What we DO
In the United States, the education system isn’t designed to center student experiences.
For Black students and students of color especially, this leads to persistent inequities in the ways they experience school. CEL partners with leaders — from the classroom to the central office — to disrupt this by facilitating contextualized professional learning and coaching.
Our solution.
We work side-by-side with central office, school, and teacher leaders. Tapping into existing expertise and elevating the experiences of students, we co-create school communities where all students, particularly those furthest from justice, can be happy and proud. Through our highly collaborative professional learning opportunities, we lean into deep listening, job-embedded learning, and humble cooperation to support equity-driven leaders.
Our professional learning approach.
RESEARCH-BASED
By linking research to practice, we help leaders establish a shared vision and language to ground practice.
SIDE-BY-SIDE
We work alongside leaders to understand root causes, track outcomes, and tackle problems of practice in classrooms and across schools.
CONTEXTUALIZED
We listen to what leaders are trying to accomplish and their why, and then we support their specific goals.
STRENGTHS-BASED
We build from strengths because leader expertise and experience matters as much as ours.
INQUIRY-BASED
We help leaders reflect on the impact of their practice, deepen their own learning, and translate insights into actions.
COLLECTIVE
Learning is social. By tapping into the team's existing expertise, we help you foster a community of deep learners committed to action.
Why we take this approach.
We understand that educational inequities are the logical outcome of policies, practices and systems designed primarily by those with privilege. In order to live in a world where a child’s ability to realize a limitless future for themselves is not predetermined by their race, we recognize the need for deep listening, focused learning and humble cooperation. We are committed to learning, teaching and leading alongside our colleagues and students of color as partners and allies to raise up and amplify their voices, cultures and experiences in order to co-create communities that uphold the fundamental values of human rights and racial equity.
Who are our partners?
CEL partners with leaders eager to improve and who consider learning to lead for equitable student outcomes to be their most important professional and personal work.
We work with school districts across the country, helping leaders build a shared vision and mission for schools where all students are happy and proud. By providing contextualize professional learning, we’re able to meet the needs of a wide variety of school systems in terms of size, geography and demographics. Our partners are large and small districts, rural, urban, and suburban. Working system-wide — from central offices to classrooms — we help districts get smarter about quality instruction to maximize their impact.
Other partners include:
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College Spark | Funding partner on equity and leader learning initiatives |
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School Superintendents Association (AASA) | Partner in district leader learning such as the AASA National Principal Supervisor Academy |
| Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) | Partner who provides professional development and technology for the 5D+ Rubric for Instructional Growth and Teacher Evaluation™ | |
| San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) | Through our partnership, SDCOE provides CEL-designed Targeted Feedback Institutes to California school districts |
