While a new strategic plan for the Davis County School District contains numerous and detailed entries regarding collaboration, lifelong learning and preparation for employment, its mission statement is direct and unembellished:
"Our mission is to educate all students as they prepare for a productive life in a changing world."It being the most important part of the strategic plan, the simplicity of the mission statement may be misleading, said Superintendent Richard Kendell and Board of Education President Dan Eastman.
"As our understanding of the learning process broadens, as technology develops, and as the demands and expectations of government and society expand, our ability to deliver becomes ever a more complex challenge," they said in a statement.
The evolving nature of education is reflected in the strategic plan, which sounds themes quite different from those of bygone years.
Collaboration between community and school, continued learning and preparation for employment pop up throughout the plan, reflecting an increased emphasis state- and nationwide in those areas in recent years.
With funding becoming increasingly scare, schools have been looking to business partnerships to pick up the slack. The Davis strategic plan advocates the expansion of such programs.
Administrators are also moving away from rote learning, instead emphasizing training students to research, plan, attack and solve problems.
The plan also discusses SEOPs (student education/occupation plans) at length. Utah school counselors are using SEOPs heavily to help students figure out what they want to do when they grow up, and what classes to take to prepare for that occupation.
Administrators laud SEOPs as helping students focus their efforts instead of haphazardly registering for classes that simply look fun or that fit easily into their schedules.
The strategic plan specifically supports more school days rather than fewer, as well as site-based decisionmaking and community councils.