The Center for Educational Leadership

How do you preserve time for deep learning, self-reflection, and mentoring? We've heard from many central office and school leaders that carving out time for these kinds of activities is daunting given the everyday challenges of educational leadership. However, making the time can make all the difference. For today's Friday read, we're sharing an Education Week opinion piece with tips for embracing mentorship. How Principals Can Be Mentors Rather Than Just Superiors (Opinion) https://hubs.ly/Q02FV4sB0

What factors are impacting chronic absenteeism among students? According to a recently published study, teachers’ tendency to view absent students less favorably could perpetuate the cycle of chronic absenteeism. This study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania published in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) explores the link between absenteeism and student-teacher relationships https://hubs.ly/Q02FVdsD0 CEL's Student Experience Story Guide, created by students for students, helps school leaders and teachers facilitate authentic listening sessions with students--including those who are often absent--to better understand experiences that are impacting their experiences at school. https://hubs.ly/Q02FVsmV0

❔Who is ultimately responsible for student learning? For today's Friday read, we're sharing some myth-busting from 3 school principals published by The Wallace Foundation. We especially appreciate the responses to Myth #5: Principals aren’t responsible for student learning—teachers are. These principals shared: 🤲🏽"It's a collaborative effort." ✨"I feel ultimate responsibility for student learning, quite honestly." 🍎"As a principal, I can provide outstanding professional development and all the structures and materials that a teacher might need." https://hubs.ly/Q02FTQB_0

Even though school is a year-round job for school and central office leaders, it's still important to carve out time to reflect and rejuvenate to prepare for the school year ahead.

Last week, we had the honor of joining educational leaders from across the country at the Council of Chief State School Officers School Leadership Development and Supports Collaborative in Seattle. It was energizing to explore how central offices and states can champion professional learning that equips principals with the skills and knowledge necessary for leading school improvement and fostering culturally responsive practices. 🌟Key Takeaways:🌟 Principals are eager to center student voices, create high-quality learning experiences, and work toward equity. There’s a gap in professional learning provided and time reserved to achieve these goals. UW Center for Educational Leadership frameworks, like the Principal Support Framework and 4 Dimensions of School Leadership (https://hubs.ly/Q02Fkgdx0), offer a vision for central office leaders to support principal learning and ensure they have the time to succeed. #SchoolLeadership #EducationEquity

🌟 Are you interested in providing the kind of feedback that your teachers can implement immediately and independently? Join us for an immersive virtual 2-day institute, where we’ll explore strength-based feedback and its pivotal role in improving teaching practices. This series is designed to equip educational leaders with the skills to observe classroom instruction and provide actionable, supportive feedback to teachers. 📅 Schedule: 8am-2pm PST, Tues, Aug 6 and Wed, Aug 7 Key Takeaways: Understand students' classroom experiences Address bias in instruction analysis Gather and use qualitative data effectively Deliver impactful feedback to teachers Plan for formative observations, data analysis, and feedback sessions 🔗 Register now and be a part of this collaborative learning experience! https://hubs.ly/Q02DB9Kt0 #EducationalLeadership #StrengthBasedFeedback #ProfessionalDevelopment #InstructionalLeadership #VirtualLearning

Thanks to the Association of Washington School Principals, our Lake Washington School District partners, and leaders who joined us at the AWSP/WASA conference to explore fostering a teaching and learning approach to principal supervision. 🌟It was energizing to share the great work happening at Lake Washington, where principal supervisors are collaborating with principals to create structures and routines to build a learning culture. These leaders are making critical shifts in leading, teaching, and learning through observing in classrooms, listening to students furthest from educational justice talk about their learning and school experiences, and giving and receiving feedback to each other. During the session, Erin Bowser, Sandburg Elementary Principal, shared: “The most important thing we did was to de-privatize our practice and become a learning organization focused on the students we are most concerned about.” ❔Here’s “the why” of the principal professional learning communities at Lake Washington.

Listen in to this great conversation with Dr. Melvin Brown, Superintendent of Montgomery Public Schools on the latest episode of An Imperfect Leader. We’re honored to have Dr. Melvin Brown on the CEL advisory board!

Are you interested in providing evidence-driven feedback to teachers that they can implement immediately and independently? Join us Aug 6 and 7 for a virtual 2-day learning series on targeted, strength-based feedback. 8am-2pm PST. Reserve your spot today! https://hubs.ly/Q02C3X-Y0

Thank you to our partners at Mounds View Public Schools and to everyone who attended today's session at Learning Forward Texas! We loved engaging around creating a vision for instructional coaching rooted in student experience. #LFTX2024