Visioning Onward
A Guide for All Schools
- Christine Mason - Founder and Executive Director, Center for Educational Improvement
- Paul Liabenow - Executive Director, MEMSPA
- Melissa Patschke - Principal, Upper Providence Elementary School
Foreword by Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director of AASA
The step-by-step guide to defining your vision—and making it reality
As a leader, it’s your job to look beyond the present and envision a brighter future for your school. Choosing the right path, however, can be a challenge.
This inspirational resource is your guide. By following its one-of-a-kind iterative visioning process, you’ll sharpen your vision into a road map for transformative change—tailored to the needs of your learning community. Features include:
- Key strategies and tools for building a shared vision
- Practical implementation ideas
- Case studies from exemplary schools
- Common trends at the heart of impactful, positive change
- Thought-provoking vignettes
Turn vision into reality, possibilities into plans, and create an environment that strengthens engagement, provides safe and nurturing learning opportunities, and produces students with the skills, knowledge, and disposition to be successful in life.
Free resources
Podcast: Visioning to Address Student Trauma
Listen to author Christine Mason as she explores strategies for addressing student trauma on this Cultivating Resilience podcast.
Visioning Onward is the right book for any leader who aims to be a visionary champion for their school or organization and bring about transformational change. Co-authors Christine Mason, Paul Liabenow, and Melissa Patschke challenge readers through a series of critical questions, activities, examples, resources, and authentic voices to help us establish a sense of purpose in the way we lead and learn on a daily basis. Each chapter reminds us that it is more than just seeing the vision but doing the work in a way that helps us achieve that vision. This book provides a blueprint to do just that.
Visioning Onward outlines the process and action steps for school leaders to create, share, and implement their vision for a school rather than adopting or adapting someone else’s vision. This practical guide is a must-read for all school leaders interested in creating and sustaining a school culture that continues to thrive and responds to changing times and one in which its stakeholders grow. The processes outlined in the book along with the case study examples make this a desk reference for every principal.
After reading Visioning Onward, I feel inspired and compelled to share the thoughtful approach to building a collaborative shared vision with colleagues and graduate students. An essential for every principal’s desk, this is a practical, purposeful, and action-oriented guide for leaders. Embedded in the context of the book are valuable resources, exercises, and vignettes to aid leadership teams in developing a vision that is encouraging, innovative, and empathetic.
The most successful leaders don’t get to where they are by accident. They are strategic, purposeful, and visionary. Do you want these characteristics in your repertoire of leadership qualities? Then, grab a cup of coffee and a highlighter, and dig in to this invaluable resource. These three brilliant educators have built a step-by-step process to build, plan, and execute your vision. You won’t be disappointed.
What a well-conceived book that recognizes how an organized approach to developing a school’s vision will work! The authors emphasize the need to allow each school team the freedom to design their own vision. The value of a school’s shared vision is stressed, and a systematic process is explained in detail.
Visioning Onward demonstrates the critical need for each stakeholder’s voice and the importance this voice is to the acceptance of the developing vision. Included in the book are the potential barriers and a process to ensure sustainability. The authors have devoted an enormous amount of time collecting and creating a wealth of resources, examples, and exemplars. As a career veteran in public education and school leadership, I wish I could have read this before my first principalship! This book is truly an excellent resource.
