School leadership models emphasize the importance of leadership devoting time to the creation of a shared school mission, as a strategy for school effectiveness. This paper focuses on teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of the desired and practised school mission, considering the following dimensions: i) scientific and technological; ii) civic; iii) social and emotional; iv) vocational; v) physical. 3284 teachers and 3258 parents participated. All dimensions were highly valued as part of the desired school mission, mostly civic and social and emotional. However, the averages were lower in all dimensions of the practised school mission. Implications for school leadership are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]