Vision

These guidelines may help you identify potential committee members:

If you need to ensure broad stakeholder participation for planning and implementation

• Invite senior leaders, such as:
  • Board members
  • Cabinet members
  • The SEL team
  • The strategic planning committee (ideally as part of the district strategic planning process)
• In addition, encourage principals, teachers, parents, and community leaders and members to be part of the vision-development team.

If you’re operating on a short timeline

• Gather a small group of senior district leaders, administrators, principals, teachers, and parents (two to four individuals).
• Choose this option if a small group of influential leaders in your district can ensure broad stakeholder participation in planning and implementation.

If you need effective stakeholder participation over the long term

• Assemble a working group of representative stakeholders, including
  • Teachers
  • Parents
  • Student representatives
  • Community leaders and members
• Be sure to include those who’ll be responsible for implementing or championing SEL (such as principals or teachers).

Once you’ve assembled your team, clearly communicate the group’s responsibilities, how you’ll be working together, and the timeline for creating and finalizing the vision statement.

An effective vision statement should:

• Provide a vivid description that motivates and energizes.
• Use clear and concise language and is stated in a few phrases or sentences.
• Contain a simple, powerful, or memorable phrase that is easy to remember and captures the larger vision, the big idea.
• Employ words that are charged with emotion.
• Represent the best possible outcome.
• Be written in present-tense language.

If your district has recently undergone district planning or school improvement, you may already have the information you need to complete the SEL vision. If not, you can adopt this process as a guide for creating your district’s shared SEL vision:

1. Answer Key Questions

Lead the group through a vision development brainstorm via a gallery walk, think-pair-share, small-group brainstorm, or other method to answer these key questions:

• What do we want all students to know and be able to do upon graduation? What social and emotional competencies should they have?
• What are our district’s goals, outcomes, and/or core values?
• How does SEL promote those goals, outcomes, core values, and student skills?
• What kind of culture and climate does our district want?
• What will our district look like after achieving our SEL vision?
  • What should SEL look and feel like in the district and schools?
  • How will we know when we have achieved that look and feel?
• Be written in present-tense language.

2. Craft a Vision Statement

Discuss your findings from the opening discussion and create a draft of your vision.

• Review your answers to the key questions and discuss the following:
  • What strong images and inspirational words or phrases emerge as themes? Identify patterns in the answers.
  • Which of these images and phrases will your district include in your SEL vision? Choose those that connect SEL strongly with existing district values and priorities. Use collaborative decision-making to narrow down your themes.
• Assign a writer or two from the group to craft those themes into an SEL vision statement. Alternately, if this is a group activity, have small groups brainstorm phases or sentences to represent key themes.
• Create one or two draft vision statements. An effective vision statement contains:
  • A few phrases or sentences and uses clear and concise language.
  • A powerful phrase that summarizes the big idea and is easy to remember.
• Review vision statements from other CDI districts for inspiration and ideas as you develop your own vision.
• Gather feedback from the team.
• Determine if any additional senior leaders should review the statement prior to seeking feedback districtwide.

3. Gather Feedback and Finalize

Gather feedback from central office staff, school leaders, teachers, union leaders, parents, students, and community members so you can finalize your vision statement.

• Find out what the vision statement means to these stakeholders. Ask:
  • Does it communicate what the team intended?
  • What questions does it raise?
  • Can these questions be answered in the vision statement or addressed in the SEL plan?
• Use focus groups, scheduled meetings, professional learning sessions, and other live events to gather comments, feedback, and suggestions for revisions. If this isn’t possible, request feedback by email or through an online collaboration tool.
  • Set realistic expectations for how you will use the feedback.
  • Share the timeline for completing the SEL vision and inform participants whether they’ll see another version before it’s finalized.
• Reconvene the authorship group to review feedback and incorporate important points.
• Finalize your vision statement or repeat this process as needed to gather a second round of feedback.

Integrate the SEL vision statement into district strategic planning activities.

Look for ways to share the vision statement with key audiences. Explain that a plan for achieving the vision for SEL is coming soon.

• Ideally the superintendent/CEO, board of education, and members of the district’s leadership team will spearhead communication of the district’s vision for SEL to multiple stakeholder groups.
• If possible, have a senior leader record a short video to announce the SEL vision to all district staff.

Be sure to reach out to all audiences who received an initial introduction to SEL to maintain their engagement.

Include the shared vision statement and continued calls-to-action in regular staff and faculty communications such as holiday messages, calendars, professional learning events, districtwide electronic communications, and updates on the plan implementation progress.

You can also include the vision statement in communications to students, families, and community members.

Incorporate the vision statement into your district’s web presence, including videos or other introductory materials prepared by district leadership. This may include your public website, employee intranet, and social media pages and feeds.

As you continue to refine your implementation of SEL, you may find that your original vision has shifted. Make time to take another look at your SEL vision and revise it as needed.

You can also include the vision statement in communications to students, families, and community members.

Incorporate the vision statement into your district’s web presence, including videos or other introductory materials prepared by district leadership. This may include your public website, employee intranet, and social media pages and feeds.

District Vision Statement Examples

Ideally, you should strive to develop a vision for SEL that is integrated into the overall vision of the district. Otherwise, you can begin with a vision statement that focuses mainly on your district’s efforts around SEL implementation. Here are some examples of SEL vision statements:

• Nashville - The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will build a comprehensive, coordinated, and systemic web of services by collaborating with schools, communities, and families to align resources so that students are academically successful and socially competent. We want to ensure that every student develops the social and emotional competencies essential for lifelong success.
• Chicago - The Office of Social & Emotional Learning (OSEL) partners with CPS schools and networks to develop and sustain supportive learning communities founded on caring relationships and robust multitiered systems of support (MTSS) that meet the social and emotional needs of all students. OSEL promotes the development of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, interpersonal skills, and responsible decision-making skills that students need for college, career, and life success.
• Sacramento - Our schools and communities nurture and maintain a positive environment where children, families, and staff acquire the knowledge to be successful, the compassion and values to care about others, and the skills to be responsible citizens.
• Oakland - Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process through which children and adults develop the fundamental skills for life effectiveness. These are the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work effectively and ethically. In OUSD, we believe that strengthening our social skills and competencies enhances our ability to connect across race, class, culture, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, learning needs and age. 
• Cleveland - The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is committed to providing safe and supportive schools where students can succeed and thrive.
• Anchorage - Anchorage School District believes that students who practice SEL skills are better able to perform at their best, academically and in life.
• Austin
  • Mission - Provide the tools for academic achievement, sound decision-making, positive relationships, and lifelong success.
  • Vision - Create a culture of caring and personal responsibility.
  • Core Values - Purposeful, Respectful, Innovative, Dedicated, Ethical, Collaborative