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 students to superintendents — to disrupt this by having high-performing, equity-driven leaders in every school.
Through our professional learning and coaching, educators develop the skills, mindsets and practices to create schools where students, particularly those furthest from justice, can be happy and proud. 

Our approach.

When you work with CEL, you:

  • Use frameworks that offer a research-based vision
  • Form communities of leaders as learners
  • Work from strengths to move from your current state toward your vision 

By linking research to practice in frameworks, we help you establish a shared vision and language while scaffolding practice across your system.

We support you to understand root causes and track outcomes of our work by partnering closest to the opportunities you seek to create.

We listen to what you’re trying to accomplish and why, and then we support your specific goals.

We work from strengths because your experience matters as much as ours.

We facilitate reflection on the impact of practice, so you will surface diverse perspectives, own your learning and translate insights into actions.

Learning is social. We help you build a community committed to action and deepen learning with the expertise in your group.

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 central office leaders, school leaders, instructional coaches and teacher leaders in school systems across the United States. We’ve demonstrated the ability to contextualize professional learning and meet the needs of a wide variety of school systems in terms of size, geography and demographics. 

    Examples:
    • Blaine School District: a system in Washington State with fewer than 1,000 students
    • Sonoma County Office of Education: a California county education agency that supports 40 school districts
    • South Bend Community School Corporation: a school system in Indiana with more than 15,000 students
    • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools: one of the nation’s 20 largest school districts, with 150,000 students in North Carolina  
    Other partners include: 
    • AASA The School Superintendents Association (AASA) – CEL partners with AASA for programs like the AASA National Principal Supervisor Academy to increase access to professional learning for instructional leadership
    • Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) – MASSP provides professional development and Pivot, a technology tool, for use of the 5D+ Rubric for Instructional Growth and Teacher Evaluation™
    • San Diego County Office of Education – Through its partnership with CEL, SDCOE makes professional learning available to California school districts for Targeted Feedback for Teacher Growth
    • Stuart Foundation – Through a partnership with the Stuart Foundation, CEL explores programming and tools to support the development of school and district leadership capacity across the state of California