District Leadership

Closing the Distance Between Students and School System Leadership

Students know an equity champion when they see one. In recent CEL equity leadership focus groups, our CEL team asked students to describe their “hero principal.” Students shared attributes of a hero principal like “a history of fighting for social justice” with the...

A Throughline of Caring

I spent much of 2021 engaging deeply with leaders across the country about the transformational power that school leaders hold for leading equitable school communities. What I learned is that, when positioned properly and truly empowered to lead, principals are the...

Humanizing School and District Leadership Through Student Experience

What would happen if school and district leaders used students’ experiences and perspectives as the basis for their leadership? In CEL’s partnerships with school systems, we ask leaders to focus on the experiences of students furthest from justice in their schools and...

What the Four Dimensions of School Leadership Looks Like in Action

Brandon White is the chief academic officer at South Bend Community Schools in Indiana. When working with school leaders, his approach is that "we as educators must be involved in learning ourselves." Lisa Rooney, director of framework development and support, spoke...

3 Things All Principals Need From Their Central Office To Be Successful

A quick scan of education news headlines shows: the role of school principal is less satisfying and attractive than it has ever been. Whether you look at principal job satisfaction surveys or the data on principal tenure, education leaders need to wake up and figure...

Recent Posts

Creating Conditions for Effective Instructional Coaching

Over my years working with instructional coaches and principals in school districts across the country, I have learned that the role of the instructional coach changes from district to district and even from school to school. I’ve observed coaches address practices...

Growing instructional leadership and sharpening the equity lens

Leaders at the Medford School District have been working with CEL to improve their instructional leadership and sharpen their equity lens since 2022. Through the Instructional Leadership Academy (ILA), leaders are learning more about gathering non-judgmental classroom observation data, understanding the current state of teaching and learning, and giving strengths-based, actionable feedback to teachers.

Building a vision for student learning

CEL’s yearlong, contextualized Leading for Teacher Learning helps leaders assess their current state of teacher learning and better understand what teachers need in order to improve students’ experiences. Throughout the leaders’ learning with CEL, we explore the...

The Power of Centering Student Voices

As the academic year draws to a close, the arrival of summer offers us the opportunity to breathe and reflect. It has been a year filled with unprecedented hardships for school communities nationwide, leaving educators, administrators, and leaders feeling drained and...

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