When Washington initially began our STEM journey our mission was to empower students to be innovative thinkers who employ STEM concepts in their learning pathways to  solve real world problems. The vision at that time was to create a sustainable STEM program verified through STEM certification for the Washington Cluster. Collaboration with the cluster schools and principals helped us to establish our STEM pathways and establish cohorts through a vetting process. The goal was to support the STEM exposure students were receiving on the elementary and middle school level more extensively.  Our school has a STEM leadership team that helps make decisions regarding our school improvement plan, course offerings, instructional models, curriculum development, master scheduling, teacher endorsements, parent involvement workshops, and more. Our STEM leadership team meets monthly and sometimes bi weekly as needed to evaluate practices to support STEM. As a result a STEM strategic plan was developed to adequately address the STEM vision, mission, and STEM continuum standards. This helps to ensure the STEM mission and vision is embedded into the culture of the school.

 

Reflection of why our cluster chose STEM as a cluster model prompted swift action to modify our mission and vision. Our leadership team recognized that developing a strong vision and mission statements would further help new stakeholders have a common understanding of the school's goal and what we hope to see in the future. Upon review of  the previous mission and vision  the STEM leadership team  was compelled to solicit students and the community to revise the mission and vision of the program to reflect the historic and rich legacy of the school and our namesake, Booker T. Washington. Below are samples of the revised missions and visions.

 

EXAMPLE 1:

Mission:

To  empower students to reflect  on our historic mementos as a community to tackle diversity through unique opportunities in STEM.

 

Vision:

 

Booker T. Washington students are equipped with a strong skill set to create positive change in their community for our name sake.

 

EXAMPLE 2:

Mission:

To inspire and motivate underserved students to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as a reflection of our namesake

 

Vision:

To provide and  promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in underserved communities to maximize student potential to meet the challenges of the world.

 

EXAMPLE 3:

Mission:

To prepare students to be college and career ready though STEM education founded on our namesake.

 

Vision:

To create an environment that promotes Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and encourages students to be life-long learners and give back to their community.

 

After much thought and reflection the revised mission and vision was created  along with a proposal to support an updated course progression, as well as another more fluid project based learning outline of themes. Please see revised vision and mission below this statement. 

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The leaders at BTW High School collaborated to ensure the vision for their students and the community was rooted in their legacy. An AgSTEM education will prepare students to become leading experts in areas that include agricultural sciences, food and nutritional sciences, 

biomedical sciences, human medicine, agribusiness,environmental policy, natural resource management, and urban and rural development at local levels. Utilizing their knowledge, skill, and experience, they will be equipped to build upon community assets to address many economic and environmental challenges facing Atlanta’s Westside.

 

Opportunities for Improvement

Our STEM leadership team recognizes the importance of retaining highly qualified staff with a variety of skill sets. As a team we are looking at ways to retain and recruit highly qualified professionals committed to STEM integration. We are also constantly looking for better ways to expand our knowledge.

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