At a strategic‑planning workshop, Mississippi Department of Education staff and board members worked through a list of candidate core values and agreed on 10 draft values to present to broader stakeholder focus groups and surveys.

Department presenters said the current vision statement is “all students prepared for success,” and presented a mission draft that emphasizes building “a world class education system that equips every student with the knowledge and skills to succeed in college, careers, and life in Mississippi and the world.” The group then focused on selecting and defining core values that will appear in the department’s strategic plan.

The meeting used an interactive exercise and a QR‑code survey to collect words from attendees. Presenters and board members captured outcome statements and examples of behaviors tied to each value; the values that bubbled to the top in the session were communication, accountability, work ethic, integrity, curiosity, innovation, truth, honesty, courage and pride. “Communication. It’s the largest,” one presenter noted while reviewing the aggregated responses.

Presenters described a three‑phase process for finalizing the core values: (1) the board and executive team identify and define a working list; (2) the department distributes the list to separate focus groups (teachers, students, principals, superintendents, business leaders, higher education and others) who will prioritize and comment on the definitions; and (3) the department returns to the board with a recommended final list for approval and inclusion in the strategic plan. Presenters said they will prepare materials in July and August and expect to run focus groups and interviews in August and September, after school is in session, with the executive leadership team assisting recruitment.

During the workshop participants wrote outcome statements and behavioral examples for a selected value, then paired to share and refine those statements. Presenters said they will collect the written notes from the exercise and incorporate them into the focus‑group materials. The session also produced clustered groupings—participants and presenters described clusters such as truth/integrity/honor; hard work/perseverance/commitment; accountability/responsibility/goal setting; adaptability/problem solving/innovation/curiosity; and collaboration/communication/teamwork.

No formal votes or policy adoptions were taken at the meeting; presenters described the session as formative input for the department’s ongoing strategic‑planning process. Presenters said the department will present the top prioritized words from each stakeholder group back to the board (the aim is to return the highest‑ranked values, alphabetized in materials so order does not imply priority).

Next steps, as explained at the workshop, are for the department to finalize survey instruments and focus‑group interview guides in July and August, run the focus groups and interviews in August/September, then return to the board with aggregated priorities and recommended definitions for the strategic plan.