inclusion statement is:

At Deloitte, each of us contributes to inclusion—we all have a role to play. Our culture is the result of our behaviors, our personal commitment, our curiosity, how we collaborate, and the ways that we courageously share our perspectives and encourage others to do the same. In turn, our inclusive culture inspires us to try new things, speak openly, and be bold. It brings us together in ways that help us stand out. Our inclusive culture empowers all of us to connect, belong, and grow.

On that same Inclusion web page, Deloitte talks about the six research-based inclusive behaviors to advance inclusion including Chief Inclusion Officer:

• Short and sweet
• The mention of a “chief inclusion officer” and the 6-behavior approach shows that Deloitte is putting a lot into inclusivity.

Deloitte also has a lengthier statement of Inclusivity here:  Six signature traits of inclusive leadership  (includes infographic).

Duo has this Inclusion statement on its job postings:

Duo is committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness. We are able to grow and learn better together with a diverse team of employees. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, innovation, self-expression, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents not only part of our culture, but our reputation and Duo’s achievement as well. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of their education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs.

• Written in Plain English (including first-person/second-person (we, you, etc)
• Nice line specific to their recruiting: “In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring”

Cisco’s inclusion statement (in its job postings that reads)

• Day to day, we focus on the give and take. We give our best, we give our egos a break and we give of ourselves (because giving back is built into our DNA). We take accountability, we take bold steps, and we take difference to heart. Because without diversity of thought and a commitment to equality for all, there is no moving forward.
• So, you have colorful hair? Don’t care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That’s cool. Pop culture geek? Many of us are. Passion for technology and world changing? Be you, with us!
• It’s an example of a large company showing they can be progressive

Cisco also has an Inclusion and Collaboration page .

PepsiCo had this Inclusion Statement on page 2 of a 28-page annual report on Diversity & Inclusion :

• They dedicated a 28-page report to inclusivity. Shows seriousness.
• They made a “Declaration” (not just a statement).
• Overall, this is an example of PepsiCo being different (in a great way) than many in the industry.

Google uses one Inclusion statement in its job postings:

At Google, we don’t just accept difference—we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

And Google has a longer one on its Inclusion Statement page:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. When we say we want to build for everyone, we mean everyone. To do that well, we need a workforce that’s more representative of the users we serve. Google is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. Our employees thrive when we get this right. We aim to create a workplace that celebrates the diversity of our employees, customers, and users. We endeavor to build products that work for everyone by including perspectives from backgrounds that vary by race, ethnicity, social background, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, and national origin. Read our 2019 Diversity Annual Report to hear from Danielle Brown, Vice President of Employee Engagement, and Melonie Parker, Global Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, on how we plan to deliver our strategy.

• Google’s job posting does a good job of combining the EEO/Inclusion Statement.
• In both Inclusivity statements, Google emphasizes that diversity transcends its products (they want Google the product to be inclusive) as well as their workforce.

Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org takes an ever deeper dive (check out their Inclusion statement page .

Mars’s Inclusion statement is:

Different perspectives, unique ways of thinking — our Associates are as varied as our products. This is true no matter what your role is or where you are in the organization. And we are working to increase diversity in all our management teams. We’re particularly focused on making sure women are equally represented in management positions. We recruit and reward Associates based on capability and performance — regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, lifestyle, age, educational background, national origin, religion or physical ability. Each Mars location, everywhere, is free to respond to local needs to create a culturally sensitive workplace for everyone. In doing so, we want every Mars Associate to feel our commitment to showing respect for all and encouraging open collaboration and communication.

• Gives an example of an inclusion goal (women in management)
• They mention that their different local offices are empowered to meet local needs

More Awesome Inclusion Statements

Editorial Additions September 4, 2020 — I found these other awesome examples of inclusion statements:

Edward Jones

We found Edward Jones’ Commitments to Inclusion, Diversity and Equity listed on their “About Us” page:

“We commit to a continued focus on equitable hiring, training, promotional practices and policies. Today, 8% of our financial advisors are people of color and 21% are women. In home office senior leadership roles, 9% are people of color and 30% are women. We will work for real change and progress in diverse recruitment, hiring and advancement.”

HPE’s commitment to global Inclusion & Diversity is a stand-out on its website . HPE says:

“ We believe anyone can change the world.  At HPE, we know that our greatest strengths come from the people who make up our team. So for us, inclusion and diversity is ingrained in who we are today because we know it’s what will get us to tomorrow. But our work is far from over. In fact, we continuously push for better.”

Netflix features diversity on their Careers page . Netflix says:

“ It Takes Diversity Of Thought, Culture, Background, And Perspective To Create A Truly Global Storytelling Platform.  Netflix is a global company, with a diverse member base, which is why the content we produce reflects that: global perspectives, global stories. As we grow globally, we know that we must have the most talented employees with diverse backgrounds, cultures, perspectives, and experiences to support our innovation and creativity. We are an equal opportunity employer and strive to build balanced teams from all walks of life.”

Jobcase’s job postings use this diversity and inclusion statement:

“If you are looking to join a company where you can proudly bring your whole self to work, we invite you to apply today. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion means that whoever you are, and whatever path you’ve taken to get here, we value you at Jobcase. We know that diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, interests, and skills are essential to build a great product that serves ALL people. If you can help drive success and have fun while doing it, we can’t wait to meet you! Apply to any and every role that feels like the right next step on your journey, regardless of the criteria we’ve listed.”

Inclusivity or inclusiveness — what’s the difference?

You probably noticed many of the examples above mention “inclusivity” but not “inclusiveness”. Are they the same? We found a couple of good explanations on Quora , that might help answer the question:

I would say that ‘inclusiveness’ is the passive state of being inclusive, whereas ‘inclusivity’ is the active state of being inclusive: “This office receives many awards for its inclusiveness, we have a very diverse team here.” “Our inclusivity has led to a very diverse team.”

In other words, they are closely synonymous but the language may be moving from ‘inclusiveness’ to ‘inclusivity’ as the preferred noun form of ‘inclusive’.

If you like this article, you might enjoy some of Ongig’s other blogs with tips on how to create diversity statements ,  diversity commitments , and diversity goals examples . Here’s a list to check out:

• 10 Examples of Awesome Diversity Statements
• 7 Examples of a Great Commitment to Diversity Statement
• 25+ Examples of Awesome Diversity Goals

Note: Another way to make a diversity statement is through diversity videos. Check out this article for inspiration:  Best Diversity and Inclusion Videos.

Why I wrote this?

Our mission here at Ongig is to transform your job descriptions to attract top-tier and diverse talent. Our Text Analyzer software analyzes every word of your job descriptions to ensure they are inclusive to everyone.

September 27, 2019 by Rob Kelly in Diversity and Inclusion

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