Purpose of School

Schools face pressures from a variety of constituents, including parents, students, teachers, businesses, universities, and policy makers to pursue multiple objectives, ranging from the instillation of civic virtue, to developing future engineers and mathematicians, to teaching students “marketable” vocational skills that they can use in the competitive world market. Given the diversity of agendas associated with each of these stakeholders, it is perhaps not surprising that the answer to the question of the purpose of schooling depends on who you ask. Curiously, however, few scholars have asked the schools themselves about their perception of purpose.

Thus, the aim of our research efforts is to apply rigorous and systematic analyses to gain a perspective on the purpose(s) of schooling. Rather than focus on the perspectives of various stakeholders, our focus represents the viewpoints of the educational institutions themselves, as stated in a given school's mission statement.

FEATURED STUDY

Stemler, S.E., Bebell, D., & Sonnabend, L. (2011). Using school mission statements for reflection and research. Educational Administration Quarterly, 47(2), 383-420. *click here to send email to request reprint

RESEARCH ON MISSION STATEMENTS

Stemler, S.E. (under review). What should university admissions test measure? Educational Psychologist. webtable1 webtable2

Bebell, D., & Stemler, S.E. (in preparation). Setting the Tone: Exploring the Diversity of American School Mission Statemenst. New York: Eye On Education.

Stemler, S.E., & Sonnabend, L. (April, 2007). A large-scale analysis of the purpose of schools in the era of NCLB. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization: Portsmouth, NH. *click here to request

Bebell, D., & Stemler, S.E. (April, 2004). Reassessing the objectives of educational accountability in Massachusetts: The mismatch between Massachusetts and the MCAS. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association: San Diego, CA. *click here to request

Stemler, S.E., & Bebell, D. (April, 1999). An empirical approach to understanding and analyzing the mission statements of selected educational institutions. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization: Portsmouth, New Hampshire. *click here to request

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