I was a principal in a middle/high school when schools in our region were shifting to proficiency-based graduation requirements. As our faculty worked to adopt and adapt the model standards provided by the state, we put a lot of thought into even the smallest changes. For instance, English standards require students to be able to write in different ways for different audiences.  Changing “audiences” to “authentic audiences” altered what the standard was asking of our students – and of us!  

At UVEI we’ve been engaged in some revisions of our mission statement and core values over the past two years, as part of our strategic planning cycle. Considering words, phrases, and their collective meaning has demanded a lot of reflection – from many different stakeholder groups.  An essential question guiding this work, as posed by the governing board’s committee was, “Does our mission, core values, and approach still represent our central purpose and direction?”

As a member of the strategic planning committee on mission & purpose, I believe that our final result reflects UVEI’s core commitments and the core work we do. Some of the revisions reflect small changes that have occurred over the past ten years since we last went through this process; while others simply clarify essential elements of who we are.

Partnership in the Mission

Our earlier mission statement, adopted in 2020, was a merger of the two mission statements of our licensure programs (formerly UVEI) and our graduate degree and professional education programs (formerly UVGSE). The mission of UVEI is to prepare, inspire and support teachers and school leaders to improve the quality of education for learners in their classrooms, schools and communities. As a graduate school of education, we do this by engaging reflective educators in developing their knowledge, understanding and clinical practice for the benefit of their students and colleagues. 

Here is our new mission statement, approved by the board in January 2025. UVEI partners with school communities to engage, inspire, and challenge educators, developing their ability to make classrooms and schools places where all people belong and thrive.

What differences do you notice?

One notable change, to us, is the new emphasis on partnerships with school communities in the opening phrase. This was discussed in depth: in board committee work, faculty/staff consultations and meetings, and in full board meetings. 

Chris Ward, Academic Dean and Graduate Studies Coordinator, notes that this change reflects a new emphasis but no true departure from UVEI’s enduring work to prepare and support teachers and school leaders to do the work of school improvement across our region. “The new mission statement captures what is most essential about UVEI’s work with educators — as partners, with shared goals to build healthy schools and communities.”

Core Values find New Voice

“Which of our core values most characterizes your experience at UVEI?” is a question we asked faculty and staff as well as candidates in our licensure and degree programs over the last year. Principal candidates often highlighted Equity & Justice, while teacher candidates identified Collaboration as among the most significant, and candidates in all programs found Analytical and Reflective Inquiry to be among the top most lived values.

Faculty and staff, meanwhile, noted that UVEI’s increased emphasis on restorative and democratic practices in our curriculum and teaching may merit more explicit emphasis. 

This data, together with input from the board committee over several iterations, informed our choice of words and phrases in our new Core Values: 

Collaboration:   We believe that learning is a collective responsibility and the result of shared work.

Continuous Improvement:   We believe that classrooms and schools improve as a result of incremental change over time. We engage in inquiry by analytically examining our work; identifying problems of practice; engaging with new ideas and evidence; and approaching improvement with a spirit of rigorous experimentation, intellectual humility, and learning.

Equity & Justice:   We believe that all people deserve places of learning and work where the strengths of diverse identities are honored, and people belong and thrive. When patterns of inequality reveal injustice, we are committed to taking productive action.

Integrity:   We believe that educators should strive to keep our commitments, maintain honesty and transparency, and to acknowledge when we fall short. When harm occurs, we believe people should have the opportunity and expectation to make things right.

Growth-orientation:   We believe that people can grow; and that our abilities, skills, knowledge, and dispositions are not fixed but evolve from individual and collective efforts.

Relationships:   We believe that relationships based on mutual respect, care, empathy, and trust are the cornerstone of healthy educational communities.  Healthy relationships require each of us to see the worth and dignity of every person.

Self-Reflection:   We believe growing and learning as people, educators, and community members requires  continuously examining and reexamining what we do and why we do it.

Voice:   We believe that schools and educational institutions should model inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. This includes the democratic principle that people should have a voice in the decisions that impact them.

New – Yet Unchanged

UVEI’s President, Page Tompkins, has been with the organization since 2013.  With this historical perspective, I wondered what he thought about the changes.  “A lot of the mission has stayed remarkably consistent, not only during my tenure, but going all the way back to the 1960s,” says Page. “Both the ideas of supporting schools and having a developmental perspective of educators have been there throughout. I would say how we express our values has shifted more. For example, we now emphasize continuous improvement and incremental growth, which reflects our emerging understanding of how schools improve.”  

Marie McCormick, a UVEI teacher alum from 2007 who has been our registrar since 2014 adds that “It seems that even the ‘new’ elements of our core values, such as our commitment to taking productive action against injustice, have been part of UVEI’s work for as long as I can remember. It’s our understanding of these values that has grown over time, as we have looked at our work and how it fits with the needs of the educational community.” 

Ongoing Work & Reflection

This work is always ongoing and intersects with our NECHE accreditation process as well as our ongoing objectives to be reflective about what we do, why we do it and, as we say in the PIP program, whether our espoused values align with our lived values. We have already begun the next phase of this work: using the new mission and core values as a lens to review and update our admissions processes, grievance procedures, and other elements of our policies and procedures. For more information about the process used to inform revisions, as well as the work that lies ahead, please reach out!

Elijah Hawkes is the Director for School Leadership Programs at UVEI. He is a former principal of Randolph Union High School in Randolph, VT; and was a founding principal of the James Baldwin School in New York City.