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How do I Write an Education Mission Statement?

Sheri Cyprus

Last Modified Date: February 18, 2024

To write an effective education mission statement, be brief, but informative. A mission is a purpose or goal, so stating what your school does and who is involved in concise detail in your statement is crucial. An education mission statement should also be inspirational to prospective students, so it's important to mention your school's core values and philosophy.

Every school will have a different focus, and this focus should be emphasized in the statement. For instance, a religious school is likely to have a totally different type of education mission statement than a business college. Communicating the school's values and philosophy in writing may be easier if you think of what the school's focus is, such as promoting creativity or developing responsibility in students. What you say should inspire potential students to want to attend your school, but everything you write also must be factual. Think of what current students appreciate and why they attend the school when writing the institution's mission statement.

Your mission statement also should include a summary of the kinds of courses the school offers as well as information about the students and teachers. For example, you could mention the ratio of teachers to students per each degree program. You could also mention student facilities, such as a library, museum or sports fields. Write in your education mission statement, in a concise way, what the school does for students in terms of how it meets their needs and prepares them for their careers and futures.

If the school for which you're writing a mission statement has a special background or has won awards, you could mention this — especially if it relates to core values and purpose. Your education mission statement should describe what the school does and has done over the years. You may even want to add a summary of the school's highlights throughout the years in chronological order.

When writing the education mission statement, try to keep it to a few easy-to-read paragraphs. Simple language without pretentious words or jargon should always be used. The idea behind writing a mission statement is to showcase the organization and its accomplishments, but the focus should be on what is unique about your particular school, not on trying to make it sound important. You could mention what the school is dedicated or committed to accomplishing as well as give concrete examples of what it has achieved in this regard, though.

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Discussion Comments

tigers88

February 4, 2012

I think the most important thing to keep in mind when writing an educational mission statement is that you need to be clear and concise. The downfall of a lot of mission statements is that they try to be too omnivorous. They are either general to the point of being abstract or they are long winded and lack focus.

This is especially a problem in mission and vision statements that schools write up because they are not inclined to define their competitive niche. They try to be everything to everyone.

So my tip for any budding mission statement writer is to identify your goals, identify what is unique about your goals, and communicate that message as clearly and simply as you can. If you don't take the time to do it correctly it just becomes a useless exercise.

truman12

February 3, 2012

People often roll their eyes when the subject of mission statements comes up they can be really important, especially in an educational setting. This is because educational goals are more diffuse than you might expect. Of course all schools want to educate children, but the means and the ends can vary widely.

This is where a mission statement comes in. Schools need to define their mission very specifically. Every school has unique circumstances and goals and these should be articulated in the mission statements. Without a clear mission statement development goals and core principles can become unclear.