Promoting and supporting high achievement for all students is the primary mission of the Martha's Vineyard Public Schools. To accomplish this mission, we believe that it is the responsibility of the school committees to ensure that our schools are adequately funded and that each school provides a student-centered, comprehensive, safe and caring learning environment for all children. Moreover, the mission of the Martha's Vineyard Public Schools includes the development of confident, competent children who are well-prepared for a lifetime of learning and active participation in a culturally diverse democratic society and an interdependent global economy. We believe strongly in achieving excellence and equity for every child. We believe that every child has talent and has something valuable to contribute to our society and to other people. We expect our schools and professional staff to be performance-oriented in helping students meet today's problems as well as the challenges of tomorrow.

In today's society our children are continuously excited by new and challenging stimuli. Adapt-ability to change therefore becomes a paramount objective of learning. Certainly the mastery of basic skills is essential to our children as they prepare to function as responsible individuals. However, in our rapidly changing world, competence in the basic skills is not enough. There are fast-emerging new basic skills. For example, the ability to access information and successfully navigate the Inter-net, to use technology effectively, and to understand the interconnections and applications to daily living of the academic disciplines are now essential skills as well.

Moreover, children must also know how to direct their own learning by mastering the skills of independent inquiry, because circumstances do not enable us to predict with certainty just what today's children will need to know when they become tomorrow's adults. The optimum learning environment should be sought so that each child can develop physically and emotionally and acquire the information, academic, technical and vocational skills, critical judgment, and creativity needed to lead to a better understanding of himself, his fellow man, and the world around him.

The school system must continually strive to create, implement, and improve programs that are compatible with appropriate curricula and provide opportunities for innovation in teaching and learning. If this is accomplished, children will then come to realize more fully their own potential as individuals and be better prepared to appreciate and act responsibly in the society in which they live.