{"id":7402,"date":"2017-08-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/the-mission-and-the-message\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:02:56","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:02:56","slug":"the-mission-and-the-message","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/the-mission-and-the-message\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mission and the Message"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nHow we found our \u2018why\u2019<\/em><\/span>\u2014<\/span>and how we\u2019ve used it to create urgency and<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

common purpose in our community\u2019s quest for greater educational equity.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Julianna Charles Brown, Jeremy Chan-Kraushar, Joy Nolan, and Patrick Williamson of <\/span>Mastery Collaborative<\/span><\/a>, a program of New York City Department of Education\u2019s Office of Postsecondary Readiness<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Any school that has embarked on shifting to mastery-based teaching and learning can tell you that messaging and mission are vital to this complex endeavor\u2014which affects every aspect of teaching, learning, assessment, and school culture. A clear and powerful mission inspires all stakeholders to connect to and invest in the work more deeply and authentically. Without a clear mission, the work of a school or any organization is susceptible to a lack of focus, resistance from within, and confusion in implementation. As a leader, it\u2019s hard to call the shots without a guiding mission. As a member of a community, it is necessary to have clarity about what\u2019s happening and why.<\/span><\/p>\n

A strong mission statement articulates the \u2018<\/span>why\u2019<\/span><\/i> that powers the work. Great missions connect the day-to-day operations of an organization with a desired larger impact, and ideally, all stakeholders can contribute to its creation. Once a strong mission is developed, it should then become fundamental to the way you speak about your work. When taking on large and complex endeavors\u2014like transitioning away from traditional education to mastery-based models\u2014the \u2018<\/span>why\u2019<\/span><\/i> must be meaningful and inspiring enough to justify the sustained focus required to accomplish multidimensional school change over several years\u2019 time. In working with our school partners, we help to co-create communications materials and provide training that supports school leaders and staff in talking to parents, students, community partners and others about their school’s mastery-based systems. We also model the kind of mission-driven communications that practitioners can use to think about their own communications approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

How we found our \u2018why\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

We started the <\/span>Mastery Collaborative<\/span><\/a> (MC) in 2015-16, to form a community for dozens of schools across New York City that were implementing mastery-based shifts in relative isolation. We dedicated that first year to creating a lively community of practice with and for member schools, and learning from them about mastery implementation models around the city. While visiting schools, we noticed a distinct feel in more advanced competency-based schools. There was positive energy in the air, and there was a shift in the adult\/student power dynamic\u2014as one school leader put it, \u201cStudents here have lots of choice and freedom, and lots of responsibility to their own learning and to our school community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In these schools, students regularly described what they were learning\u00a0<\/span>and why and were able to pinpoint how they could improve; we were seeing the self-confidence and assurance of students who valued school and felt they belong there, who were were empowered to own their learning\u2014and we were seeing educators who believe in the young people they work with, and who understand that power is not a zero-sum game. Helping students find their power as learners only makes a class more compelling and powerful for them. Giving up a position as a lecturer at the front of the room only means finding more power as a facilitator of students\u2019 learning. By the conclusion of MC year one, a hypothesis was forming: that there was a unique connection between mastery-based shifts, culturally responsive practices, and equity. To share out these ideas, we made program videos such as <\/span>Why make the shift to mastery-based learning?<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>How does mastery transform school for students and teachers?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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This definition of educational equity has been meaningful to our team as we explore how mastery and CRE together can create more equitable learning for young people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We began our second year knowing we had \u00a0to explore the connection between mastery, cultural responsiveness, and equity. The MC community of schools eagerly joined in, digging deeper into the <\/span>why <\/span><\/i>of mastery learning, and the philosophy that both demands and powers these complex shifts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In year 2, we asked each MC member school to create a goal for infusing CRE into their mastery-based practices. Additionally, we asked everyone in our community of educators to attend an anti-bias training called \u201cTalking about race and mastery.\u201d We set up a series of dates for small sessions of this training, hoping everyone could find a time to come together to explore the intersections of race and schooling. We also facilitated a working group that met online and in person across the year to explore the intersection of mastery and CRE. This group developed the <\/span>Equity Snapshot, which beings to detail the ways that CRE and mastery intersect<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our school-based community members contributed reactions, opinions, and ideas around our mastery-and-equity hypothesis. At trainings, gatherings, and site visits, we invited and made time for conversations and written input about the relationships between mastery, cultural responsiveness, and equity. We made a practice of synthesizing, incorporating, and sharing out practitioners\u2019 ideas about philosophy and practices. <\/span><\/p>\n

We learned so much from and with educators at mastery-based schools across the city, who delved into exploring CRE and mastery: a<\/span>dministrators, schools counselors, and teachers implementing mastery in our schools. In our <\/span>anti-bias trainings<\/span><\/a> and working group sessions, certain elements of mastery rose to the top as most closely aligned to academic research on culturally responsive education: <\/span><\/p>\n