Customized Leadership Training & Support

Tailored short-term and long-term services based on a district's or building's content, leadership and organizational needs

Providing direct and executive coaching for district leaders, principals and assistant principals

Comprehensive leadership coaching helps administrators develop the content and skills necessary to lead a school system. Guidance is provided for analysis of district and school achievement data. Using a process for classroom observation, leaders learn how to identify specific student understandings, the content and instructional strategies supporting this learning, and how to coach teachers in improving classroom practice. Specialized support is offered to accommodate particular needs as applied to a first year of administration or to a system challenge involving reorganization or school transition.

Conducting and providing training for school "walk-throughs"

In the Marysville School District, teachers are becoming more public in their practice — that is, they're teaching lessons their colleagues can watch and then discuss collegially. These exchanges result in classroom observations and school "walk-throughs" that are authentic and significant learning experiences.

Training building-level and district-level coaches

CEL provides a variety of content-specific professional development opportunities to support the challenging and complex role of a coach in increasing the instructional capacity of teachers. As a teacher who collaborated with a CEL coach attests, "Time with coaches embedded in my classroom was the most effective. Working side-by-side with a coach who has seen my classroom, worked with my students, and who understands me as a learner, is invaluable."

Facilitating regional and national superintendent, principal, coach and teacher-leader networks

In the lower Yakima Valley, 12 superintendents met monthly during the 2006-07 school year to strengthen their instructional leadership skills by visiting classrooms and discussing shared problems of practice with guidance from a CEL project director