Our community has shared many consistent themes about what it values in its schools: high quality academics including a wide variety of Advanced Placement courses, engaging elective options in the arts at the elementary and secondary level, athletics, gifted and special education programming, diversity, world language offerings, and frugality.

In order to position Mason City schools for the future, together, we must develop the bold steps that are needed to achieve the vision.

Mason City Schools Bold Steps

Global Discovery
(MCS Priorities: High Impact Learning and Deep Parent & Community Partnerships)

By 2020, every student will have the opportunity to participate in an international experience - even without leaving Mason.

Why? Students need to build their capacity to communicate and solve problems as active members of our global community.

 

2015-2016 Goals:

1. Identify global connections within grade level standards, and design a global discovery framework.

 

2. Develop new international partnerships rooted within the Mason community.

Leadership

(MCS Priorities:High Impact Learning, superb Staff Support )

By 2020, every student and staff member will practice and demonstrate leadership in an authentic experience based on needs and interests that is part of each Comet’s Personalized Growth Plan.

• Why? Students and staff need to serve and shape their community in purposeful ways in order to make their lives meaningful and their community better.

 

2015-2016 Goals:

1. Student: Expand student leadership opportunities in the school and community.

 

2. Staff: Enhance district leaders’ capacity by providing growth-evoking feedback through a coaching cohort.
   
   

3. Staff: Enhance teachers’ leadership by strengthening Building Leadership Teams and the Teacher Leadership Academy.
   
   

Anytime, Anywhere Learning
(MCS Priorities: High Impact Learning and Superb Staff Support)

By 2020, Mason City Schools will offer learning opportunities both inside the school setting and beyond the schools’ walls including online learning opportunities and internships that are driven by a data culture. Students will naturally integrate personal learning devices.

• 
  Why? Students need to build career skills that prepare them to think critically & innovatively, and work collaboratively.
  
  

2015-2016 Goals

1. Expand innovative classroom practices that personalize learning for all students.

 

2. Develop an internship protocol and framework to increase authentic workplace and community experiences.

 

3. Increase the authentic integration of technology to support student learning.

 

4. Build teachers’ capacity to authentically integrate technology to support student learning.