What does centering students look like in action? What characteristics should a leader look for as evidence of equity and learning-centered practice?
In this excerpt from a recent webinar, Jose Rivera, assistant superintendent of Grandview School District, Wash., shares how he engages with issues of race in his district, especially as it relates to coaching programs.
We don't yet know what far-reaching impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on students.
What we do know is that classrooms need to be as equitable as possible — and support rigorous learning — now.
But what does that look like, especially with ongoing and sometimes abrupt shifts in teaching and learning environments?
After embarking on creating a "framework" that centers the experience of students, the CEL team learned that the adults at school really need to listen hard.
What does listening hard look like in action? What characteristics should a leader who's embraced deep listening to students look for as evidence in their practice?
In this short video, Jenn McDermott, director of innovative initiatives, reflects on the times when these questions surfaced during the creation of the Student Experience Story Guide, and how she responded to the challenges moment-to-moment.
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 to Brandon recently. He shared what his leadership vision is — and how the Four Dimensions of School LeadershipTM (4DTM) helps bring that vision to life in the students' learning experiences.
Lindsey Samec is an elementary school principal at Mounds View Public Schools in Minnesota. Like so many other school leaders across the country, she's had a lot to think about and manage this past year for her students to be able to learn and grow.
Michele Mason, director of instructional leadership, spoke to Lindsey recently. We wanted to know how the Four Dimensions of School LeadershipTM (4DTM) was helping her lead.
For years, CEL has had frameworks around practice, knowledge, leadership and mindsets for adults. But we’ve never had a student-facing framework. When we revamped the Four Dimensions of School LeadershipTM to center student experiences in school, we knew we needed to bring students more directly into our work.
Jenn McDermott, director of innovative initiatives at CEL, spearheaded the effort to do just that. Jenn and CEL colleagues invited K-12 students from three Seattle-area school districts — then later on, students from across the country — to collaborate.
And the team learned that the adults at school really need to listen hard — because what adults focus on to make a better school experience? It’s not the same as what students say they want and need.
"We don’t believe that equity lives in a dimension on its own. As an effective leader, you don’t just lead for equity when you craft a vision and mission — it affects everything you do."
You believe in equity-driven leadership.
But how do you turn equity work into a practice that's integrated with your instructional leadership? And what does this kind of leadership look like when its implemented across a school system?
Over 500 leaders dove into those questions when they attended Leading for Equity: Equity-Focused, Learning-Centered Leadership live on October 8. Good news: you can still find the answers by tuning into the webinar recording — and it's available free on EdWeb.
In a “normal” school year on a “normal” school day, Stacy Thomas, the executive director of teaching and learning for Blaine School District, bounces between each of the district’s schools, which are housed on one campus. Blaine is a district in rural Washington near the Canadian border, and the close-knit campus empowers Stacy to support principals and improve instruction.
Of course, this year has been anything but normal.
We spoke with Stacy about her experiences this past spring: the shift to remote learning, how it’s exacerbated extant educational inequities and how teachers and families have both stepped up during a trying time.
On behalf of our team at the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership, I am writing to wish a happy and peaceful new year to all of CEL’s partners, peers and supporters. I write this year with hope and optimism for what the coming decade will hold for students, educators and school communities nationally. For our team, the past year was an exciting one in which we released a new vision and mission, deepened our partnership with school systems across the country and engaged in development work that will produce new and revised frameworks in the coming months.
In this latest installment of The Throughline, Max Silverman emphasizes the importance of collaboration for CEL and highlights a recent story about our shared work with a partner, Blaine School District.
Partnership is at the heart of how our team at The University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) works with school and system leaders across the country. Over CEL’s 18 years, we have learned again and again that multi-year collaboration in schools and classrooms leads to the greatest change for students and adults in the school systems that we support.
