Cedar Rapids Community School District used its existing district vision for teaching and learning as an important anchor for its process to design near-term change. This helped the district advance progress on its current plans toward a goal that already enjoyed broad buy-in among families and staff. The vision features equity at the center: it is one of the stated core beliefs. Other core beliefs (like student ownership and student learning) emphasize the importance of student empowerment and focus on ALL students’ needs. The vision also paints a picture of what resiliency looks like in practice; the core belief around innovation challenges the district to be creative, to continuously evolve to stay relevant in context of the broader world, and to adapt to different students’ needs and interests.

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