VISION:  Iola-Scandinavia Elementary School guides and prepares all students for success now and into the future.

MISSION: Iola-Scandinavia Elementary School is a place where all students are encouraged to strive for excellence academically, socially, and emotionally in a safe and supportive atmosphere. Our goal is to work in a partnership with our families and community to create an environment where students are empowered to discover their strengths and to achieve their maximum potential. Opportunities are available for enrichment and intervention to meet all students’ needs. Teachers work in collaboration to set high expectations to foster student growth. Our entire school community shares the belief that all children can and will learn.

COLLECTIVE COMMITMENTS: In order to achieve the shared vision of our school, Iola-Scandinavia Elementary staff have made the following collective commitments.

• Student needs are at the heart of all decisions.

• Provide a warm and welcoming environment for our students, staff and community.

• Encourage and foster positive relationships with students, staff and community.

• Identify and teach the agreed-upon essential learning outcomes, adhere to the curriculum pacing established by the team, and help our students discover what they can do with that knowledge.

• Use the results from our common assessments to improve our individual and collective practice and to meet the enrichment and intervention needs of our students.

• Contribute to an effective system of enrichment and intervention.

• Be positive contributing members of our team as we work interdependently to achieve shared goals and demonstrate mutual accountability.

• Engage in open frequent two-way communication among students, families, and community, provide families with ongoing information about their children, and offer specific ideas and materials to help families become full partners in the ongoing education of their children.

• Contribute to a culture of celebration by acknowledging the efforts and achievements of our students and colleagues as we continually strive for greater success.

• Agree to a common language about behavioral expectations, model that behavior, and consistently reinforce our expectations.

• Consider all points of view and come to work each day as the best version of ourselves.

Literacy Beliefs

• Students should read and write for enjoyment.

• For students to improve as readers and writers, they should read and write every day for a sustained period.

• Students should read and write for authentic audiences and purposes.

• Having students participate in meaningful conversations about books improves comprehension and understanding.

• Students who read more, or are read to daily, develop larger vocabularies and tend to be better readers and writers thus strengthening their life skills.

• Students need to interact with well written examples from teachers, parents, authors and peers to write well.

• Reading or listening to quality fiction and nonfiction books positively influences writing.

• Having students talk about what they are going to write before they write, makes the writing easier for students and improves writing quality.

• Students should be expected to edit their own work and spell grade level words correctly.

Instructional Beliefs

• Essential learning outcomes and learning targets will be clearly defined and communicated to students, parents, and community.

• Students will have daily opportunities to engage in meaningful learning activities that connect their learning across all content areas.

• Students will have choices in a literacy rich environment across all content areas.

• Students will have daily opportunities to discuss, share, and reflect upon their learning with peers.

• Instruction will be modeled and focused with a clear lesson purpose, that includes whole group, small group support and independent practice.

• Student learning will be enhanced through timely constructive teacher feedback leading to student goal setting and reflection.

• Student learning will be enhanced through the use of frequent, consistent and varied assessments to guide instruction.

• Students will monitor their growth throughout the school year to set appropriate learning goals.