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Click the plus sign below each column to share your thoughts about our Maverick Beliefs.

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Click the plus sign below each column to share your thoughts about our Maverick Beliefs.

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CONSIDER:

What works well in these statements?

What do we need to adjust based on a new reality?

What needs to change in our beliefs and mindsets to become practitioners, rather than philosophers, of equity?

How should our beliefs reflect these focus areas:

Anti-Racism and dismantling white supremacy

Technology literacy

Social & emotional learning

Grading for equity

Reflecting, honoring, and serving the community in which we exist

Strong academic skills that empower our students to disrupt the status quo

Click the <3 on comments that resonate with you!

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Each column to the right represents a component of our Vision of Success.

Click the plus sign below each column to share your thoughts!

Use the Like feature to recognize other posts that resonate with you.

We will guide you through reflecting on each part of the VOS.

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Consider the following questions as you reflect on the Why, How, and What from our Vision of Success. 

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Consider the following questions as you reflect on the Why, How, and What from our Vision of Success. 

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What works?

What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission?

What do we need to adjust based on shifts in our priorities or realities?

Consider what has changed or how we have grown as a school in the past 2-3 years that may require a change to our Why, How, or What.

Click the image below to enlarge it.
Click the plus sign below to share your thoughts.
Click the <3 on comments that resonate with you!

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Are there additional goals that we should set?

What are the tangible metrics we use to track progress toward our What?

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Click the image below to enlarge.

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Consider: What ideas are missing from our belief statements?

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Consider: What ideas are missing from our belief statements?

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Your ideas may or may not fit into one of our values (community, educational equity, or continuous improvement).

Click the plus sign below to suggest additions to our belief statements.
Click the <3 on comments that resonate with you!

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We recognize that our Vision of Success must change in our to guide our work.
Here are some areas in which we know revision is needed:

Anti-Racism and combatting white supremacy

Technology literacy

Social & emotional learning

Grading

Reflecting, honoring, and serving the community in which we exist

Strong academic skills that empower our students to disrupt the status quo

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ONE member of your group should click the plus sign below to share your group's takeaways.

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ONE member of your group should click the plus sign below to share your group's takeaways.

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1. The why: all children have the right to equal educational opportunity
2. Build community

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1. The aid and support YES Prep provides to families, like the distribution of laptops, works because it gives equal access to online learning.
2. The need to fight for educational equity should remain a core part of our vision.
3. If we want to provide exceptional educational services for students to live choice-filled lives, then I would suggest providing a curriculum in school apart from academics. Many high schools provide classes in welding, cooking, mechanics, etc. which is a valuable form of education. If we can be innovative and provide a variety of education that is crucial but not taught traditionally, then we can help the communities we serve move upwards in the social ladder. Perhaps funding is a major issue here, I would suggest using some of the funding of building other schools to strengthen some of our already established schools or we can avoid spending it on unnecessary improvements like the fence around us and allocate it on the student's educational experience at Southwest.

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Leventhal                  Continuous improvement has always been what has resonated with me. I would like us to continue to focus on that because to me, it means that we are always trying to learn from the past and present to make the future more effective for our students.           

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Leventhal                  Continuous improvement has always been what has resonated with me. I would like us to continue to focus on that because to me, it means that we are always trying to learn from the past and present to make the future more effective for our students.           

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I think that we should be committed to providing opportunities for our students who are not represented by the decision makers in our society.

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All children have the right to educational opportunity works.  I think they all should remain a core part. Adjust "education opportunity"... add "and emotional support" 

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All children have the right to educational opportunity works.  I think they all should remain a core part. Adjust "education opportunity"... add "and emotional support" 

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What Works/Should Stay: 'choice-filled lives', 'ALL children'

Needs to Change: Be more upfront about what 'building community' means. Possibly changing it to Building and Fostering Community.

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1. What works? Ensuring that all kids have the opportunity to a great education. 2. What needs to be adjusted? Being open-minded about changes need to help our students be successful not just today but tomorrow and in their future. 3. What has changed in the last 2-3 years that is not helping our growth? We are continuing to hold our students hands, which is not the reality that they will face when they are ready to reach their goal of attending college.

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1. What works? Ensuring that all kids have the opportunity to a great education. 2. What needs to be adjusted? Being open-minded about changes need to help our students be successful not just today but tomorrow and in their future. 3. What has changed in the last 2-3 years that is not helping our growth? We are continuing to hold our students hands, which is not the reality that they will face when they are ready to reach their goal of attending college.

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Making sure that ALL kids have access to a quality education.

What need to change: Change the mindset of people only being successful if they go to college. This is toxic because it limits the options that we are teaching kids. (This is changing but needs to be more mainstream).

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What works/should stay: The why is solid
What should change: (1) Building community very largely seemed to be more of a stated priority than an actual priority for most of this year--both for our students and for our staff. We should either change that state of affairs or stop claiming it as a priority. (2) Educational Equity is a rather broad phrase and I've heard it used as a tautological justification for quite a few things that fall outside the realm of my understanding of equity this year. Words matter; we should be more clear about what that means.

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I believe that we should allow the VOS's how what and why drive how we achieve these goals. We should continue focusing on how we can all remain aligned with all three. Additionally, I feel like we focus on one more than others as the time progresses. We should determine a way to make all three a priority at all times.

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Continuous Growth must remain a core value. I believe we are all always trying to get better at what we do and how we serve our students.
This year specially we saw many ongoing changes to the grading policy and the online program so that we were more efficient. A lot of it seemed to work and some of it felt like extra work.

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What works/should stay:
I find that the Why, How, and What still resonate as important cornerstones of our school.

Something to consider:
Our commitment to education equality specifically focuses on undoing the harmful effects of systems of oppression. How could this component be reflected in our WHW?

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ALL children have the right to educational opportunity. 

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ALL children have the right to educational opportunity. 

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There is a huge difference between equality and equity. I do believe we have the best interest in our hearts when it comes to our special pops, but we need to do more! We need to make sure we are fulfilling their accommodations not only in the testing environment, but in the general education classroom. If we are not differentiating instruction and providing accommodations, then we are not providing educational opportunity.
I also wish we had life skills classes available for ALL students. College is not meant for every student and we need to teach these young children skills they need to learn in the real-world, e.g. cooking, doing laundry, how to build something, etc.

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We should adjust our How and What to be more explicitly anti-racist and add that we are striving to create an anti-racist school and community. We cannot fully build community or achieve educational equity until we state that that is part of our VoS so that all staff and students can keep it at the forefront and focus on it as a priority.
- Sheikh

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fighting for educational equity

What should change - getting students ready for college ready

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What works?

Fight for educational equity and fight for continuous improvement

What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission?

Educational equity and continuous improvement

What do we need to adjust based on shifts in our priorities or realities?

Shift language from college ready to workplace ready or something that includes other opportunities available after high school

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I think our “Why” works. We could also go into more detail of what it means and what all children having the right to an educational opportunity means for our campus specifically.

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1. Choice filled lives
2. Continue building community and educational opportunities

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We should expound upon the Why. Moving toward being an antiracist school we should include that. We should also describe action steps in our how or what

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What works?: Our why. Also, this group of professionals I know is committed to continuous improvement. I also think that we really strive to instill that in our students every step of the way. Many of our students overcome great challenges due to this commitment to improvement. I also think that we strive to build community - and it can be improved.

What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission? - Our why, our how.

What do we need to adjust based on shifts in our priorities or realities? - I think our what has/needs to change.

Consider what has changed or how we have grown as a school in the past 2-3 years that may require a change to our Why, How, or What.

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What should remain a core value:  ALL students having educational equity.

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What should remain a core value:  ALL students having educational equity.

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this can mean a really crappy educational opportunity. this phrase should be qualified. each student needs access to the support and resources they need to be successful.

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I appreciate that our Vision incorporates student choice and think we should continue to emphasize this.

I also think we should mention taking a critical view of our educational practices in light of our anti-racist policies (though this sort of falls under Continuous Improvement, and maybe belongs more in Maverick Beliefs)

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What works: Making sure all students have the right to educational opportunity.

What needs to stay the same is continuous improvement. We should always strive to be better.

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Building community. Having a ritual that welcomes alumni back for current students to see their successes

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What works?  Our campus is usually responsive to feedback.

What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission?  Continuous improvement should remain

What do we need to adjust based on shifts in our priorities or realities? We need to adjust our anti-racism efforts to be part of our vision

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Educational Opportunity| this focus area I appreciate because all kids deserve the right to education.

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Educational Opportunity| this focus area I appreciate because all kids deserve the right to education.

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We do our best to make sure that every student has access to working resources that contribute to learning

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We do our best to make sure that every student has access to working resources that contribute to learning

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👍🏾Equity-based
👎🏾 College focus

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I'm having a difficult time finding a way to change this - I think it fits us pretty well - emphasizing ALL students and giving them choice in their lives.

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I'm having a difficult time finding a way to change this - I think it fits us pretty well - emphasizing ALL students and giving them choice in their lives.

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I appreciate the Vision of Success. I am curious on how building community would be like next year?

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What works?

What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission?

Equitable education for all

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What should remain a core part of our vision, values, and way of achieving our mission? Seeing "all students" is amazing to note.

What do we need to adjust based on shifts in our priorities or realities?

The idea of college being the absolute focus, or at least the traditional route to a higher education. I also believe that pushing younger students to read more "real" texts that are allowed in HS will benefit their comprehension of the world around them, rather than living in a filtered world. They know what is happening already(they have the world's info in their hands), so why should we be subject to filtering what is being provided to them.

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This works for us. We are always trying to find ways to improve and that should remain.

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What works: The part that mentions giving students choice filled lives.

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College readiness as a focus, but a shift toward recognizing that college is a choice and does not always fit a students vision of success for themselves and that is okay.

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WW: Building a classroom community
WNA: getting student equity in testing

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Mavericks believes that understanding and systems sustain our community

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Who are the people that make a difference? Teachers? Students? Random strangers? Most people? Some people? All people?

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I like the people make a difference one - but what does it mean? That change and love are done through people? Which people? Staff - how can we not overwork staff? Students - how can we not overwhelm students?

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'Systems sustain our community' is vague and does not describe what exactly this means. Name what systems we are referring to.

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"Families are a crucial stakeholder in our movement towards educational equity."

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"Families are a crucial stakeholder in our movement towards educational equity."

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I think that more effective efforts need to be made to get families actually involved and engaged in the going-ons of the school/schools/district. PTO's? More family education? A platform to effectively communicate with and engage our families?

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There's a lot of unqualified blind faith attributed to "systems" here. A big piece of our discussion about anti-racism this year has been about how our systems have failed our community of students (i.e. the dress code in years past). We don't yet know which systems we're currently executing that we'll come to realize are hurting some or all of our students in years to come, so I would like to see the language change here to something like "tested systems" or "proven systems" or "anti-racist systems." Or maybe even scrap the faith in our systems bit entirely.

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Mavericks believe our diversity gives strength.

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Mavericks believe our diversity gives strength.

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Each student has specific strengths and weaknesses that make them need different support.

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Mavericks believe all students deserve access to a rigorous,...,education.

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Mavericks believe all students deserve access to a rigorous,...,education.

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How are we helping students achieve this if we are continuing to make the path easier instead of rigorous education? Focusing on reaching what areas where students are not successful is more aligned than unlimited retakes or corrections.

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Mavericks believe that systems sustain our community 

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Mavericks believe that systems sustain our community 

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Define and describe the systems that are being referred in this belief.

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"Systems" sustain our communities sounds...systemic to me. Which I feel we are looking to move away from. Could this be stated better?

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"Systems" sustain our communities sounds...systemic to me. Which I feel we are looking to move away from. Could this be stated better?

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There should also be some focus on questioning and redefining these "systems" to ensure they are inclusive for all.

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"educational equity and emotional development."

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Systems - important but changing too often

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Systems - important but changing too often

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I DO agree systems are important - like holding students accountable - but they were constantly in flux in this past year, and it made it difficult. It will need to be solid and unmoving next year as some kids come back from having not been in a school environment for over a year.

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"families are crucial stakeholders" is something I dont really see across all students

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I believe we should look into the grading for equity belief. I love how we are giving students multiple opportunities to increase their grade; however, I am nervous the multiple opportunities and back grading will not help our students be college ready. In reality, if students receive a failing grade in college, there are not retake opportunities and back grading available.

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educational equity plays a huge role at sw, it should not be adjusted, but should remain

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educational equity plays a huge role at sw, it should not be adjusted, but should remain

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Mavs believe people make the difference in our work.- As a collective, we have to be mentally prepared to take on this work. Getting to be an anti-racist school takes dedication as it is never-ending.

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Mavs believe people make the difference in our work.- As a collective, we have to be mentally prepared to take on this work. Getting to be an anti-racist school takes dedication as it is never-ending.

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Ensuring that all students have access to an education that will allow them to be competitive in the world should be a right. I think we do a good job at making sure we do this for all students. I think this statement works well by focusing on dismantling white supremacy.

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Ensuring that all students have access to an education that will allow them to be competitive in the world should be a right. I think we do a good job at making sure we do this for all students. I think this statement works well by focusing on dismantling white supremacy.

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Our vision should include a belief in our students being productive and constructive members of our society. Looking at ways to improve and increase the dialogue for the betterment of our lives.

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Our vision should include a belief in our students being productive and constructive members of our society. Looking at ways to improve and increase the dialogue for the betterment of our lives.

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Systems need to be better informed by anti-racist practices and taking into consideration the social and emotional well being of the child (and teachers!)

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Adding more Queer and Gender Conversations 

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Adding more Queer and Gender Conversations 

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We are not including Queer representation to help them understand who they. Like offering a class or some dialog about Gender/ Sexuality for students who they are.

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"Family are crucial stakeholders" - I love this part of the mission but I am not sure if this is lived out well.

Also in the statement about systems - I feel we should have consistent systems that are well applied across all grade levels in order to be a successful school.

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do we think school should be joyful and happy?

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I think students are included when it come to people who make the difference in our work and that should be explicity stated.  I think more structures/systems that recognize students in a consistent way accross grade levels would help students feel this. We do this with Mav & Climber awards, Maverick of the month and I think it could be more consistent. 

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I think students are included when it come to people who make the difference in our work and that should be explicity stated.  I think more structures/systems that recognize students in a consistent way accross grade levels would help students feel this. We do this with Mav & Climber awards, Maverick of the month and I think it could be more consistent. 

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Believing that families are stakeholder for movement in education equity.

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Believing that families are stakeholder for movement in education equity.

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I can reason with this statement from my experience. I believe that this is crucial in students engaging academically. However, this is not the case for many of our students. This brings to question who or what is the motivation for students engaging academically. I feel this puts us in the Social & emotional learning criteria that may be a barrier for some students.

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I think data-driven decisions matter, but I want us to push for GROWTH over other stats this coming year. With large gaps in knowledge students will have, we can't look at old STAAR data and be like "Why are we not here?" we need to focus on targeting students and watching for growth. - and that needs to be evident to teachers when talking to DOIs so we can keep ourselves grounded.

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"data-driven decision making" ... sounds as if we are out of touch with other priorities such as what effects equity (race, economic standing, emotional implications, etc..)

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Perhaps we should consider adding anti-racist to the belief statement of being an effective educator.

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As a first year teacher, I'm a bit lost on what this means. Systems as in organized ways of working? Standardized processes for doing things? I would like the language to be more specific.

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Our children are so talented and need a FULL arts program to allow them the space and opportunity for personal expression . When we talk about equity in all forms, we need to acknowledge the role that visual and performing arts have on our students!

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A part of equity (diversity) is exposing and recognizing all of their differences by aiding them in conversations or providing spaces that help them with their identity. Helping them reach full potential through providing more subjects other than basic STEM.

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The language is vague and I think we could benefit from being more clear on what we mean by people. As others have pointed out, are we talking about students, families, teachers etc. and if we are, then perhaps we should be more specific and identify how each of these groups makes a difference (or can make a difference).

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I think there should be something said about building community among students   and having that community as a school

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"Pursuit of Development Comes from Within"

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"Pursuit of Development Comes from Within"

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Recognizing that personal development outside of work (ie. care for mental health) contributes to a person's ability to improve within the professional world.

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Since we are continuing to improve, we must continue to clearly define how we will be anti-racist. Naming it will help us track that better.

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Mavericks believe people make the difference in our work. 

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Mavericks believe people make the difference in our work. 

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What does that mean? What people and what kind of difference are we trying to compare to/against

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Mavericks believe that people make the difference in our work works well in these statements because there's many systems designed to improve the quality of a teacher's professionalism and ability to teach.
We need to advocate, especially for new teachers, the need to create a system that works for them to help them balance their school and personal life. Although it is one of our beliefs, I don't hear this get encouraged as often as it should.

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Mavs believe all students desire to learn and being successful- the reality is that not students desire to learn or be in a learning environment (which is unfortunate); however, those that do are successful in their academics.

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Mavs believe all students desire to learn and being successful- the reality is that not students desire to learn or be in a learning environment (which is unfortunate); however, those that do are successful in their academics.

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"Comes from within" --> "comes from within oneself" or "must be intrinsically motivated"

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We speak on equity, but what about having and welcoming a diverse school?

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Educational equity is a phrase that needs more clear definitions and parameters, because that phrase is getting thrown at a LOT of things as a self-justifying justification, and that discourages thoughtful critiques because no one wants to be an enemy of equity (I would call that a vice rather than a virtue, but maybe that's the whole point).

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Discipline practices should assume students want to be successful students. Students won't always assimilate to our specific definition of success within school so how do we continue to try to make this a conversation with kids versus a punitive experience for them.

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I would challenge us to track growth. I think the STAAR goals still make sense, but it's possible that some of those values are not reasonable considering how some kids have not attended classes for months or kids have had a hard time learning at home.

I am not sure HOW to measure that, though.... if anyone has any thoughts. :)

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We're missing inclusion of more diversity, genuine ally-ship, and student voices when it comes to making decisions.

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Are there additional goals that we should set?

I think we should have a goal in measuring student's emotional/mental health. As great as the data driven goals are, we have to take into consideration what that can do to a student's well being. If we are focusing on being community driven, then that should be measured as well.

What are the tangible metrics we use to track progress toward our What?

As to what was previously mentioned, there should be an active survey MIDY and EOY that allows students to do mental wellness checks to ensure we are allowing them the space to feel that they are cared for.