Develop a Shared Vision for Schoolwide SEL

Collaborating closely with out-of-school time partners? See the ​OST-enhanced version of this tool​. 

Note:  ​This  tool  was  created  by  CASEL  staff  based  on  our  work  with  school  teams.  However,  we 
encourage schools to adapt it to best meet their unique needs. Though the process can look different
ways, three important components should be present: 

● Gathering input from diverse stakeholders

● Synthesizing input to create a vision statement
● Sharing, getting feedback, and reworking the vision statement

Time commitment:​ The time needed to develop a shared vision will differ from school to school. Plan to 
dedicate 90 minutes to 3 hours to complete steps 1-3 of the activity below.

1. Gather Stakeholders

It’s recommended that schools include as many staff, families, students, out-of-school-time providers, 
and community partners as possible in creating a shared vision. However, it may be unrealistic to 
engage all these stakeholders at one time. Larger school communities may wish to hold several sessions 
or convene focus groups to get a wide variety of viewpoints.  

Consider the following questions: 

● How will you bring in diverse perspectives?
● What systems and structures does your school already have in place to hear from students,
families, and community?
● What new strategies might you try?

2. Ask Individuals to Identify Their “Personal Why”

Before groups can identify their shared vision, it’s helpful for each individual to consider their own beliefs 
about the purpose of school and their vision for young people. Ask individuals to use the following 
prompts to get their thoughts flowing. Participants should respond to the prompts that inspire them. No 
need to answer them all!  

• What do we want all our students to know and be able to do when they leave our school?
¿Qué queremos que todos nuestros estudiantes sepan y sean capaces de hacer cuando salgan de nuestra escuela?
• What kind of skill-building is most important in supporting our students to reach their full potential?
¿Qué tipo de desarrollo de habilidades es más importante para apoyar a nuestros estudiantes a alcanzar su máximo
potencial?
• What do we want our school community to feel like, sound like, and look like?
¿Cómo queremos que nuestra comunidad escolar se sienta, se escuche y se vea?
• What do students and adults need in order to learn and thrive here?
¿Qué necesitan los estudiantes y adultos para aprender y sobresalir aquí?

Provide about 10 minutes for participants to write silently. If you’d like, you can ask participants to share 
some of their big ideas with a partner. Next, participants take about 5 minutes to formulate a personal 
vision statement (1-2 sentences) based on their free-writes. Alternatively, you may have participants 
discuss their free writes in small groups and take notes on emerging themes and recurring words or 
phrases.  
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 3. Ask Small Groups to Identify Their “Shared Why”

If you had participants engage in discussion instead of creating a personal vision statement, skip the 
steps in the next two paragraphs and provide each group the opportunity to share out their emerging 
themes and recurring words or phrases. 

If participants wrote personal vision statements, break the stakeholders into small groups. Ask 
participants to share their personal vision statements. As they share, others in the group write down key 
words or phrases they hear on separate sticky notes. When each participant has shared their vision 
statement, the team should have a pile of sticky notes with various important words or phrases.  

As a group, stakeholders work together to find connected words and phrases and determine common 
themes. You may want to have them do this on a piece of chart paper so they can label the themes that 
arise.   

From here, provide each group the opportunity to share out their emerging themes and re-occurring 
words or phrases.  

The school community at Spry Elementary in Chicago, IL, break up into small groups 
to identify common themes  

4. Incorporate Group Feedback into a Single Shared Vision

From here, there are multiple ways to build your school’s vision statement. With patience and 
collaboration, it’s possible to create a shared vision that captures the spirit of the entire school 
community. Below is one recommendation for how you might proceed: 

● The SEL Leadership team uses each group’s themes to draft a shared vision that represents all
stakeholder groups. This might include themes generated during multiple sessions with
teachers, families, students, and communities.

● After creating a draft vision statement, share it with stakeholders for feedback. When
determining how you will engage in this process, it is helpful to consider the systems and

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For more information, tools, and resources, visit schoolguide.casel.org. 
Copyright © 2021 CASEL | All rights reserved.
 structures your school already has in place to hear from students, families, and community. For 
example, you might share the draft vision statement for feedback at a parent night. 

Another example of how a school community drafted a shared vision comes from Spry Elementary in 
Chicago. This team used a three-level consensus-building process. Once individuals engaged in 
preliminary guiding questions, six small groups formed and drafted shared visions. Those six groups 
then combined into three larger groups and merged their shared visions. Those three larger groups then 
finalized a shared vision for SEL, as demonstrated by the graphic below.  

5. Make your Shared Vision Visible and Actionable

Now that you have done the work to create a shared vision, it’s important to make it visible, prominent, 
and actionable. This will be key to sustainability. Launch the idea in creative ways that will appeal to the 
school and create momentum.​ ​Some practices include painting it on the entry hall wall or putting it on 
the school’s website, letterhead, and T-shirts for field day.​ ​Refer to your shared vision for SEL frequently 
in:

● Staff meetings
● Internal email communications
● Communications with families and your network about new projects and initiatives
● Hiring and orienting new staff

What's next:
• Use the shared vision for SEL to determine SEL priorities, sketch an implementation roadmap, and
set SMARTIE goals for SEL implementation using CASEL's tool Develop Goals for Schoolwide SEL.

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For more information, tools, and resources, visit schoolguide.casel.org.
Copyright © 2021 CASEL | All rights reserved.