View All Sessions | Learning Forward Proposals

Much of today’s classroom practice is shaped by norms from an industrial-age model of education, often resulting in learning environments where students mimic rather than think. In this workshop, participants will explore over 15 years of research on transforming classrooms into spaces that foster deep student thinking. Through interactive experiences and practical examples, educators will learn strategies to move from task completion to meaningful engagement and critical thinking.

Participants will:

• Recognize what thinking looks like in a math classroom; 
• Understand what it takes to foster student thinking in math; 
• Begin the process of building a thinking classroom; and 
• Support teachers in creating and sustaining thinking classrooms.

Many teachers are simply and understandably burning out! The fire and passion that once sparked for teaching are simply becoming extinguished. Is it any wonder? All teachers are being asked to do is appropriately manage students while engaging the brains of those students in quality curriculum. They are also asked to meet the physical, social, and emotional needs of those same students and all while simultaneously attempting to maintain some semblance of a quality personal life. In this highly-engaging workshop, educators will not only learn how to restore their passion for teaching, they will also explore 12 brain-based principles for avoiding burnout, increasing optimism, and supporting physical well-being.

Participants will:

• Identify the factors that contribute to teacher burnout and learn how to determine purpose and restore the passion inherent in the profession;
• Discover the correlation between humor, optimism, games, and increased immunity;
• Value the importance of quality nutrition, exercise, and sleep to support physical well-being; and
• Create a classroom that engenders optimal student success. 

Bring your team, or collaborate with new colleagues, as you engage in an interactive simulation designed to teach the implementation of the Standards for Professional Learning. Throughout this experience, participants will make decisions and immediately see the outcomes—spoiler alert: not every choice positively impacts educators and students. Explore what it takes to provide high-quality professional learning that drives visible growth in educator knowledge, skills, and practice. See the Standards in action and reflect on how to operationalize them within your own districts and schools.

Participants will:

• Engage in a simulation game developed by WestEd and Learning Forward to build capacity in implementing the Standards for Professional Learning;
• Identify and make key implementation decisions that support high-quality professional learning;
• Deepen understanding of how these decisions impact outcomes through immediate feedback; and 
• Commit to applying their learning in their own districts and schools.

Explore meaningful, collaborative strategies for evaluating the impact of professional learning programs and experiences that target context-specific improvements. Learn how to use AI tools to determine the effects of professional learning on teaching practices and student learning outcomes. Finally, develop efficient procedures for gathering crucial evidence on those experiences to verify results and guide future improvements.

Participants will:

• Explore the evidence-based factors that contribute to the effectiveness of professional learning;
• Learn the five levels of evidence that are essential in evaluating professional learning practices and experiences;
• Consider different AI tools for gathering crucial evaluation evidence; and
• Develop strategies for planning effective professional learning experiences that impact teaching practices and result in improved student performance.

Transforming teaching and learning in schools and districts doesn’t happen by accident; it calls upon educators to make instructional choices grounded in a robust understanding of how learning happens. Join two experts from the field of applied learning science as we bridge research to practice, examine foundational findings from cognitive science that can be applied in real classrooms, and empower teachers to foster more inclusive, impactful learning environments.

Participants will:

• Articulate a simple model of the mind to ground understanding of how learning happens;
• Identify key learning science principles that ensure instructional effectiveness and equity;
• Analyze identified components of successful evidence-to-practice implementation in teacher induction and professional learning; and
• Develop a Theory of Change plan that begins to outline initial steps for building capacity for evidence-informed professional learning in your school or district.

Examine how leaders can design schools that center voice, identity, and belonging while coaching for agency among both students and educators. Explore the Pedagogies of Voice framework and leadership strategies that cultivate agency and support equitable participation in learning. Apply practical tools for professional learning and instructional leadership that help educators leverage the framework to build classrooms and school cultures where voice drives learning.

Participants will:

• Analyze how student voice, identity, and belonging influence agency and learning outcomes, and identify leadership moves that cultivate these conditions across classrooms and schools;
• Apply the Pedagogies of Voice framework to design professional learning and coaching structures that support educators in cultivating agency for both students and teachers;
• Develop practical strategies for coaching educators to strengthen disciplinary thinking and equitable participation through voice-centered instructional practices; and 
• Design actionable next steps for implementing voice-driven learning cultures within their own schools or districts.

Recommended book (optional): https://www.corwin.com/books/pedagogies-of-voice-288927

Support skilled teachers in mentoring colleagues by applying a structured Mentoring Cycle that strengthens new teacher practice. Examine and apply strategies for diagnosing mentees’ needs, providing targeted coaching, and monitoring progress to measure growth and impact. Learn and practice skills to build strong, trust-based relationships and communicate effectively with beginning teachers. Apply adult learning theory and insights into the new teacher mindset to the mentoring role, and design a mentoring support plan that accelerates knowledge, skills, and instructional growth.

Participants will:

• Learn the “why” behind mentoring and the impact mentoring can have on new teachers;
• Understand and apply mentor roles, responsibilities, expectations, and key attributes in their work with new teachers;
• Recognize and apply strategies from the Mentor Cycle framework for developing new teachers’ knowledge and skills; and
• Apply tools and strategies that establish trust between a mentor and a new teacher to build strong, learning-focused relationships.

Classrooms are busy places—students are engaged, teachers are working hard, and lessons move forward. But do students truly know what they are learning, why it matters, and how they will know they’ve succeeded? Explore how teacher clarity shifts instruction from task completion to deep learning. Examine how learning intentions, success criteria, relevance, and aligned assessment increase achievement and engagement, and leave with practical strategies to design clearer lessons and support clarity through coaching, planning, and leadership.

Participants will:

• Understand the research behind teacher clarity and its impact on student achievement, engagement, motivation, and self-regulation;
• Analyze the core components of teacher clarity—learning intentions, success criteria, relevance, and aligned assessment—and distinguish clarity from compliance-based practices;
• Apply a clarity framework to lessons, units, or systems, strengthening alignment between standards, instruction, and evidence of learning; and
• Develop an actionable next step to refine classroom practice, enhance PLC conversations, or embed clarity into schoolwide improvement efforts.

Are you looking to design high-quality, interactive, and relevant professional learning that can escalate changes in educator practice leading to improved student outcomes? Explore the specific learning needs of adults while experiencing a plethora of highly engaging processes to ensure those needs are met, all while extending your understanding of quality professional learning design. Collaborate with peers using a learning design template that can up your game in quality design.

Participants will:

• Explore a framework for designing and facilitating powerful professional learning that is directly aligned to the Standards for Professional Learning;
• Experience a learning environment that meets the physical, social/relational, and learning needs of adults;
• Engage with facilitators as they model brain-friendly strategies that capture and hold learners' attention and increase retention; and
• Prepare to use tools provided in the session for the future design of high-quality professional learning.

Transform the way adults experience learning in this interactive session! Using the “Know, Do, Feel” framework, participants will explore key types of adult learning and design experiences that are engaging, relevant, and actionable. Bring a professional learning experience you’ve designed—or are preparing—to refine it with dedicated reflection, feedback, and structured processing. You’ll also learn strategies to intentionally build and sustain a culture of learning across teams, classrooms, or organizations, leaving with a strengthened professional learning plan ready to implement.

Participants will:

• Identify key types of adult learning and apply them to professional learning design;
• Use the “Know, Do, Feel” framework to create engaging and actionable learning experiences;
• Refine a professional learning experience through reflection, feedback, and structured processing; and
• Develop strategies to intentionally build and sustain a culture of learning in teams, classrooms, or organizations.

The true power of coaching lies in coaching the person, not the problem. When coaches help clients surface and explore their deep-seated beliefs, they unlock meaningful insights and innovative thinking—leading to new approaches to challenges and lasting changes in behavior. Experienced coaches will strengthen their ability to consistently create high-trust conversations, recognize opportunities for shifts in thinking, and move beyond surface-level dialogue to foster meaningful changes in educator practice.

Participants will:

• Clearly articulate the concept of “coaching the person, not the problem” and its potential to foster meaningful changes in thinking and behavior; 
• Increase their ability to recognize opportunities to invite clients to examine underlying beliefs during coaching conversations; 
• Learn strategies for deepening safety and trust in coaching interactions to create a receptive environment for exploring limiting beliefs; and 
• Practice using safe, respectful language when challenging assumptions and beliefs.

Develop clarity on the purpose and foundational steps for instructional coaches, with an emphasis on the importance of building relationships through coaching to enhance teacher practice. Explore strategies to improve instruction, promoting student growth and achievement for all learners. Collaborate and reflect with others to gain confidence in establishing impactful coaching relationships and driving instructional improvement in your setting.

Participants will:

• Define the purpose and responsibilities of instructional coaches; 
• Identify initial steps for building coaching relationships and fostering trust;
• Explore strategies for enhancing initial instruction to boost student growth and achievement; and
• Increase confidence and clarity in navigating the coaching role within current systems.

What does truly effective instructional coaching look like—and how does it translate into better outcomes for students? This session distills three decades of research and practice into a clear, actionable framework for coaching that works. Explore the beliefs that drive effective coaching, the skills that foster strong learning partnerships, and the expertise needed to support teachers’ growth. Be introduced to a simple, powerful coaching cycle that helps teachers adopt and refine new strategies to improve student engagement, achievement, and well-being. Leave with practical tools, proven strategies, and access to curated resources to support your next steps.

Participants will:

• Describe the core beliefs, skills, and knowledge that underpin effective instructional coaching;
• Apply a structured coaching cycle to support teachers in implementing and refining new instructional strategies;
• Identify practices that strengthen collaborative, trust-based coaching partnerships; and
• Access and utilize research-based resources to support ongoing coaching and professional learning.

While many systems are exploring AI, implementation is often disconnected and uneven. This interactive session supports leaders in moving from isolated efforts to a unified, systemwide approach, with multiple entry points designed to meet participants based on their current and desired level of AI implementation. Assess their current reality, design a professional learning continuum, and build a system that ensures consistent access across all classrooms and roles, sustained use, and meaningful impact on teaching and learning, aligned to the Standards for Professional Learning. Building on this foundation, participants will consider how this work can extend to students. Explore one district’s continuum for student AI use and its connection to the adult learning continuum, and discuss connections between educator and student use in their own systems.

Participants will:

• Assess current AI implementation and professional learning systems for coherence, access, and alignment to district priorities; 
• Develop a continuum of AI professional learning from awareness to integration;
• Explore how the educator AI continuum can lay the foundation for a student-facing AI continuum; and
• Build a system-level roadmap for aligned, sustainable AI implementation.

Is your leadership pipeline as strong as you think—or is it quietly leaking talent? Assess your current leadership development systems using practical tools and rubrics, identify gaps, and examine the evolving needs of leaders at every level. Through reflection, collaboration, and real-world application, uncover strategies to build internal capacity and grow your own leaders. Walk away with a clear picture of your pipeline and concrete next steps to strengthen and sustain it.

Participants will:

• Analyze their current leadership pipeline to identify strengths and gaps;
• Identify development needs at each leadership level, before and after role transitions;
• Use tools and rubrics to assess current capacity and plan for future leadership needs; and
• Exchange strategies and best practices with peers to strengthen leadership pipeline development.

Unlock the game-changing communication skills that will transform how you present, lead meetings, and deliver professional development. In this dynamic, hands-on session, you will dive deep into the key skills and techniques that build trust, strengthen rapport, elevate your listening abilities, and empower you to recover with grace when things don’t go as planned. By the end, you’ll have a powerful toolkit of actionable skills, strategies, and a ready-to-use template to implement for your next event.

Participants will:

• Uncover the skills and structures that impact the first 5-minutes;
• Explore listening and inquiry skills to strengthen relationships, build trust, and create a culture of inquiry; 
• Connect the importance of building community to learning; and
• Practice skills for credibility and rapport to build relationships and connect you and your passion to your audience.

Recommended book (optional): https://www.corwin.com/books/the-choreography-of-presenting-284395

Gain step-by-step guidance to maximize collaborative learning time for teachers to solve specific student learning challenges by implementing a five-stage cycle of teacher-led professional learning. Examine a process for using student data to craft student and educator learning goals leading to learning plans, implementation steps, and progress monitoring. Focus on the role of learning teams in implementing high quality instruction and what that means for student and educator learning goals.

Participants will:

• Make the connection between collaborative, teacher-led learning and improved instruction and student learning;
• Take steps to launch a learning team cycle with five key stages and examine how to implement each with specific strategies and supporting protocols;
• Adapt the cycle to fit specific school and district calendars and initiatives; and
• Leave with a road map to focus on the day-to-day actions in classrooms among students, educators, and instructional materials for maximum impact.

Continuous improvement is a high-impact design for educator professional learning that leads to changes in student achievement. Explore the components of systemwide continuous improvement, a high-impact design for educator professional learning that leads to changes in student achievement. Engage in structured conversations to reflect on the strategies and actions taken to apply cycles of continuous improvement to address problems of practice. Articulate next steps to demonstrate shared responsibility for improving learning for all students. Learn how to advocate for continuous improvement as an effective form of professional learning.

Participants will:

• Learn the high-leverage actions and behaviors associated with system-wide continuous improvement;
• Reflect on the strategies and actions taken to apply cycles of continuous improvement to address problems of practice;
• Describe the next steps to demonstrate shared responsibility for improving learning for all students; and
• Align the practices of high-quality professional learning and collaborative continuous improvement to advocate for the use of continuous improvement in all learning environments.

Hard conversations and candid feedback are unavoidable in healthy schools - yet many educators feel unprepared to either give or receive feedback well. This session builds skills for engaging directly and productively, helping participants offer clear, professional feedback while receiving input with greater emotional regulation and less defensiveness.

Participants will:

• Prepare for and engage in hard conversations using clear, responsible, and professional communication strategies;
• Offer candid feedback in ways that maintain relationships while addressing concerns directly;
• Recognize and regulate emotional responses when conversations become challenging; and
• Receive feedback with less defensiveness and greater curiosity.

How can we lead changes that improve learning for students when change is hard and momentum is stuck? In this keynote, George Couros, global leader in innovative teaching, learning, and leadership, will focus on innovation as a human endeavor and change as a process that begins by connecting to people’s hearts. He will share how leaders can foster trust, navigate disagreement and resistance, and create the conditions for learner-centered innovation to thrive. He will using storytelling and practical strategies to equip educators in any role to move teams forward with clarity, connection, and purpose.

Explore how school leaders can move beyond traditional attendance campaigns to build systems that increase student engagement and daily attendance. Examine practical strategies that combine culture, incentives, data monitoring, and relationship-driven leadership to address absenteeism. Leave with a framework and ready-to-use tools that help schools strengthen belonging, improve attendance habits, and create sustainable systems that support student success.

Participants will:

• Identify key factors that influence student attendance and engagement in elementary and secondary school settings;
• Analyze attendance data to recognize patterns of absenteeism and determine targeted intervention strategies;
• Design a practical, school-based attendance framework that integrates incentives, relationships, and culture-building practices; and
• Apply leadership strategies to implement sustainable attendance systems that promote student belonging and improve daily attendance habits.

Explore key principles from the science of learning to bridge research and practice, equipping teachers with evidence-informed strategies that strengthen instruction, improve student outcomes, and transform systemwide practices. Examine foundational findings from cognitive science, apply them in real classrooms, and learn how to empower teachers, cultivate a strong educator workforce, and create a high-impact learning environment that attracts, develops, and retains top talent.

Participants will:

• Articulate a simple model of the mind to ground their understanding of how learning occurs;
• Identify key learning science principles that support instructional effectiveness;
• Analyze components of successful evidence-to-practice implementation in teacher induction and professional learning; and
• Develop a theory of change plan outlining initial steps to build capacity for evidence-informed professional learning in their school or district.

Explore how Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools leveraged improvement science to strengthen math curriculum implementation through Learning Forward’s Curriculum-Based Professional Learning (CBPL) Network. Learn how CBPL helps educators fully utilize high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials to maximize student access and opportunity. Leave with practical resources and protocols and real examples to guide next steps, make mid-course adjustments, and reflect on teacher and student impact.

Participants will:

• Learn how the Learning Forward CBPL Network and Metro Nashville’s Open Up Resources (OUR) Network use collaborative inquiry and improvement strategies to support curriculum implementation across varied educator experience levels;
• Examine how continuous improvement strategies strengthen curriculum-based professional learning and support effective implementation of high-quality instructional materials;
• Explore improvement science tools such as fishbone diagrams, interrelationship digraphs, and change idea generators; and
• Consider practical measures and how they can be applied to participants’ own professional learning contexts.
   

Explore a four-level framework that can help your school move from a single-leader model to a shared leadership model, and learn how Texas districts have implemented redesigned roles to support growth and development for teachers. Discover how incorporating job-embedded professional learning into daily practice resulted in measurable gains in student achievement and significant improvements in teacher retention. Leave with strategies and tools to redesign leadership structures that prioritize continuous learning.

Participants will:

• Build an understanding of the four-level leadership framework to create a shared leadership model and how this work directly connects to the Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning;
• Hear real world examples from Texas school districts that have piloted and scaled this model across their campuses to support teacher growth and student learning;
• Investigate the leadership levels at your own campuses to identify where improvements may be needed; and
• Gain tools, templates and strategies to thoughtfully redesign roles to better support teacher growth and student success.

Imagine a district where every educator across schools, grades, and subjects is connected through a network of shared purpose and expertise. Explore how multischool collaborative teams link teachers around common standards to boost student achievement and teacher retention. Develop processes, including leadership coalitions and facilitator preparation, to sustain growth while building a short- and long-term roadmap that transforms isolated silos and cultivates districtwide collective expertise.

Participants will:

• Explore the purpose and impact multischool collaborative teams have on instruction, student outcomes, and teacher retention;
• Examine how leadership and guiding coalitions drive multischool collaborative teams using strategies such as developing purpose statements, establishing collective commitments, aligning professional learning, and preparing facilitators to lead collaboration across schools;
• Evaluate how systematic processes such as administrative cohort teams, SMART goals, monitoring tools, and data-driven professional learning support multischool collaborative teams and continuous improvement; and
• Plan a road map of next action steps within multiple long- and short-term timeframes.

Share structures and strategies for supporting leaders through professional learning networks that enhance a sustainable culture centered on collaboration, high?quality professional learning, and solving common challenges. Guide participants through our journey of cultivating deliberate collaborative cultures and designing professional learning that is responsive to leaders’ needs. Present our approach for building leadership efficacy that strengthens support for students and teachers within their own school systems.

Participants will evaluate structured systems and processes that support the development of collaborative learning networks, the design of high?quality professional learning, and the creation of opportunities for leaders to collaboratively solve problems of practice. Participants will leave with ready?to?use protocols and tools that can be immediately implemented within their own school systems to strengthen collaboration and instructional leadership. Participants will reflect and tune current practices and processes to determine concrete next steps for strengthening their own leadership capacity as well as the capacity of others within their organization.

Explore a fresh approach to understanding and improving classroom instruction through product collections. Find out how these sets of student work provide a window into actual learning and provide meaningful feedback for continued success. Leave with a clear process for collecting and using student work to guide instruction, practical ideas for piloting this approach on your own campus, and strategies for fostering reflective conversations that strengthen teaching and learning.

Participants will:

• Analyze sample collections, discuss strategies for implementation, and see how this practice connects directly to high-impact instructional techniques;
• Learn how to collect and use real student work to see what’s actually happening in your classroom; and
• Apply this approach to identify learning patterns, guide targeted feedback, and support teacher reflection and growth.

Examine research and evidence-based leadership practices aligned to Lezotte, DuFour, Reeves, and Hattie that consistently improve student achievement and growth. Experience how intentional leader focus and the two coherent cycles of teacher instructional practice and student data response were built as systems to drive improvement despite competing initiatives. Leave with adaptable leadership structures successfully implemented in both elementary and secondary schools to close achievement gaps for traditionally marginalized students.

Participants will:

• Identify high-leverage leadership practices grounded in Lezotte’s correlates, DuFour’s professional learning community principles, Reeves’ emphasis on high-impact leadership focus, monitoring, and accountability, and Hattie’s research on instructional effectiveness that sustain focus amid initiative overload;
• Examine how two interconnected leadership systems, teacher instructional practice cycles and student data cycles, were designed, implemented, and monitored to improve educator performance and student outcomes;
• Analyze authentic school performance data to understand how leadership decisions directly influenced achievement, growth, and outcomes for traditionally marginalized students, including students with disabilities; and
• Create a context-specific leadership action plan outlining structures, routines, and monitoring processes that can be adapted across elementary, middle, and high school settings.

When instructional time is tight and every subject competes for attention, how can districts truly support elementary teachers? This session shares how one district redesigned professional development and collaboration to strengthen learning across all subjects. Learn how an intentional cross-curricular focus enhanced Tier 1 instruction and aligned standards and goals, and how clear communication resulted in supported, creative teaching across all content areas.

Participants will:

• Learn how to transform your district instructional focus to enhance educational outcomes in all subject areas at the elementary level;
• Understand how to utilize research-based instructional strategies to demonstrate meaningful cross-curricular learning opportunities for students, resulting in better outcomes for all learners;
• Walk through the review and editing process of pacing guides and year-at-a-glance documents to align content standards, and leave with the tools to work through the process in your own schools or districts; and
• Learn how to move from a siloed model of professional learning at the curriculum level to a collaborative, transformative shared-leadership model for creative cohesion and a collective focus on district goals.

Examine why AI feels overwhelming for teachers by confronting concerns about cheating and the loss of critical thinking, and learn how professional learning leaders can translate policy into classroom-ready practice. Explore how to empower educators to use AI as a thought partner and teach students to deepen inquiry, judgment, and rigor. Apply practical strategies, protocols, and professional learning models to build confidence and support responsible, systemwide implementation.

Participants will:

• Articulate key opportunities and challenges of AI in education, including academic integrity, bias, and the potential to deepen student critical thinking, using professional learning designs that promote inquiry, collaboration, and shared meaning-making among educators;
• Interpret and translate district AI policies into actionable classroom strategies by applying implementation principles that clarify expectations, decision-making processes, and safeguards for responsible AI use;
• Design and model instructional and professional learning experiences that utilize AI while maintaining student ownership of learning; and
• Facilitate teacher growth around AI by leading professional conversations, modeling best practices, and using tools and protocols to build confidence, support ethical and practical implementation, and monitor the impact of AI-integrated instruction on student learning and critical thinking.
   

Despite expanded induction programs and professional learning investments, districts continue to lose new teachers at alarming rates. This session examines how confidence erodes when early-career teachers lack clear, early evidence that their practice is working, even within well-intentioned support systems. Explore leadership shifts that redesign professional learning to accelerate early success, strengthen professional identity, and improve new-teacher retention.

Participants will:

• Understand why motivation-based retention approaches are insufficient without early evidence of instructional effectiveness for new teachers;
• Identify leadership practices that unintentionally delay new teachers’ confidence by overwhelming them with initiatives rather than accelerating mastery of foundational practices;
• Analyze how professional learning design influences new teacher identity, belief, and persistence within the first two years; and
• Apply system-level adjustments to induction, coaching, and early-career professional learning that promote visible progress, confidence, and retention.

Develop, align, and evaluate a comprehensive principal pipeline system that strengthens leadership readiness, retention, and school improvement through evidence-based structures and continuous improvement cycles. Examine how districts use data, cross-role collaboration, and self-study processes to diagnose pipeline gaps and design coherent supports from recruitment through induction. Apply practical tools and frameworks to adapt, implement, and sustain principal pipeline strategies within participants’ own district contexts.

Participants will:

• Understand the essential components of coherent, evidence-based educator and principal pipeline systems, including recruitment, preparation, selection, induction, and ongoing support, and how these components function together to improve leadership sustainability and school outcomes;
• Be able to analyze their own district or organizational principal pipeline using a structured self-study framework to identify strengths, gaps, and misalignments across systems, policies, and practices;
• Learn how to use data sources (e.g., retention trends, leader readiness indicators, and climate measures) to prioritize improvement actions and make informed decisions about where to invest time, resources, and support; and
• Apply practical tools and planning strategies to design or refine a context-responsive principal pipeline action plan that aligns leadership development efforts with district goals, equity commitments, and continuous improvement cycles.
   

Practice root cause analysis using the influencer circle method to move from data to action. Explore how teams flexibly use quantitative and qualitative evidence, learn from real district examples, and avoid common root cause analysis pitfalls. Engage in a guided simulation to conduct a root cause analysis with outcomes data and apply the influencer circle to identify high-leverage, actionable causes for improvement.

Participants will:

• Understand the core components of the influencer circle method and how it strengthens root cause analysis by keeping teams focused on high-leverage, actionable causes rather than symptoms;
• Use both quantitative and qualitative data flexibly within the influencer circle process to surface meaningful patterns, test assumptions, and inform improvement decisions and next steps;
• Practice facilitating or participating in a root cause analysis by engaging in a guided simulation using real outcomes data and the influencer circle tool; and
• Apply the influencer circle method with school or district teams to support improvement planning, professional learning design, and data-informed decision-making.

Learn how a rural Alaska district unites for learning by implementing high-quality instructional materials grounded in the Danielson Framework for Teaching. Through intentional monitoring, leaders use classroom evidence to refine instruction, align curriculum across grades, and guide data-informed decisions. Coherent improvement and targeted supports replace fragmented practice and program churn, making barriers to learning visible and expanding access to rigorous literacy experiences for every student, even in remote contexts.

Participants will:

•    Understand how implem    enting effective high-quality instructional materials advances the Learning Forward vision by connecting professional learning to clear standards for instructional quality, coherence, and learning for all across classrooms and schools;
• Analyze classroom evidence and monitoring data to distinguish between program design issues and implementation challenges, enabling more precise professional learning, stronger educator practice, and measurable gains in student achievement;
• Apply a replicable process for aligning professional learning, curriculum, and leadership actions (using look-fors, collaborative inquiry, and feedback cycles) to strengthen districtwide improvement efforts and reduce fragmented instructional practice; and
• Experience and model a high-impact adult learning design that emphasizes collaboration, reflection, and practical tools, offering an innovative approach for rural and resource-stretched systems to turn isolated efforts into collective success through unified, standards-based implementation.
         

What if your principals were your district’s most powerful professional learning community (PLC), driving instructional improvement together instead of working in isolation? Explore research on high-impact leadership, effective team architecture, and the conditions that spark collective efficacy, then step into a simulated principal PLC to experience a collaborative inquiry framework and practical, evidence-based protocols. Hear one district’s story and leave with a clear plan to launch principal PLCs.

Participants will:

• Analyze research on high-impact leadership, effective team design, and conditions that build collective efficacy, explicitly linked to the Standards for Professional Learning;
• Experience a simulated principal PLC to learn a collaborative inquiry framework and apply clear, standards-aligned protocols to site-based evidence;
• Examine how a job-alike principal PLC strengthened instructional leadership and aligned with expectations for sustained, job-embedded, collaborative professional learning; and
• Design a practical, standards-aligned plan to start or strengthen principal PLCs and collaborative inquiry in your system, including structures, routines, and evidence of impact.

Explore the intersection of the Performance Assessment for School Leaders (PASL) competency-based leadership framework and coaching to increase instructional coherence and leadership impact across schools and systems (public, charter, and faith-based) in urban contexts. Engage in collaborative analysis of real-world practices to develop professional learning and coaching structures that support long-term developmental growth. Leave with actionable tools to bridge the gap between daily leadership behaviors and overarching organizational goals.

Participants will:

• Discuss how a clearly articulated leadership competency framework can anchor professional learning and leadership development across schools and systems;
• Analyze leadership behaviors and routines to determine alignment between competencies, professional learning structures, and instructional priorities;
• Apply coaching tools and reflection protocols to strengthen leader practice in areas such as instructional leadership, collective success, adaptive problem-solving, and systems thinking; and
• Develop an actionable plan to embed leadership competencies into professional learning cycles, coaching conversations, and leader evaluation or development processes.

Storytelling connects and unifies by creating a culture of belonging. Increase the impact of your storytelling with a structure and set of skills that bring a deeper emotional connection with your audience and positively shift people’s attitudes, perceptions, and sense of unity. Explore a storytelling frame that identifies purpose, flow, and connection to the audience, and practice skills that enhance the telling of the story.

Participants will:

• Apply a storytelling framework to a story you can tell in a work setting;
• Apply skills for telling your story that impact credibility, rapport, and trust to build a unifying culture of belonging; and
• Develop a strategy for finding new stories that supports your leadership vision and mission.
   

Explore how peer observations can serve as professional learning in action by helping beginning teachers learn from real classrooms in a supportive, nonevaluative way. Practice a clear peer observation cycle that includes preparation, observation, debrief, and next steps, supported by practical tools and reflection protocols. Leave with ready-to-use strategies that help new teachers notice effective instructional moves, connect learning to their own practice, and identify one actionable step for growth.

Participants will:

• Understand the full peer observation cycle and how it supports new-teacher growth through preparation, observation, reflection, and follow-up;
• Learn how to plan and schedule peer observations in partnership with campus leadership to ensure meaningful, growth-focused learning experiences;
• Use observation and reflection tools that help mentees capture key instructional look-fors and connect what they see to their own classroom practice; and
• Practice effective debrief strategies that guide new teachers to analyze their learning, identify one actionable next step, and apply insights to strengthen instruction over time.
   

Examine how artificial intelligence (AI) reveals whether school systems truly express their values about learning, belonging, and what it means to be human. Apply a human-centered design lens to analyze how AI accelerates either intentional values or inherited system defaults. Engage in a collective design process to use district AI guidance, whether existing or emerging, as a lever for coherence, belonging, and system-level improvement.

Participants will:

• Apply a human-centered design lens to analyze how AI use in your district amplifies stated values or unintentionally reinforces inherited system defaults;
• Identify points of misalignment between district beliefs about belonging, learning, and human connection and the structures, guidance, or practices shaping AI adoption;
• Engage in a collective design move by examining existing district AI guidance or initiating shared design principles where guidance does not exist, translating values into coherent system-level decisions; and
• Develop next-step actions for aligning professional learning, leadership decisions, and instructional systems with a human-centered path forward.
   

School systems across the country are demonstrating how evidence-based, tech-enabled instruction can help ensure all students have access to high-quality literacy and math learning opportunities. This session will spotlight new research from the Center for Public Research and Leadership at Columbia University examining "bright spot" school districts using high-quality instructional materials and professional learning, aligned supports and assessments, strong measurement practices, and infrastructure building to drive improvement.

Participants will:

• Understand the REACH framework and how its elements work together to support effective, evidence-based, tech-enabled literacy and math instruction at scale;
• Analyze real-world “bright spot” case studies to identify concrete strategies school systems are using to strengthen teaching and learning;
• Reflect on and assess your own system and initiatives using the REACH framework to surface strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement; and
• Identify actionable next steps for applying lessons from the research to advance improved teaching and learning in your own system.
   

Many professional learning systems still mirror a factory model that is linear, compliance-driven, and isolating. Use patterns from nature like waves, spirals, and fractals to design learning systems that are abundant, adaptive, and relational, like the forest. Using practical design tools, redesign professional learning that unites educators across roles, schools, and systems and strengthens coherent improvement work through a learning ecosystems approach.

Participants will:

• Diagnose where your current professional learning system operates like a factory versus a forest, identifying implications for coherence, equity, and educator agency;
• Apply wild design patterns to redesign one professional learning experience or cycle in your context;
• Align redesigned professional learning for at least two Standards for Professional Learning, especially Learning Designs and Evidence, with attention to Implementation for transfer into daily practice; and
• Develop a practical 30- to 60-day evidence and feedback loop to assess educator learning, 

Explore how South Summit School District’s (SSSD) ongoing journey to build a culture of continuous improvement has shifted from building foundational knowledge with principals to supporting them in doing the same work with teachers. Engage in reflection and dialogue on the shift from learning to doing and the messiness of implementation. Analyze how our professional learning structures have expanded, and leave with clarity-driven next steps for building collective teacher efficacy.

Participants will:

• Develop a collective understanding of system-wide cycles of continuous improvement to improve student outcomes;
• Explore our shift from professional learning focused on building principal capacity to supporting them in doing the same in their individual schools, and analyze similar shifts in their contexts;
• Examine SSSD’s effective instruction rubric, analyze its standards and elements, and discuss leveraging it for meaningful instructional improvement; and
• Reflect on and identify actionable steps to integrate your learning into continuous improvement practices and professional learning structures within your unique district’s contexts.
   

Join a district leader and high school principal to explore a transformative partnership that shifts school culture from data compliance to collective efficacy. This session models the implementation of change management strategies that empower administrative and instructional leadership teams. Through the lens of the Evidence standard, discover how specific professional learning structures translate complex data into actionable classroom growth, fostering a sustainable environment of collaborative inquiry and student success.

Participants will:

• Implement research-based drivers to transition leadership teams from data literacy to a culture of sustainable inquiry;
• Utilize specific tools designed to differentiate data-driven professional learning for both administrative and instructional leadership teams;
• Leverage district-level data to design high-impact interventions that measurably improve educator performance and student outcomes; and
• Create a strategic action plan for district-school partnerships that prioritizes shared responsibility for continuous system improvement.
   

Explore how a middle school district designed professional learning that honors teacher choice while remaining tightly aligned to the system and building goals through continuous improvement cycles. Learn how to engage in a continuous instructional improvement cohort that models cycles of choice, practice, evidence, and refinement. Leave with structures and tools to immediately build coherence, educator efficacy, and student-centered improvement.

Participants will:

• Be able to apply the Implementation standard by structuring a continuous instructional improvement cohort that supports planning, trying, monitoring, and refining high-leverage instructional practices aligned to district and building goals;
• Be able to analyze multiple sources of evidence (e.g., educator artifacts, student work, observation data) to determine whether professional learning is influencing educator practice and advancing school or district improvement;
• Apply a customizable implementation blueprint, including facilitation moves, inquiry protocols, timelines, and measures of impact, to launch choice-driven, standards-aligned professional learning in your own school or system; and
• Have both a conceptual framework and a practical, field-tested structure for transforming professional learning into coherent, evidence-informed inquiry that strengthens educator capacity and improves student outcomes.
   

Explore and practice structured data protocols that support efficient, meaningful data analysis within professional learning and team meeting contexts. Implement a clear approach for embedding these processes into systems, so teams move beyond “data admiring” to identify instructional accomplishments and evidence-based next steps. Cultivate educators’ data literacy and inquiry skills by applying these frameworks as tools for skill building, collaboration, and decision making.

1) Experience and facilitate multiple proven data protocols, building the knowledge and confidence to select and lead structured data analysis and sense-making processes within common professional learning and team meeting timeframes (e.g., 30- and 60-minute meetings). 2) Apply a practical framework for integrating structured data analysis protocols into existing professional learning systems, enabling teams to move beyond data reporting to identify instructional accomplishments, prioritize needs, and determine evidence-based next steps. 3) Use data protocols intentionally as both analysis tools and professional learning strategies to strengthen educators’ data literacy, inquiry habits, and shared responsibility for learning and improvement. 4) Adapt and apply resources, including protocols, facilitation tools, and planning templates, and explore ways to integrate them across school, district, and state contexts.

Harness AI and neuroscience to redefine professional learning and enhance instructional design. Explore AI-driven tools that streamline curriculum creation, boost engagement, and improve learning retention using cognitive science principles. Apply research-backed strategies aligned with Learning Forward’s Standards to integrate AI effectively, ensuring high quality, student-centered instruction. Engage in interactive demonstrations and real-world applications, and leave with practical, ready-to-use AI tools to transform your teaching, professional learning catalog, and leadership immediately.

This session equips educators and leaders with AI-driven, neuroscience-informed strategies to enhance instructional design, professional learning, and student achievement, aligned with Learning Forward’s Standards for Learning Design and Leadership. Participants will: 1. Understand how AI and neuroscience enhance instructional design – Explore the intersection of brain-based learning principles (cognitive load theory, retrieval practice, and neuroplasticity) and AI-powered content creation, ensuring professional learning mirrors evidence-based instructional strategies that improve educator effectiveness and student success. 2. Apply AI-driven tools to streamline professional learning – Gain hands-on experience using AI to develop lesson plans, assessments, and adaptive learning pathways, supporting educator growth, instructional leadership, and measurable student achievement. 3. Engage in research-based instructional practices – Examine case studies and emerging impact data from M-DCPS professional learning programs (TLA, Principal BENCH, AP Bench, and National Board) that demonstrate AI’s role in improving instructional quality, leadership development, and student outcomes. 4. Ensure accessibility in AI-driven instruction – Explore evidence-based strategies that leverage AI to address diverse educator learning needs, remove barriers, and foster equitable, personalized professional learning experiences. 5. Develop an AI integration plan for their own setting – Leave with a collaborative, data-informed roadmap for responsibly implementing AI in schools, districts, and professional learning programs, ensuring sustainable, equity-driven professional learning aligned with Learning Forward’s Standards.

Come make your professional learning implementation outcome-driven and evaluation-aligned! Learn how to utilize the KASAB's (Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Aspirations, and Behaviors) to clearly articulate end goals of learning for teachers, leaders, and students. Leave with strong knowledge, beefed-up skills, an improved product, and the attitude and motivation to do something with it all.

Connect the KASAB framework to specific outcomes for professional learning Utilize the KASAB framework in the design of their large and small, short and long, simple and complex PD sessions. Revise or create a PD with explicit KASAB goals for relevant stakeholders.

High-quality induction plays a critical role in developing confident, capable principals and assistant principals while strengthening long-term leadership retention and effectiveness. Come explore a comprehensive school leader induction framework that supports new leaders through tiered systems of support, peer networking, and targeted professional learning. Participants will leave with practical strategies to strengthen instructional and operational leadership and positively impact students and staff.

1.Gain a clear understanding of why principal and assistant principal induction matters and how the Principal School Leader Induction Framework supports leader effectiveness, retention, and improved school outcomes. 2.Explore the four evidence-based components of effective leader induction—tiered supports, professional learning, instructional leadership, and operational leadership—and how they work together as a coherent system. 3.Examine examples and strategies districts and states can use to move beyond orientation-only approaches and implement induction as an ongoing, job-embedded process. 4.Identify practical actions participants can take to strengthen or redesign induction programs in their own contexts using tools and resources.

Examine how principal supervisors can intentionally develop principals’ instructional leadership through observation and feedback practices that are grounded in evidence, strengths-based, and actionable in service of equitable student outcomes. Analyze district tools and routines that increased both the quality and frequency of instructional feedback with an emphasis on centering what students are experiencing and learning. Apply practical frameworks and structures to strengthen supervision practices and advance high-quality instruction for all learners.

By the end of this session, participants will: Understand how instructional leadership develops through deliberate supervision and professional learning practices that center student learning and experience and how these practices can be a high-leverage driver of instructional improvement and more equitable student outcomes. Analyze and apply a single-point rubric for effective instructional feedback to identify strengths, growth areas, and next steps in principals’ feedback to teachers, supporting consistency, clarity, and aligned instructional practices across schools. Identify system-level structures, such as differentiated supervision, principal PLCs, peer observation, and feedback routines—that enable principals to consistently engage in instructional leadership despite competing demands. Design one actionable shift to their supervision or leadership practice that strengthens instructional feedback, increases observation frequency, or improves coherence between district priorities and school-level instructional leadership. Participants will leave with concrete tools, examples, and planning resources they can adapt immediately in their own districts or schools.

What's a four letter word that begins with "s" and makes people cringe? While the organizational "silo" may not always be avoidable, it is also always addressable. In this session participants will dive into how silos form, the impacts they have, and how to take them down to strengthen organizational culture and competence.

Participants will identify the reasons for the formation of silos and the challenges (and benefits, in some situations) that they can create. Participants will reflect on the presence of silos in their own organizations and consider easy-to-take steps to reduce or remove them. Participants will learn from each other as silo removal works best when communities come together, and they will map out a SOBS (Silo Optimal Breakdown Scorecard) to strategically address the silos in their own organizations.

Coaching is a powerful form of professional learning that strengthens educator practice and advances collective responsibility for student learning. This session explores coaching in the presence of difference, emphasizing how identity, perspective, and context shape coaching interactions. Participants will examine how intentional awareness and collaborative inquiry deepen learning, strengthen relationships, and support continuous improvement for all educators and students.

Examine how identity, lived experience, and context shape coaching interactions and why coaching in the presence of difference is essential to equitable and effective professional learning. Grounded in a commitment to continuous improvement for all adults and students, this session positions coaching as a powerful approach to strengthening educator practice and advancing equity. Apply coaching strategies that intentionally attend to self, coachee, and context, recognizing that coaching is not neutral and must be responsive to the cultural, organizational, and relational environments in which educators and learners work. These practices foster collaboration across perspectives and prioritize learning for all educators. Identify common roadblocks to coaching across differences and use data, reflection, and collaborative inquiry to move coaching beyond surface-level compliance toward deeper instructional and organizational change, reinforcing shared responsibility for improving learning. Assess how high-quality coaching impacts both the coach and the coachee, and identify specific coaching skills that require ongoing refinement to strengthen professional practice and improve outcomes for educators, students, and the communities they serve.

Professional learning can do more than share strategies; it can shift the way educators think and act. In this session, you’ll learn how to design professional learning that spark genuine “aha" moments by facilitating cognitive shifts for teachers around instruction, students, and community; bridging from current practice to new practice through asset-based reflection; and leveraging teacher and community strengths. You’ll leave with a repeatable planning structure that supports lasting change.

Participants will examine key professional learning design practices that facilitate mindset shifts and drive transformative instructional impact. Participants will assess their current professional learning design to identify strengths and high-leverage areas for enhancement. Participants will revise a professional learning experience using a learner-centered, asset-based approach that builds on student and community strengths.

A sense of belonging within a school community is perhaps our most powerful tool to promote student resilience, intensify academic engagement, enhance academic achievement, and improve attendance while reducing behavior problems, substance use and suicidal ideation. Unfortunately, our schools are experiencing a belonging crisis. Drawing upon research from brain science, social sciences, education and 30 years of practice within schools, this workshop will help participants uncover the positive impact of a belonging community on students and staff, discuss factors that threaten a student's sense of belonging and provide strategies that can be implemented immediately to create a belonging community for children and staff in our classrooms and in our schools.

Identify the specific ways that belonging can enhance student achievement and staff and student well-being. Describe systemic causes for the erosion of belonging in school for both students and staff. Implement tangible strategies to increase student and staff belonging in schools. Reflect on individual and school-based practices that impact student and staff experiences of belonging.

Explore how gamification transforms Check-In Check-Out into a student-owned, relationship-driven Tier 2 system. Learn how missions, levels, choice, and progress tracking increase engagement while maintaining strong MTSS data practices. Apply practical strategies from the SPACE framework to strengthen relationships, improve behavior outcomes, and build Tier 2 supports students and staff believe in.

• Understand how gamification principles strengthen Check-In Check-Out by increasing student ownership, motivation, and consistency while preserving MTSS data integrity. • Identify why traditional Tier 2 systems lose momentum and describe specific design elements that re-engage students and staff. • Apply practical strategies such as missions, levels, reflection, and progress tracking to redesign or enhance existing CICO systems. • Implement a gamified Tier 2 framework, using SPACE as a model, to improve relationships, equity, and sustainable behavior outcomes in their own school context.

Examine how one district designed and implemented a comprehensive Paraprofessional Learning Academy that moves beyond compliance-based training toward sustained instructional impact. Explore structures, learning designs, and data systems that build paraprofessionals’ instructional expertise, confidence, and retention. Apply a scalable framework that participants can adapt to elevate paraprofessional learning and strengthen schoolwide capacity.

Participants will: • Analyze a district-designed Paraprofessional Learning Academy aligned to the Standards for Professional Learning to identify essential components of effective, role-specific professional learning. • Examine how evidence-based learning designs and implementation structures support paraprofessional instructional practice, collaboration, and retention across general and special education settings. • Apply practical tools—including learning pathways, progress monitoring processes, and recognition structures—to design or refine paraprofessional professional learning that advances school and district improvement. • Identify data sources and evidence measures to assess the impact of paraprofessional professional learning on educator performance, instructional support, and student learning.

Demonstrate how school administrators can use Google Gemini within Gmail to streamline inbox management and reclaim time for instructional leadership. Experience practical, ethical strategies grounded in the Clarity, Capacity, and Joy framework to reduce cognitive overload and decision fatigue. Design adaptive communication systems that strengthen human-centered leadership practice while supporting adult learning and long-term sustainability.

- Use Gemini in Gmail to summarize, prioritize, and respond to email efficiently - Apply AI-supported workflows to reduce inbox overload and decision fatigue - Design communication systems that protect time for instructional leadership and relationships - Implement AI use responsibly, with attention to trust, transparency, and human judgment

Visualize the worst presentation that you have ever been a part of as an adult learner. Now visualize the best one. No doubt there is a considerable difference between the two professional learning opportunities. Learn the answers to three basic questions: What are strategies that I can use to make my professional development experience unforgettable? What are techniques that result in sustained adult behavior change? What are 10 things that keep adults living well beyond the age of 80?

Participants will:

• Ascertain why it can be so difficult for adults to change their behavior and determine the order of change when asking adults to implement new behaviors;
• Examine six principles of adult learning theory to use with faculty and staff in professional learning;
• Experience 10 characteristics of quality professional learning to apply when implementing professional development; and
• Plan your next professional learning experience using an original template while incorporating brain-based strategies that take advantage of how all adult and student brains learn best.

Much of the resistance to grading reform can be anticipated and avoided by uniting stakeholders in collaborative reform efforts. Learn about critical aspects of the change process, how to engage stakeholders as partners in change efforts, and how to gather meaningful evidence on effects. Leave with evidence-based strategies for ensuring the successful implementation of fair, accurate, and equitable grading policies and practices.

Participants will:

• Explore the advantages and shortcomings of different grading methods and their implications for classroom policy and practice;
• Learn evidence-based strategies for implementing grading and reporting reforms that ensure stakeholders’ support and make grades fairer, more accurate, more meaningful, and more equitable; and
• Develop guidelines for implementing effective standards-based and competency-based grading policies and practices at all grade levels.

For Centuries, we have cultivated a “box” in education. The kids who fit in it? They thrive. The kids who don’t? They’re lucky to survive. In this uplifting and practical session, join award-winning principal and best-selling author Pete Hall in an exploration of the top 5 reasons kids disengage, struggle, and drop out of school…and examine the highest-yield strategies for connecting, supporting, and altering the trajectory of our most precious and fragile students...while we still have them!

Participants will:

• Identify the underlying causes for kids who struggle in school;
• Analyze an array of strategies for building connections, igniting curiosity, and/or enhancing the relevance of education for kids who struggle in school; and
• Apply their learning to a "case study" student (from their own setting) to create a proactive plan that matches their needs.

Most coaches and school leaders want to coach well, but sustained, weeks-long coaching cycles aren’t always possible. When time is limited, what actually works? Drawing on 30+ years of research, Jim Knight introduces Fast-Track Instructional Coaching, a four-conversation framework that distills the essential elements of effective coaching into a practical, structured approach that fits real school schedules. Learn how to help teachers gain a clear picture of their classroom reality, set meaningful, student-centered goals, and make measurable improvements in student learning, all within just a few conversations. 

Participants will:

• Identify the key elements of Fast-Track Instructional Coaching and how they differ from traditional coaching cycles;
• Apply a four-conversation framework to support teacher growth when time is limited;
• Use strategies to help teachers analyze classroom reality and set meaningful, student-centered goals; and
• Develop approaches for achieving measurable improvements in teaching practice and student learning within short coaching interactions.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with school and district leaders and data from a national survey, this session details findings from a new Wallace Foundation-funded study exploring principals’ on-the-job learning. It emphasizes principals’ numerous approaches to learning in areas of practice most linked to student learning. The session offers insights to policymakers, district leaders, and principals themselves about how to build more robust systems for principal professional learning.

Participants will:

• Learn how principals describe their opportunities to learn in key domains of practice, including engaging with teachers around instruction, building a productive climate, and managing strategically;
• Gain an understanding of which learning opportunities principals find most useful for their growth in different practice domains; and
• Leave with insights into how states and districts can build more robust systems for principal professional learning.

Explore the existential tensions AI poses for education—and discover a clear path forward. Ground your practice in three core principles: designing for student agency, listening to learners, and centering pedagogy to inform the strategic use of AI and other forms of technology. Examine real classroom pedagogies where student voice is centered and AI becomes one tool among many, then leave with a compass for navigating AI's rising tide while keeping human ingenuity and radical imagination at the heart of learning.

Participants will:

• Consider the implications of centering technology over pedagogy and articulate why student voice must anchor any school’s approach to AI;
• Explore three guiding principles for centering student voice and agency in this moment of rapid change;
• Examine real classroom examples of learning experiences that awaken student voice; and
• Identify one small, actionable shift to strengthen learner voice and agency in daily practice.
   

Utilizing the 2026 edition of A Principal’s Guide to Early Learning and the Early Grades, participants will build a strong foundation of knowledge to guide Pre-K and early childhood programs in alignment with K–3 learning. Deepen your understanding of developmentally appropriate practice and strengthen instructional leadership while exploring practical strategies to support coherent, high-quality early learning experiences that meet the needs of young children and their families.

• Deepen their knowledge of high-quality early childhood practices to intentionally strengthen leadership, planning, and decision-making across Pre-K–3 settings;
• Explore research-based, ready-to-implement strategies that support principals and educators leading early childhood initiatives; and
• Learn how to engage with a network of principal leaders committed to elevating their voices and advancing effective early childhood practices in their schools and communities.

Transform school improvement efforts by exploring how Knox County Schools’ Region 5 designed and implemented an instructional coherence framework across 13 urban, city-center turnaround schools. Learn the systems, structures, and leadership practices that enabled schools to accelerate student learning through aligned ILTs (Instructional Leadership Teams), PLCs, coaching cycles, and progress monitoring. • Understand how to design coherence-driven systems that strengthen instructional quality in high-need, urban schools; • Identify tools and routines that build principal and teacher-leader capacity for sustained improvement; and • Apply actionable strategies to implement a districtwide improvement framework aligned to student achievement goals.

By the end of this session, participants will: Understand how to design and implement an instructional coherence framework that aligns ILTs (Instructional Leadership Teams), PLCs, coaching systems, and progress-monitoring routines to strengthen classroom instruction in turnaround and high-need school settings. Analyze the key components of a multi-year strategic plan for school improvement, including how to prioritize high-leverage systems, create leadership alignment, and build momentum across diverse school communities. Apply practical tools and protocols—such as walkthrough structures, coaching templates, PLC planning tools, and monitoring dashboards—to improve instructional leadership practices in their own schools or districts. Develop a customized action plan that identifies next steps for implementing coherent improvement systems, building leader and teacher capacity, and accelerating student learning in their local context.

Discover how one district designed Instructional Impact Teams to anchor a coherent professional learning system. Examine structures, protocols, and an instructional playbook that create time, tools, and culture for shared teacher and leader learning. Apply practical templates and design moves to strengthen collaborative teams, build collective efficacy, and document impact on instruction and student learning.

• Analyze how Instructional Impact Teams function as the backbone of a coherent professional learning system that amplifies student and adult learning, and identify parallels and gaps in their own context. • Design or refine a collaborative team structure, including time, roles, protocols, and use of an instructional playbook, to support ongoing, job-embedded learning for teachers and leaders. • Assess culture conditions (trust, psychological safety, clarity of purpose) needed to launch and sustain this work and plan concrete leadership moves to strengthen collective efficacy.

Use AI tools to design professional learning that is personalized, responsive, and aligned to school goals. Learn practical workflows leaders can use to plan sessions, differentiate support, and provide ongoing follow-up that improves transfer to practice. Apply templates and strategies from the session to strengthen adult learning in your school or district immediately.

• Identify how AI can strengthen professional learning by improving needs assessment, session design, differentiation, and ongoing support, using research-aligned strategies that increase educator performance and student outcomes. • Use AI-assisted workflows and templates to plan professional learning experiences that align to school or district improvement goals and model best practices in adult learning. • Design personalized follow-up structures, including coaching prompts, PLC supports, and reflection tools, that increase transfer of learning to classroom practice and build staff capacity. • Apply the session’s tools to create or refine a professional learning plan for their own context, ensuring clear expectations, stronger engagement, and measurable impact on teaching and learning.

How might we redesign our processes and systems for greater equity? In this highly interactive session, we will experience how process maps can be used to better understand critical processes, identify possible breakdowns for those we serve, and generate change ideas to support greater equity and inclusion. You will leave with tools and templates for mapping processes in your own contexts - because if we improve our processes, we improve our outcomes!

Participants will be able to: - Understand the importance of making processes visible, so that we can improve them - Make a compelling case for process mapping with stakeholders as an empathy experience and part of a “doing with, not for” approach to improvement - Use process maps in a variety of ways to understand a high-leverage process, identify possible breakdowns for those they serve, and generate change ideas to support greater equity and inclusion - Facilitate a protocol with their own teams and those they support in improvement work

Learn how instructional rounds create a shared, non-evaluative approach to improving teaching and learning across schools. Examine the core components of instructional rounds, including developing a problem of practice, observing instruction, and analyzing patterns of practice. Apply protocols and tools that support collaborative learning, strengthen instructional coherence, and inform next steps for school and district improvement.

1. I can describe how instructional rounds support a shared, non-evaluative process for improving teaching and learning across schools. 2. I can identify and explain the core components of instructional rounds: developing a problem of practice, observing instruction, and analyzing patterns of practice. 3. I can apply protocols and tools to support collaborative learning, strengthen instructional coherence, and inform next steps for school and district improvement.

Explore how a principal addressed post–Grade 3 reading declines by learning the shifts from balanced to structured literacy to shape a clear instructional vision. Examine how aligned leadership moves, data-informed decisions, and collaboration with literacy leaders redesigned instruction, professional learning, and schoolwide systems. Identify key leadership actions and leave with a tool to help you notice, plan, and drive coherent, evidence-based improvement in your own setting.

Understand how the role of the principal has evolved and why maintaining a clear, research-aligned instructional vision is essential for improving student outcomes amid increasing leadership demands. Evaluate leadership moves through the lens of student literacy data to prioritize systemic shifts in instructional practices. Analyze a multi-year implementation plan to determine key levers for sustaining instructional coherence. Develop a practical, next-step action plan to strengthen early literacy outcomes in their own school context through focused, achievable leadership practices.

Examine how school and system leaders move from fragmented initiatives to a shared, coherent vision for rigorous learning. Experience leadership routines through case studies, calibration protocols, and simulated evidence reviews that align surface, deep, and transfer learning with collective efficacy. Apply leadership moves that unite teams around common expectations and measurable impact on student learning.

• Explore research on collective efficacy, surface–deep–transfer learning, and leadership habits that sustain rigorous instruction • Experience and facilitate leadership routines that align instructional vision, observation, and collaborative learning across teams • Analyze and calibrate evidence of student learning to distinguish activity from impact and strengthen inter-rater reliability • Draft a leadership action plan that unites instructional expectations across classrooms, teams, and schools

Stop running professional learning and school improvement on parallel tracks! Reimagine professional learning as the catalyst for meaningful change and accelerated student outcomes. Examine how our district merged professional learning and school improvement into one coherent, results-driven process. Analyze tools and strategies grounded in the Standards for Professional Learning to strengthen shared ownership, implementation, and monitoring so adult learning consistently translates into improved student outcomes—in every classroom, every day.

By the end of this session, participants will: - Explain how centering effective adult learning with short-term cycles shifts school improvement from static, compliance-driven plans to an outcome-focused system that builds collective accountability for instructional improvement. - Explore system-level and school-level tools that clarify roles and shared accountability among district leaders, school leaders, and teachers. - Reflect on leadership moves that foster collective ownership, coherence, and accountability at the school and district levels. - Develop actionable leadership steps to improve alignment, coherence, and collective responsibility for professional learning and school improvement in their own context. Participants will be provided with: Concrete examples and guiding questions to support the transformation of professional learning from a series of disconnected events into a strategic driver of continuous improvement, including: - The district's Professional Learning Definition, grounded in Learning Forward Standards and collaboration with Joellen Killion, including success indicators, implementation criteria, and stakeholder roles. - The Advocate. Improve. Measure. process, an evidence-based framework for job-embedded professional learning. - The district’s Continuous Improvement Planning Progression, a rubric-based tool that builds leadership capacity by describing expected skills and behaviors for school improvement.

Data is only as powerful as the instruction it informs. Examine how a middle school building coach, math specialist, and district math coach partner with grade-level teams to transform assessment data into actionable instructional decisions. Participants explore high-impact, replicable routines for collaborative meetings that support targeted small-group instruction and lead to measurable student growth.

By the end of this session, attendees will be equipped to: -Interpret formative and summative middle school math assessment data in ways that prioritize standards and clarify instructional next steps -Use data visualization to identify trends, group students by learning needs, and design differentiated small-group instruction aligned to targeted standards. -Analyze data patterns over time to determine whether core instructional programs are meeting student needs or whether instructional adjustments and supplementation are needed. -Apply a replicable planning routine that supports ongoing progress monitoring, instructional coherence, and improved alignment between data and instruction.

Participants in this session will: • Strengthen their leadership effectiveness by developing their capacity to shift from problem-solver to empowerer and from directive to facilitative by embracing a coaching stance. • Deepen their mindset and skillset for functioning as a Coaching Leader who develops others by asking questions, deeply listening and providing feedback. • Cultivate their ability to build leadership capacity in others by creating a culture of trust and continuous learning.

• Understand why leading with questions strengthens leadership effectiveness. They will embrace the concept of the Coaching Leader, the leader who catalyzes learning and growth by using powerful inquiry to unlock potential and unleash confidence of others. Embracing this transformative model of leadership requires shifts and adaptations and participants will set the foundation for this deeply challenging and rewarding work. • Sharpen their skillset for formulating powerful questions and understand the power of inquiry to clarify thinking, surface assumptions, expand options and support accountability This skillset, coupled with the mindset of facilitating growth and learning, promotes a collaborative culture of psychological safety, innovation and adaptive thinking. • Understand what personal leadership habits and mindset shifts they need to make to move from being the center of all decision-making to becoming the developer of other leaders. They will be able to distinguish between directive and inquiry-based leadership and gain clarity on when each is more effective. •Develop their capacity to function as a Coaching Leader who delegates responsibility to others and deepens their ability to build trust, foster engagement, positively impact ownership and intentionally cultivate an inclusive environment for learning and growth.

This session will introduce Learning Forward Georgia’s partnership with the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), with a focus on Benchmarking Labs and the National Institute for School/System Leadership (NISL) Next leadership development program. The session will emphasize how this work builds coherence, strengthens leadership capacity, and drives meaningful impact.

• Understand the purpose and structure of Learning Forward Georgia’s partnership with NCEE, including how the NISL Next program supports the development and certification of effective school and district leaders. Gain an understanding of the outcomes anticipated from the NISL Next experience. • Analyze how a benchmarking lab approach enables districts to examine high-performing systems, identify leadership leverage points, and clarify pathways for coherent change. • Apply insights from LF Professional Learning Standards and National Leadership Standards and practices to align district and school leadership actions with systemwide goals and priorities. • Design next steps for leveraging benchmarking and NISL Next learning within their own context to strengthen leadership capacity, coherence, and sustained impact across their system.

This session will share a district-developed model for implementing effective weekly instructional planning meetings and weekly data meetings at the school site level. Participants will explore the structures, protocols, leadership moves, and professional learning supports that enabled consistent implementation across schools. Using real district examples, attendees will examine how aligning planning and data cycles increased instructional coherence, improved teacher collaboration, and positively impacted student achievement outcomes. The session emphasizes practical tools and strategies participants can adapt to their own contexts.

By the end of this session, participants will: 1. Understand the district framework used to establish consistent weekly planning and data meeting cycles. 2. Identify leadership practices that support high-functioning collaborative teams. 3. Analyze sample agendas, protocols, and facilitation tools. 4. Develop an action plan to implement or refine collaborative meeting structures in their own districts or schools.

Examine a four-year district-partner collaboration that built sustainable equity infrastructure through strategic investment in both external expertise and internal educator leadership. Experience key professional learning activities from Diversity Equity Inclusion Belonging modules, Saturday Academies, and Train-the-Trainer institutes while hearing directly from educators who evolved from participants to facilitators. Apply a replicable framework for securing funding, compensating educator leaders, and building lasting capacity in your own context.

Analyze a multi-year framework for progressing from school-based equity teams to district-wide capacity building Experience and evaluate key professional learning activities that develop culturally responsive dispositions and practices Identify strategies for securing funding and compensating educators to lead and sustain equity work Assess organizational readiness and design an initial action plan for implementing sustainable equity professional learning

Teacher leaders are a powerful lever for continuous improvement when their learning is intentionally designed as part of a coherent professional learning system. In this interactive session, participants examine a district–university partnership and the Leadership and Inquiry for Transformation (LIFT) series to see how research-informed inquiry cycles and job-embedded learning drive improvement. Participants will leave with a draft design for teacher leader learning, developed using a research-informed professional learning framework to support continuous improvement in their context.

1. Understand how teacher leaders function as a critical system lever for advancing coherent professional learning and continuous improvement aligned to school and district improvement plans and the Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning. 2. Analyze how a district–university partnership intentionally designed the Leadership and Inquiry for Transformation (LIFT) series using a research-informed framework to strengthen alignment, inquiry, and job-embedded learning for teacher leaders. 3. Experience and apply an inquiry-based process used by teacher leaders to examine evidence, monitor implementation of improvement strategies, and facilitate instructional conversations that support educator practice and student learning. 4. Design an initial action plan to adapt tools, structures, and evidence-based practices from the LIFT model to strengthen teacher leader professional learning systems in their own school or district context.

Explore the transformative power of Cognitive Ownership by reframing the instructional hierarchy to center student voice and agency. Analyze a spectrum of inquiry approaches to strategically shift the teacher’s role from information source to architect of student-led discovery. Develop equity-centered scaffolds and practical protocols that empower every learner to ask the "next" question and assume full ownership of their intellectual growth.

1. Deconstruct the Inquiry Spectrum: Distinguish between direct, structured, guided, open, and discovery inquiry to select the most effective approach for specific learning targets. 2. Foster Cognitive Ownership: Apply research-based strategies to create a culture where student voice and agency power the learning experience instead of mere compliance. 3. Reframe Teacher Guidance: Master the art of the "facilitated return" knowing when to step in to guide the conversation and when to step back to let students lead the discovery. 4. Design for Equity & Agency: Evaluate how inquiry scaffolds remove barriers for diverse learners, ensuring that "student-led" does not mean "left to chance."

Power your team conversations! Analyze real classroom data to uncover what student performance reveals about instruction across proficiency levels. Facilitate powerful, structured team conversations to identify high-leverage Tier 1 strategies for common challenges while creating actionable plans that translate insights into targeted tiered instruction and support. Leave with a ready-to-use digital resource designed to streamline data compilation and amplify your analysis.

1. Synthesize research through collaborative conversations to unify understanding of Tier 1 instruction within MTSS. 2. Experience collaborative, structured data conversations using a provided data protocol that highlights effective Tier 1 strategies and shared instructional challenges. 3. Identify and align research-based instructional strategies using a Tier 1 resource to address common learning needs revealed through data analysis. 4. Strategize implementation of high-level instructional practices within the data analysis process.

How can districts set themselves up for selecting and successfully implementing a new curriculum resource? Experience how Leander ISD utilized Continuous Improvement Tools, The Elements, and a phased-in approach to implement new curriculum materials. Leave with the next steps and practices you can take to guide a new or in-progress curriculum implementation

Examine and identify key components of successful curriculum selections/adoptions Examine and identify key components of effective curriculum-based professional learning Review PLC and continuous improvement tools that support curriculum selection and implementation Determine next steps for their own setting concerning curriculum selection and implementation

Explore how the Long Beach Network for School Improvement (LBNSI) built sustainable leadership by empowering school-based instructional coaches to lead continuous improvement. Examine how coaches connected classroom practice to district priorities through coherent professional learning and improvement science. Engage in interactive activities that model protocols, processes, and tools adaptable to multiple contexts, and leave equipped to strengthen coaching capacity and align improvement efforts across your own system.

1. Examine how LBNSI’s multi-year, improvement science–driven approach develops school-based instructional coaches through structured tiers of support, intentional professional learning, and a shared vision—demonstrating how instructional coaching and improvement science operate together to drive sustainable improvement. 2. Experience selected coaching activities and protocols from LBNSI’s professional learning model that connect improvement science principles to high-leverage coaching practices. 3. Analyze implementation data from LBNSI’s work to understand how relationships, content, and structures influenced both coach development and instructional practice in schools. 4. Reflect on and apply insights and tools from the LBNSI experience to refine coaching vision, structures, and professional learning within their own systems.

How can schools ensure that core instruction truly meets the needs of students with disabilities and reflects the promise of IDEA in daily practice? Experience how the Lead IDEA Organizational Rubric enables school leaders to examine the instructional policies, practices, and organizational structures that shape core instruction and surface strengths and gaps. Leave with practical tools and an initial action plan to strengthen instructional coherence and guide continuous improvement in your school or district.

Participants will: 1) Identify key leadership responsibilities for ensuring high quality, accessible core instruction through strong organizational systems and structures that support students with disabilities. 2) Explore evidence based strategies principals can use to strengthen core (Tier 1) instruction and enhance schoolwide special education programming. 3) Analyze instructional policies, practices, systems, and structures using a structured organizational rubric to identify strengths, gaps, and priority areas for improving core instruction and intervention. 4) Plan next steps for using session tools and resources to assess core instruction, strengthen instructional coherence, and guide continuous improvement within their school or district context.

Examine why districts often become data-heavy yet remain information-poor when analysis happens in isolation rather than through shared learning. Experience how AI, used as a thought partner within a human-in-the-loop process, helps educators and leaders collaboratively synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into meaningful, equity-centered insights. Apply a replicable data-to-information workflow that strengthens collective sense-making and informs professional learning, leadership decisions, and continuous improvement efforts.

Understand the difference between data collection and information-informed decision-making, including why data-heavy systems often fail to influence instruction, equity efforts, and professional learning when sense-making occurs in isolation. Analyze qualitative and quantitative data using a human-in-the-loop framework that leverages AI as a thought partner to surface patterns, identify gaps, and support equitable interpretation without replacing professional judgment. Apply a structured data-to-information workflow to collaboratively synthesize data and generate actionable insights that inform professional learning priorities, leadership decisions, and improvement efforts. Design concrete next steps for embedding AI-supported data sense-making into existing professional learning communities, leadership teams, or district improvement cycles to strengthen coherence and collective responsibility.

Effective instructional leadership fuels continuous improvement and creates the conditions where every learner can thrive. This session explores how schools and districts can build and sustain a shared instructional leadership vision that unites leaders, teachers, and the broader school community around high expectations and coherent practice. Grounded in research and responsive to real classroom needs, this vision becomes the anchor for ongoing improvement cycles and meaningful, data-informed decision-making. Participants will actively engage in strategies for developing a shared instructional vision, analyze research-based instructional focus areas, and practice protocols for gathering and interpreting classroom data. Participants will also work with decision-making frameworks that support the creation of a theory of action that extends beyond leadership teams and empowers educators at every level. Attendees will leave with practical tools, high-leverage leadership moves, and a replicable process to strengthen coherence, elevate instructional practice, and accelerate student learning through aligned, community-driven instructional leadership.

Collaboratively develop and articulate a shared instructional leadership vision that aligns leaders, educators, and the broader school community around high expectations and coherent instructional practices. Analyze research-based instructional focus areas and apply structured protocols to gather, observe, and interpret classroom data in ways that meaningfully inform continuous improvement cycles. Use decision-making frameworks to create a practical, scalable theory of action that distributes leadership and empowers educators at all levels to support aligned instructional improvement. Implement high-leverage leadership moves and a replicable coherence-building process to strengthen instructional practice and accelerate student learning across classrooms and teams.

Explore how High-Leverage Practices anchor job-embedded professional learning for all teachers by providing a shared, research-based foundation for instruction that supports all learners. Examine how microlearning and microteaching—through video exemplars, self-reflection, peer feedback, and video coaching—build continuous growth, instructional coherence, and responsiveness. Apply practical strategies for designing sustainable professional learning systems that positively impact students, strengthen practice, and support teacher satisfaction and retention.

Discover how High-Leverage Practices serve as a research-based foundation for job-embedded professional learning that supports effective instruction for all teachers and learners, including students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Describe how microlearning and microteaching—through video exemplars, self-reflection, peer feedback, and video coaching—support continuous educator growth, instructional coherence, and improved instructional responsiveness. Apply practical tools and routines to embed High-Leverage Practices into existing professional learning structures such as PLCs and coaching cycles. Develop actionable next steps for designing sustainable professional learning systems that strengthen instructional practice, support teacher satisfaction and retention, and positively impact student learning across classrooms and districts.

This session introduces The Coaching Moves Framework, which synthesizes the research on coaching into a practical toolkit that coaches can use to support teacher learning. No matter what coaching model(s) you use, this framework can help coaches and coaching leads align coaching practice to the evidence-base, develop a common language for discussing the details of what happens in coaching conversations, and support thoughtful planning and reflection for coaching conversations.

1. Describe what the Coaching Moves Framework is and is not 2. Analyze the relationship between the moves in the framework and current coaching practice in their own context 3. Identify one high-leverage application of the framework in their own context

Strengthen instructional improvement by grounding strategic priorities in what students say, do, and produce. Practice a PLC-to-Walkthrough-to-Coaching cycle that starts with intended learning, then uses targeted evidence from classroom visits to build shared expectations for strong instruction across teams. Leave with a student-evidence note-catcher, ready-to-use coaching question stems, and a 30-day implementation plan you can put into action immediately.

Participants will: Identify three student-action look-fors (what students say, do, and produce) that signal rigorous, standards-aligned learning and academic discourse. Use a short PLC pre-brief to clarify intended learning and choose targeted evidence to collect during walkthroughs. Draft and rehearse two evidence-first coaching questions that help teachers strengthen HQIM-aligned instruction without triggering defensiveness. Build a 30-day visibility and follow-up plan (PLC touchpoints, walkthroughs, and brief calibration with peers) and define what evidence will indicate progress.

Ignite your district’s potential to develop teachers by uniting AI, professional learning, and instructional coaching to amplify the impact teachers make every day. This dynamic session reveals how empowering educators with the right tools, knowledge, and support elevates both teaching practice and student learning outcomes. Join us to discover how aligned systems of support and professional learning can transform teacher growth into measurable gains for all learners.

- Learn how to create a lasting impact on teaching and learning by implementing an aligned, streamlined system of professional learning and support to amplify teacher impact on student learning. - Understand high-impact ways to leverage resources and integrate AI into professional learning design, coaching cycles, and instructional support to increase efficiency and personalization for educators. - Discover ways to cultivate collaborative inquiry and to develop a coherent system of support that unites teacher skills with student learning. - Explore strategies and develop an action plan for refining a culture of continuous growth that ensures coaching and professional learning result in a sustained, meaningful impact on both teaching practices and student achievement.

The session will provide an overview of the National Writing Project’s Coach.Teach.Write program, including information about the instructional resources and the coaching cycles. They will also hear lessons learned from writing project coaches who have implemented this program in districts across the country. Participants will then explore some of the program resources and reflect on ways their organization uses coaching to support the implementation of new programs. Finally, participants will learn about the evaluation of the CTW program and what the evaluation team hopes to learn.

Learn approaches for coaching teachers in a range of teaching contexts on effective writing instruction. Explore possibilities for integrating evidence-based writing practices into district curriculum. Reflect on strategies for using narrative writing to increase student engagement.

Teacher sustainability starts with sustainable induction. This session examines system-to-teacher aligned induction practices that foster teacher growth and boost student learning. Practitioners will leave with practical ideas to build on existing work and make intentional moves that actually matter. Participants will learn alongside districts of varying sizes, exploring concrete strategies, leadership levers, and implementation structures that strengthen induction, grow internal capacity, and create lasting impact from day one.

-identify key features of effective teacher induction aligned to Learning Forward’s standards and understand how strong induction supports educator growth, student learning, and district improvement. -examine real examples of induction practices from districts of different sizes and describe how these practices are implemented to improve teaching practice and teacher retention. -leave with a clear, actionable next step and simple measures they can use to monitor early impact on educator performance and student learning.

If your students flounder, flail or fight when expected to participate, this entertaining, interactive session will help you chart a course to smooth sailing – helping you overcome common blockades for all types of learners, even when they appear resistant or reluctant. Join the crew as we learn, practice, and experience a multitude of practical, research-based techniques to empower your lessons and your learners. Unlock the secrets to success that will increase student participation and content-based talk in whole-class discussions, random calling, and partner activities, filling your treasure chest with strategies that you can take away and use for yourself or the teachers you support the moment you set foot back in your schools and classrooms.

-Identify, understand, and empathize with student fears and challenges that may lead to the perception of being "resistant" or "reluctant" -Learn and be able to immediately apply at least 5 strategies to increase student talk and participation without creating anxiety or distress -Facilitate and structure a learning environment in which students are supported and challenged to grow while holding firm expectations for participation and engagement Participants can apply techniques from this session in any learning environment to support the needs of all learners - holding high standards for personal accountability without cornering or confrontation.

Revive your commitment and build your endurance to lead the implementation of high quality instructional materials. Discover how to structure curriculum based professional learning so staff gains long term dedication, strengthens their commitment for implementation regardless of challenges, and preserves to ensure equity for all learners. Learn strategies focused on belief shifting, mindset changing and equity driven practices at both the district and school level.

Participants will - Explore strategies that help leaders focus on the "Why" before mandating change. - Understand how to help educators gain understanding of HQIM through structured learning experiences. - Review multiple structures to use within Curriculum Based Professional Learning to sustain educator learning throughout HQIM implementation. - Learn how to support equity for all students through collaborative professional learning.

Drive greater retention by exploring a differentiated induction structure that supports both new educators and mentors. This session unpacks how to navigate varied preparation paths, covering both instructional frameworks and interpersonal dynamics. Join this interactive collaboration to identify the most impactful ways to build a "true" induction program that effectively sustains your staff.

Participants will begin by examining the intersection of recent research on educator induction models and teacher efficacy, gaining the evidence-based insights needed to ground their own programming. We will unpack how a differentiated structure can proactively support the increasingly varied paths of educator preparation, from alternative certification to traditional routes. Beyond theory, attendees will acquire a multifaceted coaching toolkit. You will learn strategies to guide new educators through technical instructional framework implementation while simultaneously equipping them to navigate complex professional dynamics and school culture. Mirroring our own training model, this interactive session prioritizes connectivity. Participants will not just listen, but collaborate to design their own induction experience that is immediately scalable at the district, campus, or team level. Ultimately, attendees will leave with a concrete blueprint for a 'true' induction program—one that maximizes impact and leads to greater retention of both mentors and new educators.

This session examines how a coaching initiative in Fort Bend Independent School District has enhanced leadership capacity among principals. Participants will learn about the leading improvement framework and how to use the framework as a tool to support principal decision-making related to common issues school leaders face in everyday operations. Attendees will leave with a self-analysis of their leadership strengths and challenges in the context of their unique campus needs.

- Understand the components of principal coaching. - Identify and analyze their leadership strengths and challenges using the TEA Texas Principal Standards as a guide. - Learn how to apply the leading improvement framework to personal and campus challenges - Develop a continuous improvement plan focusing on a current challenge of their choice

Consider 6 key steps to antiracist school leadership. Discuss strategic implementation with a diverse group of colleagues. Develop a vision that can be easily articulated, grounded in research and district data, supported by curricula and instruction, and evaluated via a variety of data points.

Participants will consider 6 key steps in antiracist school leadership. Participants will consider how antiracist school leaders educate themselves, commit to the mission, develop professional learning plans, embrace resistance, elevate antiracist curricula and instruction, and evaluate their antiracist impact. Also, participants will identify the current state of your organization and how you can chart a path toward your desired state, which leads to more equitable outcomes for students and their families.

Explore classroom-tested tools for supporting teachers to reset their classroom culture. Assess classroom conditions, prepare strategies to improve target areas, and experiment with a student-facing RESET script template that enables educators and students to collaboratively solve problems and improve classroom culture. Walk away ready to support colleagues and kids to create positive, productive classroom cultures in which everyone feels ownership and everyone succeeds.

Participants will assess current conditions in classrooms they support. Participants will explore strategies and experiment with scripts that they can use with students to collaboratively improve classroom conditions. Participants will unpack opportunities to explore these tools with teachers they support in order to foster positive, productive classroom cultures.

Imagine a whole-school literacy approach that dramatically boosts student achievement: PSAT benchmarks jumping from 77% to 88%, STAR Reading proficiency soaring from 57% to 93%, while simultaneously improving attendance, behavior, and teacher collective efficacy. Join us to discover how our teacher-led Secondary Literacy Leadership Council made this possible. Walk away with actionable strategies to replicate our success, empowering your educators and transforming student outcomes through collaborative, coherent professional learning.

As a result of attending this session, participants will walk away with concrete action steps to take at the system and building level. Participants will: -Examine how secondary teachers of all subjects can identify and implement high-leverage reading, writing, and speaking routines, such as partner reading, sentence expansion, and routines to improve secondary literacy outcomes. -Act to build teacher-leaders through a Literacy Leadership Council model to guide and refine teaching practices so that students read, write, and speak every day and in every class. -Examine the steps taken by Instructional Leaders at the Central Office and Building level to create a culture where all teachers see themselves as agents for Secondary Literacy Success -Engage with structured protocols and authentic classroom videos to facilitate the "Teachers Teaching Teachers" (TTT) model, enabling practical, peer-led professional learning within their own schools.

Examine how uniting grading practices focused on proficiency-scale design with student confidence and belonging can transform both learning experiences and outcomes for students. Explore how shifting from traditional grading to proficiency-based approaches strengthens student agency, clarity of learning goals, and social-emotional learning while maintaining rigorous expectations. Participants will leave with practical tools and facilitation strategies to support collective, schoolwide learning around grading as a lever for learning and student success.

1. Analyze how grading practices collectively shape student confidence, belonging, and learning experiences, particularly for historically marginalized students. 2. Identify shifts from traditional grading practices to grading practices that align assessment with learning rather than compliance across classrooms and courses. 3. Apply reflection and facilitation tools that support collective educator learning and belief shifts around grading and student capacity to learn. 4. Design next steps for uniting teams, departments, or schools around grading practices that promote student agency and social-emotional growth.

This session explores how an urban high school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island redesigned professional learning around collaborative teacher teams focused on grade-level, challenging instruction for all students. We will engage participants in experiencing what these reinvented team meetings look like for teachers, coaches, and building leaders. Participants will understand how this approach supports equitable instructional improvement and can be adapted in participants’ own schools.

Reframe equity as the organizing principle for designing professional learning and improving instruction. Examine how a shared vision of grade-level, high-quality instruction can anchor district and school improvement efforts. Analyze how collaborative teacher teams use shared instructional work to learn, adapt, and improve practice together. Experience and reflect on team-based processes for designing, testing, and studying instructional practices that can be transferred to participants’ own contexts.

Apply a bold new blueprint to campus leadership to build more capacity for teacher coaching and support and to create sustainable roles and leadership practices that drive toward better outcomes for adults and students. Examine how leadership architecture shapes the conditions for high-quality professional learning in schools. Learn how clearly defined roles, manageable spans of control and embedded leadership routines make coaching, collaboration and adult growth continuous rather than episodic.

Participants will:

• Identify the leadership structures that enable effective professional learning systems;
• Assess how role clarity, spans of control and leadership routines affect educator growth;
• Explore a leadership architecture framework to strengthen shared leadership in their schools or districts; and
• Consider possibilities for embedding people development into formal leadership roles and routines.

Conversations can change the world when we are intentional about the words we use. Discover how to co-create learning communities where everyday words spark extraordinary conversations. Communication scientist, coach, and author of Coaching A-Z, Haesun Moon shares what she has learned from microanalysis of coaching conversations and how to use the tool she created, the Dialogic Orientation Quadrant. A tool for making visible what happens in conversations, including who is driving the dialogue and whether it is oriented towards problems or possibilities, it has transformed the way people coach in 46 countries.

1. Map their current coaching conversations on the DOQ to see exactly where they are "fixing" the past versus architecting a preferred future. 2. Choose specific, ordinary words that disrupt the "habit of better" and immediately shift the dialogue from compliance to connection. 3. Identify visible signs of progress in their teams, moving beyond "feeling good" to tracking the measurable impact of their conversations.

Much of how classrooms look and much of what happens in them today is guided by institutional norms laid down at the inception of an industrial-age model of public education. These norms have enabled a culture of teaching and learning that is often devoid of student thinking. In this session, participants will experience some of the results of over 15 years of research into how teachers can transform their classrooms from a space where students mimic to where students think.

Participants will:

• Recognize what thinking looks like in a math classroom.
• Understand what it takes to get students thinking in a math classroom.
• Be able to begin the process of building a thinking classroom.
• Be able to support teachers in them building a thinking classroom.

When organizational challenges arise, effective leaders utilize advanced coaching skills to identify core issues and strategically scale their involvement. Through interactive self-assessments, authentic coaching scenarios, and small-group discussions, participants will master four advanced coaching skills designed to diagnose the appropriate level of intervention. This approach equips leaders to amplify their impact and empower their teams to drive sustainable solutions.

After this session, participants will be able to strategically differentiate between a colleague's genuine "problem" (requiring intervention) and a "preference" (an opportunity for advanced coaching). This distinction allows leaders to scale their involvement and expand team capacity. Using a decision tree, small group discussions, and case studies, participants will master four advanced coaching skills: using impactful metaphors, addressing the inner critic, aligning core values, and leveraging the power of permission. These advanced coaching skills allow participants to diagnose their level of involvement and tailor their coaching approach, ultimately saving leaders time and expanding team capacity. Participants will develop a personalized action plan to address a specific challenge, allowing them to apply their new coaching skills in an upcoming conversation.

Resilient schools are built through systems that help communities adapt and move forward together amid disruption, turning isolated efforts into collective success. Drawing from Leading Resilient Schools (Corwin, 2026), this session examines how instructional leaders cultivate organizational resilience by strengthening collective efficacy, coherence, evaluative thinking, and relational trust. Participants will explore how prioritizing psychological safety, clarity of vision, collaborative inquiry, and evidence-informed improvement connects educators across systems and shifts schools from initiative-driven change to adaptive systems that sustain learning and make collective impact visible.

Participants will analyze how organizational resilience supports continuous improvement by strengthening professional learning communities, leadership coherence, and collective responsibility for student outcomes; examine leadership actions that cultivate collective efficacy, evaluative thinking, and relational trust as conditions for sustained instructional improvement; apply data and evidence to design professional learning structures that prioritize psychological safety, collaborative inquiry, and clarity of impact; develop an implementation plan that aligns leadership practices, learning designs, and organizational systems to move from initiative-driven change toward adaptive, resilient school improvement.

Wellbeing cannot thrive in silos. This session explores how self-awareness, strong professional relationships, and shared ownership strengthen collective wellness across roles. Participants examine how understanding emotions and intentionally empowering educator wellbeing moves schools beyond fragmented initiatives toward coherent, aligned practices. These practices deepen culture and collaboration, support the whole person, and sustain meaningful learning and leadership over time.

Participants will examine how self-awareness and collective wellness influence professional relationships and school and organizational culture. They will understand how isolated initiatives limit impact, while collaboration and shared responsibility strengthen both personal and professional effectiveness. Through interactive activities and reflection, participants will identify one actionable strategy to enhance professional relationships and foster collective ownership in their context. They will engage colleagues in dialogue that promotes emotional awareness, supports well-being, and encourages mutual accountability. By connecting self-awareness to shared responsibility, participants will leave equipped to move beyond fragmented efforts, implement coherent wellness practices, and cultivate a culture that supports whole-educator growth and teacher retention. This session provides practical tools and strategies that empower educators to strengthen relationships, sustain collective wellbeing, and positively impact both teaching and learning outcomes across their schools or districts.

Do you have a system for growing your own school-level and district-level leaders, ready to meet the needs of all learners? Learn about the strategic approach a fast-growing district is taking to open leadership pathways across multiple departments to meet the needs of all students. Discuss the urgency for exemplary professional learning that bridges leadership capacity in educators and a pipeline to grow leaders within your organization.

Learn about the design process used by a fast-growth district to solve a problem of practice centered around rapidly changing student demographics, the need to develop future leaders, and to serve as a bridge to value and retain strong educators. Dive into the Theory of Change and Logic Model used to create a high-quality professional learning system for building leadership capacity and a pipeline for growing supportive leaders focused on improving student results. Explore five pathways that have emerged in this process, designed for aspiring leaders driven to support all students and improve student outcomes, including teachers aspiring to serve as assistant principals; assistant principals ready to move into a principalship; aspiring curriculum coordinators and instructional coaches; aspiring counselors; aspiring special education leaders (i.e. diagnosticians); aspiring student support specialists (i.e. interventionists); and aspiring Human Resources leaders. Each pathway has the goal of equipping educators with skills and knowledge to lead others in serving the unique needs of all students. Hear success stories from participants, challenges encountered by leaders, and reflect on the needs of your own organization and problem of practice to create a process that bridges the capacity of your staff and the needs of your students.

Examine a proven professional learning framework that drove significant student cohort growth by shifting focus from general theory to granular instructional strategies. Analyze the "Strategic Literacy Framework" to operationalize the Science of Reading through a vertically aligned bank of over 1,500 distinct reading and writing strategies. Design a "learning arc" for your system that synchronizes adult development with curriculum pacing to ensure rigorous implementation.

Evaluate the limitations of "program-only" implementation by analyzing district impact data that demonstrates how layering specific, codified strategies onto High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) accelerates significant cohort growth. Construct a Curriculum-Based Professional Learning plan that leverages the "Strategic Literacy Framework" to map explicit reading and writing strategies directly to the scope and sequence of their existing curriculum. Apply vertical alignment principles to design adult learning cycles that ensure coherence in literacy instruction across grade bands (K-12), moving teachers from passive adoption to active expert implementation of the Science of Reading.

Reveal the secrets behind building authentic leadership credibility. Explore actionable approaches that foster trust, strengthen communication, and create an atmosphere where staff feel inspired and empowered. Implement techniques that turn everyday leadership into something extraordinary.

Participants will be able to: • Explain the connection between teacher credibility and leader credibility and why both matter for professional learning. • Identify leadership behaviors that build or erode trust during professional learning initiatives. • Apply credibility-building strategies that increase engagement, clarity, and follow-through. • Reflect on their own “behind the scenes” leadership moves and their impact on adult learning. • Commit to one leadership action that strengthens credibility and supports collective efficacy.

Explore how neuroscience and metacognitive discipline strengthen the design of professional learning that truly sticks. Examine practical, multimodal strategies that leverage spatial organization, cognitive pathways, and reflective processing to deepen educator understanding and long?term retention. Apply these research?aligned tools to create professional learning experiences that are clearer, more memorable, and immediately transferable to your own instructional leadership and facilitation practice.

Participants will gain a clear understanding of how neuroscience, metacognitive discipline, and the method of loci contribute to durable professional learning that extends beyond momentary engagement. They will explore how the brain encodes, organizes, and retrieves new instructional practices, examining the role of multimodal pathways and loci?based spatial?memory structures in strengthening long?term retention and transfer. Through guided analysis, participants will investigate how visual anchors, conceptual maps, intentional layouts, and collaborative processing routines support educators in internalizing complex ideas and applying them with greater clarity and confidence. Participants will also learn how to evaluate their current professional?learning designs to identify where cognitive?science principles are present, missing, or underutilized. They will practice adapting existing PD structures by incorporating multimodal inputs, spatial?memory supports, and reflective routines that align with how adults learn best. These adaptations will help educators move from exposure to true implementation, reducing the common “PD fade?out” that undermines instructional coherence and long?term change. Finally, participants will apply the framework to their own contexts, creating or refining professional?learning experiences that promote sustained educator growth. They will leave with practical tools, replicable routines, and a flexible design process that strengthens instructional practice and supports improved student learning outcomes.

This session explores how districts can move from isolated curriculum selections to a coherent, knowledge-building process that unifies educator practice around instructional excellence. Participants will examine a field-tested Program Review framework that positions curriculum-based professional learning as a lever for coherent instructional decision-making and systemwide improvement. Using a Program Review Roadmap and planning tools, participants will assess readiness and begin designing curriculum-based professional learning aligned to their own local context.

Analyze a four-phase Program Review process that centers curriculum-based professional learning as the primary driver for building educator knowledge and instructional coherence. Apply the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Stages of Concern framework to assess system readiness and differentiate professional learning supports during curriculum transitions. Use KASAB (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Aspiration, and Behavior) indicators to identify evidence of changed teacher decision-making and shifts in instructional practice. Begin to design a context-specific implementation roadmap aligned with high-quality curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL) characteristics that unite educator practice around a shared instructional vision.

How can districts transform traditionally isolated administrator oversight actions like observations and walk-throughs into meaningful teacher-led professional learning experiences? Learn how Guilford Public Schools is leveraging two collaborative peer observation models – teacher-centered lab sites and teacher-led learning walks – to scale the district model of high-quality instruction. These experiences are developing and leveraging collaborative teacher networks that work to decrease variability and increase equity in the educational experiences students receive across classrooms.

1. Understand the research-based benefits of collective inquiry to enhance teachers’ ability to engage in collaborative peer observations in order to develop a shared mental model of high quality, equitable instruction. 2. Experience examples of how two different collaborative peer observation learning opportunities (teacher-centered lab sites and teacher-led learning walks) can help educators reduce isolation and increase capacity to learn from one another and subsequently apply the new learning to their own classrooms to improve student experiences, learning, and outcomes. 3. Articulate how developing and enacting a shared mental model of high quality instruction works to reduce variability and increase opportunities for students to engage in high quality instruction, thus increasing equity for all students in your district. 4. Reflect on the conditions necessary to create a collaborative peer observation experience in their own school/district to support teacher led professional learning that is grounded in research and promotes agency for educators.

What if student data became a daily leadership tool rather than an annual compliance task? This session explores how district and school leaders can leverage real-time data to strengthen Tier 1 instruction, prioritize professional learning, and build targeted systems of support that improve outcomes for all students. Aligned with Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning, participants will examine how one district integrated data with walkthroughs, coaching cycles, PLCs, and intervention systems to create a coherent, continuous improvement model.

This session directly aligns with Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning, particularly Learning Communities, Leadership, Data, and Implementation, by demonstrating how leaders create coherent systems that connect professional learning to classroom practice and student outcomes. Participants will: Identify at least two ways to use data to prioritize instructional coaching and walkthrough feedback. Develop a framework for aligning data with Tier 1 instruction and GEI supports. Apply data-informed strategies to improve student engagement, instructional rigor, and academic growth.

Leadership is often described as a team sport, yet many instructional leaders do their most important work in isolation. This interactive session examines how intentionally designed communities of practice function as essential leadership infrastructure that reduces isolation and strengthens coherence. Using the research-informed CIRCLE framework, participants apply practical design and facilitation tools to strengthen leadership professional learning systems.

1. Examine the research behind communities of practice as a core leadership infrastructure, not an add-on, and connect the design to the Standards for Professional Learning, with emphasis on Culture of Collaborative Inquiry and Learning Designs. 2. Analyze the CIRCLE framework (Connect, Inquire, Reflect, Collaborate, Learn, Extend) to identify how social, job-embedded, and inquiry-driven learning strengthens leadership capacity and reduces fragmentation across improvement efforts. 3. Apply research-informed facilitation strategies, inquiry protocols, and design tools to strengthen or launch leadership communities of practice aligned to school or district improvement priorities and authentic problems of practice. 4. Develop a clear next step for advancing leadership communities of practice that reduces isolation and strengthens coherence, collective efficacy, and shared responsibility for improvement.

Explore a multi-year AI professional learning evolution that moves educators and students from foundational AI literacy to enhanced critical thinking and meaningful classroom application. Determine which high-leverage learning modalities best align with district readiness, capacity, and implementation timelines. Apply district-tested examples to personalize differentiated supports across roles and guide best practices for AI productivity, instructional design, and responsible student use.

1) Participants will analyze a multi-year, scaffolded AI professional learning progression (from teacher understanding to instructional use to student use) and develop a phased implementation roadmap that can be adapted for their district or organization. 2) Participants will assess their district’s current stage of AI implementation and determine which high-leverage professional learning modalities (online microlearning, on-campus sessions, summer learning, and coaching supports) best fit their context, then develop a customized delivery plan aligned to district vision, capacity, educator needs, and timelines. 3) Participants will experience district-tested examples to plan differentiated AI professional learning supports across roles (teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, students, and families), including best practices for productivity, instructional design, and responsible student use.

Leadership is more demanding than ever, but "survival mode" shouldn’t be the status quo. Explore the Whole-Leader Coaching Model, a research-validated framework transforming leadership stress into sustainable growth. This session utilizes positive psychology and mindfulness to strengthen organizational culture and improve educator retention. Walk away with a "Resilience Toolkit" and a personalized action plan to lead with clarity, presence, and purpose—empowering you to thrive, not just survive.

1. Analyze the Whole-Leader Framework: Participants will understand a model integrating self-awareness, emotional agility, relational trust, and systemic resilience to shift from individual "self-care" toward sustainable, organizational leadership health. 2. Apply the CORE Framework: Attendees will practice evidence-based mindfulness, gratitude, and connection techniques to mitigate burnout and improve cognitive clarity during high-pressure decision-making. 3. Design an Implementation Roadmap: Participants will create a Personalized Action Plan to systematically embed these well-being strategies into their school or district’s existing leadership development and professional learning structures. 4. Establish Collaborative Networks: Through structured peer-coaching exercises, leaders will form a community of practice to sustain professional accountability and foster collective success long after the conference concludes.

Although principals often receive the same training and resources, leadership impact varies widely. This session examines the unwritten leadership practices high-impact principals demonstrate and how leadership intentionally develops these behaviors through feedback, reflection, and targeted support. Participants will explore climate and cultural implications and leave with practical tools to coach, monitor, and strengthen leadership practices.

Identify key unwritten leadership practices that distinguish high-impact principals from their peers. Analyze how these practices influence school culture, instructional quality, and adult learning. Apply a leadership self-assessment tool to reflect on their own leadership behaviors and blind spots. Develop strategies to intentionally teach and coach these practices with school leadership teams.

Learn and practice strategies of blended coaching to promote the development of leadership skills, professional learning, and support for teachers, principals and principal supervisors. Practice coaching-based supervision and supervisorial direction in role playing scenarios to develop the educators "way of being" and "way of doing" using facilitative and instructional coaching skills. Develop a plan for using blended coaching to develop, support and retain your team in support of schools and students.

1. Participants will learn strategies of blended coaching to promote the development of leadership skills, professional learning and support for academic and operational team members 2.Participants will differentiate when to use facilitative and instructional coaching as a strategy to develop the skills and knowledge of the team member 3. Participants will understand when to use a coaching-based supervision approach with a team member 4. Participants will know the research and evidence that support a systems approach and model of coaching based supervision to develop, support and retain their team

Implementing new High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) is complex work that requires more than just "sticking to the script." This session equips teachers and leaders with practical methods to monitor curriculum implementation and student response in real-time. We will move beyond lagging indicators (summative assessments) to design "right now" measures that inform weekly planning and facilitate solution-oriented collaboration.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Shift the focus from "judging teacher performance" to "learning about curriculum implementation." Develop a "Family of Measures" (Process, Outcome, and Balancing) specifically for a unit of study or instructional shift. Use run charts to track the fidelity of instruction and student engagement, facilitating data-driven discussions in PLCs.

Engaging in collaborative instructional change takes time but drives growth for students and teachers. Participants will engage as learners with a literacy change package for student-centered instruction tested and refined by secondary teachers in a network for school improvement, reflecting on how to adapt it to their contexts. They will then analyze data linking the package to achievement growth.

Participants will develop a shared understanding of the research underlying the use of the student-centered instruction change package as a driver for students’ growth as readers and writers. Participants will develop a shared understanding of the use of Networked Improvement Communities for teacher collaboration and reflection and their roles in driving instructional change. Participants will know multiple ways to assess the level of implementation of the tests of change and how to relate that to student outcomes. Participants will be able to adapt the test of change (student-centered practices) to a range of situations where participants would benefit from talk and discussions.

How can data support reflection and growth without diminishing teacher agency? This interactive session invites coaches to explore how data can be used with teachers rather than to them. Participants will experience a coaching process that centers teacher voice, choice, and inquiry, practice creating reflective data displays, and leave with practical tools for fostering meaningful, teacher-driven coaching conversations that foster instructional improvement within complex systems.

Identify coaching practices that center teacher voice and choice when establishing an instructional focus, ensuring alignment between educator priorities and system improvement goals. Analyze instructional or classroom data to determine what evidence best supports reflective dialogue and professional learning rather than evaluative feedback. Apply inquiry-based questioning strategies, informed by coaching research, that empower educators to make meaning from data and determine next instructional steps. Plan coaching conversations that intentionally create space for educator reflection, sensemaking, and choice while supporting sustained changes in instructional practice.

Explore how Katy ISD redesigned coach professional learning using adult learning principles, creating a choice-based model with differentiated requirements based on experience level. Examine the systems needed to move from primarily mandatory sessions to a menu of learning options and what we're learning in year one of implementation. Walk away with practical frameworks for designing professional learning that honors coaches as adult learners.

Analyze how adult learning principles apply to professional learning design for instructional coaches. Examine a working model of choice-based, differentiated professional learning including systems and structures needed for implementation. Explore strategies for navigating the shift from required to choice-based learning. Design or refine a differentiated professional learning structure for their own coaching context.

This session empowers participants to enhance collective efficacy by creating rigorous, engaging collaborative planning, and coaching systems that drive teacher and student success. Attendees will learn to boost instructional rigor, student engagement, and pedagogy while evaluating systems for effective implementation. The goal is to ensure all students can access grade-level standards and to foster improved teacher collaboration, including peer observations and feedback.

In this conference session, participants will focus on the following outcomes: System Development for Collaboration: Engage in discussions to develop systems that foster intentional collaboration, enhancing tier one instructional practices. Structural Analysis: Analyze existing structures to identify opportunities for deeper collaboration aimed at equitable student learning and engagement. Instructional Coaching Focus: Identify essential areas for instructional coaching and feedback to enhance pedagogical practices, thereby improving teacher efficacy. Coaching Systems Evaluation: Analyze current coaching practices to map out key areas for more effective classroom implementation of instructional strategies. Overcoming Collaborative Barriers: Participate in discussions to understand and address barriers to collaboration from a leadership perspective, developing strategies to overcome them. Actionable Implementation Steps: Develop potential action plans for implementing improved collaborative systems and coaching structures to drive educational success. These outcomes aim to equip participants with the knowledge and strategies needed to effectively enhance collaborative efforts and instructional practices in their educational environments.

Transform professional learning into actionable steps that engage and empower adult learners. Create visible progressions for moving from “sit and get” to “go and do.” Model high-impact strategies for teachers that translate to engaging classroom practices.

Participants will review the components of Visible Learning and how they transfer to adult professional learning. Participants will see examples of how the presenter has used progressions of learning with adults to create clarity for building goals. Participants will practice reflection and feedback routines that inform professional learning. Participants will design their own learning progression to support their building/district goals.

Disrupt traditional professional learning by examining how micro-professional learning uses less time while producing clearer instructional insight. Explore how a Collaborative Challenge Clinic accelerates improvement cycles by enabling educators to analyze, redesign, and act on instructional strategies, often within the same day. Learn a replicable process that prioritizes instructional decision-making over content delivery and strengthens practice at the pace of classroom instruction.

Understand a theory of micro-professional learning that prioritizes precision, proximity to practice, and shortened improvement cycles. Analyze instructional assignments using a Collaborative Challenge Clinic protocol to increase cognitive demand, embed AI as a learning tool, differentiate for multilingual learners, and make student thinking visible. Apply the Collaborative Challenge Clinic protocol as a professional learning structure within large-scale and small-scale sessions, departments, or leadership teams to accelerate instructional improvement. Integrate the Collaborative Challenge Clinic protocol into existing district- and school-based professional learning structures, plans, and systems to accelerate instructional improvement while strengthening coherence.

Evaluate ways students and staff use AI for knowledge acquisition, writing, creative work, and monitoring then debate which uses go too far. Investigate AI-related legal cases to apply lessons-learned and develop effective policies. Generate action plans to engage with stakeholders and effectively navigate AI ethics and policy in your schools.

Participants will (1) debate acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI for students and staff, (2) determine key components of AI-related legal cases, and (3) develop their own action plans to engage with key stakeholders to support AI discussions, guidance, and policies to effectively balance innovation and ethics in their school communities.

Explore how a South Side Chicago school serving primarily Black students and a growing population of Latinx and newcomer multilingual learners built an instructional leadership team that drives measurable improvement through professional learning plans and inquiry-based learning cycles. Examine a practitioner-led case study highlighting leadership moves, equity-centered scaffolds, and data routines. Leave with practical tools and cycle templates adaptable to your setting.

Participants will:
Analyze a practitioner-led case study showing how a principal and instructional coach led instructional leadership team learning cycles tied to a professional learning plan.
- Identify specific leadership moves, facilitation routines, and practical tools that translated professional learning into classroom practice.
- Examine how scaffolds for access, language development, and belonging were embedded into cycles to strengthen rigor and equity.
- Evaluate multiple evidence sources used to monitor impact, including walkthrough data, teacher artifacts, and student discourse indicators.
- Draft a transferable leadership learning cycle and team implementation plan for their own context.

Examine why traditional and standards-based grading practices often fall short in preparing students for learning beyond school. Engage with a practical framework that supports educators and systems in progressing toward competency-based grading through intentional, additive practices. Apply tools and learning designs that strengthen student agency, improve instructional decision-making, and support sustainable grading change within classrooms, schools, and districts.

Analyze grading and assessment practices along a continuum from traditional to standards-based to competency-based, identifying leverage points for improving instructional coherence and student learning. Apply a progression framework to examine discrete, additive grading practices and participate in learning activities that model how educators and teams can advance competency-based grading within their own contexts. Design next-step strategies that support teachers and school leaders in implementing and sustaining grading practices that promote student agency, transfer of learning, and confidence beyond the classroom. Identify how professional learning structures (e.g., PLCs, collaborative inquiry, shared tools) can be used to support consistent, system-level implementation.

Navigate the essential routes for building high-impact coaching teams that drive measurable student growth across your district. Accelerate each school’s progress with collaborative partnerships and actionable feedback designed to keep your instructional goals on track. Fuel your professional journey with proven strategies that empower educators and ensure every student reaches their destination of academic success!

Synchronize Team Operations: Plan for an interdependent network within the coaching team with your vision in mind to anticipate roadblocks and streamline the path toward student growth. Map a Year-Long Data Cycle: Establish and plan a comprehensive cycle throughout the school year for data meetings that move beyond raw scores to actionable instructional adjustments throughout the school year. Design Recurring Professional Learning (PL): Build a sustainable "rest stop" schedule of planned PL intervals that aligns ongoing teacher support with school and district-wide growth goals. Audit Monthly Coaching Connections: Implement a structured process for monthly coaching meetings to ensure consistency, measurable impact, sustainability, and personalized mentorships.

Examines the true financial and instructional cost of early-career teacher turnover. Reframes new teacher retention as a systems and professional learning design issue rather than a morale problem. Demonstrates how leaders can design identity- and efficacy-centered professional learning that reduces attrition, stabilizes instruction, and protects long-term student outcomes.

1. Understand how early-career teacher turnover creates compounding financial, instructional, and cultural costs that exceed traditional retention investments. 2. Analyze why common professional learning structures delay confidence and contribute to early-career attrition despite good intentions. 3. Identify leadership moves that align identity development, instructional efficacy, and professional learning design for new teachers. 4. Apply a systems-based framework to redesign induction, coaching, and professional learning experiences that support new teachers to stay and grow.

Reimagine pedagogy across K–university and all content areas through a Human-Centered Teaching Framework grounded in Voice & Agency, Dignity-Driven Systems, Rigorous & Relevant Learning, and Global Citizenship & Justice. Examine practical strategies for designing learning spaces that cultivate belonging, critical thinking, stamina, and ethical engagement. Leave with concrete tools to align curriculum, assessment, and AI integration to protect authorship, deepen rigor, and sustain joy.

Understand and articulate the four domains of the Human-Centered Teaching Framework: Voice & Agency, Dignity-Driven Systems, Rigorous & Relevant Learning, and Global Citizenship & Justice and how they apply across K–university and all content areas. Design or refine a lesson, assessment, or classroom routine that cultivates authorship, belonging, intellectual stamina, and disciplinary rigor while protecting dignity and curiosity. Apply deep listening and equity-centered inquiry to examine how current classroom or institutional practices (e.g., grading, feedback, participation structures, AI use) either expand or constrain voice and agency. Integrate human-centered approaches into daily practice by aligning curriculum, instructional moves, and technology use to foster critical thinking, ethical engagement, and meaningful learning in diverse educational contexts.

Explore a rigorously tested change management framework and tools that support school, system, and state leaders in implementing high-quality curriculum and aligned professional learning. Hear from a district leader on how her large urban district is using these tools to set and align around a shared vision for curriculum implementation. Explore how you can drive the broader effort to support high quality curriculum implementation using effective change management.

Gain access to the Curriculum Implementation Change Framework (CICF), a change management framework and suite of tools for curriculum implementation that includes a tech-enabled survey, curriculum-specific observation tools (called Implementation Progressions), customized reports, and data analysis and action guidance. Experience the value and impact of aligning on a vision of high-quality implementation using CICF’s curriculum-specific Implementation Progressions, and get ideas for what this work could look like in your own system. Explore how this framework and toolkit and others like it can support the measurement, monitoring, and change management required by high-quality curriculum implementation.

Explore district-level structures designed to successfully prepare residents and host teachers for long-term success. Examine the specific support systems that established Beaumont ISD’s program, which has been recognized as a National Model for Teacher Excellence. Implement these proven strategies to elevate the quality and sustainability of your own district’s teacher residency program with ready-to-use templates, presentations, and resources.

-Identify key district-level structures necessary to effectively prepare and retain both teacher residents and host teachers. -Analyze the specific support systems that contributed to a program being recognized as a National Model for Teacher Excellence. -Develop a strategic plan to align current district residency practices with best practices and structures explored.

Harvest Park Middle School (HPMS) in California’s Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) embarked on a transformation to create a more inclusive learning environment. Recognizing systemic barriers that limited access to rigorous coursework, electives, and schoolwide opportunities for students receiving special education services, HPMS took intentional steps to remove these obstacles. By prioritizing equity and fostering a culture of belonging, schoolwide test scores rose, chronic absenteeism declined, and behavioral referrals and suspensions decreased. Their work has been recognized by the California School Board Association with the Golden Bell award.

Participants will have a strong understanding of how to develop an inclusive school/district wide initiative. This will include how to support and engage with general education teachers, families, students, and community members. Important timelines, master scheduling, SAI (specialized academic instruction), accommodations, and effective instructional strategies will also be covered.

It's tempting for supervisors to use ChatGPT and other AI tools in their evaluations of teachers. However, this can degrade the process and be a big turnoff for teachers. This workshop will suggest three ways that AI can be used to enhance and deepen the process, with a focus on coaching to improve teaching and learning.

- Understand the problems involved in using AI in the teacher evaluation process - See the power of face-to-face coaching based on multiple classroom visits - Explore using AI to prepare for difficult conversations, analyze the details of a full lesson, and summarize feedback conversations.

Break out your mortars, roll up your sleeves, and set your new instructional coaches for success by building a strong foundational induction program! Learn how Prince William County Schools designed keystone induction experiences for new instructional coaches that positively impacted students and teachers across the division. This interactive session provides opportunities to reflect on current induction practices and collaboratively brainstorm practical ways to create a strong foundation for impactful coaching programs.

1. Discuss and evaluate the need for high-quality induction experiences for new and novice instructional coaches, rooted in research. 2. Explore the process our team followed to develop a high-quality induction program for instructional coaches that led to improvement in teacher capacity and student learning across the division. 3. Reflect and collaborate with participants to identify the strengths and growth edges of their current induction programs for instructional coaches. 4. Generate at least 3 action steps to take to enhance their induction program for new and novice coaches.

Explore how EC-12 district leaders can unite across academic departments to design meaningful, connected professional learning for beginning teachers, shaped by one district’s seven-year journey. Learn how Pflugerville ISD shared leadership, aligned structures, and collaborative partnerships support educators through their first three years in the classroom. Leave energized with practical strategies and tools to lead cross-department collaboration and strengthen new teacher support in your own district.

Discover how Pflugerville ISD’s seven-year journey transformed beginning teacher support through mentorship and professional learning that evolved alongside shifting teacher identities, including an influx of uncertified educators balancing full-time teaching and certification, without losing access, coherence, or care for teachers (Learning Foundations, Leadership). Examine how unifying departments during planning led to professional learning that truly works for all beginning teachers, across grade levels, content and specialized areas, by building shared ownership, collaboration, and collective expertise (Culture of Collaborative Inquiry, Professional Expertise, Learning Drivers). Leave with evidence-based tools, adaptable learning designs, and impact measures they can use immediately to strengthen cross-department collaboration, improve teacher growth, and connect professional learning to meaningful instructional and student outcomes (Learning Designs, Implementation, Evidence, Resources).

Explore research-based concerns about cognitive debt by examining AI use through an audit protocol that identifies strengths, risks, and intentional guardrails. Learn how a district professional learning office applied audit-informed guardrails to leverage AI as a coach that strengthens professional learning design. Apply AI coaching prompts that simultaneously strengthen professional learning design and sharpen individual facilitators' judgment and thinking.

Produce a completed AI audit of a professional learning opportunity that documents identified risks, design strengths, and proposed guardrails related to cognitive demand and decision ownership. Explain how audit-informed guardrails can position AI as a coaching support within professional learning systems, using division-based examples to justify design decisions. Revise a professional learning task or planning artifact using AI coaching prompts to improve clarity of learning intentions, success criteria, and learning progression. Articulate one to two actionable steps for embedding AI auditing and guardrails into their own school or district professional learning practices.

Examine how a large comprehensive high school applied best practices in change-leadership to build a restorative culture of belonging by grounding its work in data, research, a clear problem of practice, and desired outcomes. Analyze the planning framework that guided key implementation steps and adjustments. Apply these strategic processes to develop or refine a context-specific plan for your own school or district as you strive to build a restorative culture.

- Examine a high school’s multi-year implementation plan for building a restorative culture of belonging using data, research, and an intentional planning framework. Analyze how leadership, a guiding coalition, and context-specific strategies amplified the change process and supported sustainable implementation of restorative practices. Reflect on key implementation steps, turning points, and strategies that strengthened Tier 1 instruction, student engagement, and the discipline process, while fostering a positive, inclusive school environment. - Develop a comprehensive, actionable blueprint by applying insights from this school’s journey to participants’ own contexts. This blueprint includes leadership development, guiding coalition formation, integration of Tier 1 practices, and discipline system shifts to repair harm, change behavior, and advance a restorative culture of belonging. - Evaluate and strengthen these plans through discussion, collaboration, and exploration of communication strategies that build stakeholder buy-in and alignment. Design or refine initial plans tailored to their school or district, aligned to adult learning principles, leadership actions, and student, staff, and organizational outcomes, supporting the creation of a restorative culture of belonging in their own communities.

Learn how to design a professional learning system that is rooted in the Standards for Professional Learning, reflects your district’s vision, and whose primary goal is to impact student outcomes through improvements in educator practices. Examine a district’s successful implementation of a professional learning system with experiences that are job-embedded, application-focused, and sustainable. Explore ways to assess the impact of the learning system with an emphasis on student success.

Understand how to develop a professional learning system grounded in the Standards for Professional Learning, aimed at advancing long-term district improvement goals focused on the success of all students, and built to outlast its designers by growing the capacity of instructional leaders at all levels of the organization. Use Guskey’s five levels of professional development and principles of adult learning theory to design a series of workshops that engage teachers in learning-by-doing experiences that are directly intended to improve student outcomes. Analyze exemplars of critical workshop resources that ensure their longevity and maintain a high standard of quality (e.g., facilitator guides, participant guides, presentation decks with speaker notes, feedback tools, etc.). Explore a variety of ways to assess the impact of the professional learning system including workshop feedback, implementation feedback, teacher observation data, trends in PLC practices, action research, and student success indicators.

Secondary MTSS implementation is often cited as challenging and rarely presented with clarity and sustained impact. Learn how Fenton Area Public Schools built a coherent secondary MTSS system through standards-aligned professional learning rather than piecemeal initiatives. Grounded in the Learning Forward Standards, this session highlights how coherence, collective efficacy, and adult learning drive improved student outcomes. Participants will leave with a practical, data-informed starting point for strengthening secondary MTSS in their own contexts.

Understand how standards-aligned professional learning can drive coherent secondary MTSS systems. Analyze the alignment between professional learning, data, curriculum, assessment, and flexible learning opportunities in a secondary context. Apply a guided planning protocol to identify MTSS next steps, measures of impact for educator practice, and identifiers of student and system success for their own school.

District leaders are under constant pressure to make decisions that are visionary, with measurable and sustainable outcomes. K12 Coalition’s Systems Excellence Framework provides an evidence-based structure for making those decisions, as seen in the School District of Philadelphia’s breaking down of barriers across systems and processes delivering results that have the greatest impact on student learning. Hear leadership’s practical tips for implementing the Framework and leave with your own toolkit.

Participants will: 1. Gain a practical understanding of the Systems Excellence Framework and how it will support the unique needs and characteristics of their home districts. They will explore the Framework, see it within the Philadelphia case example, and customize the resources in the toolkit. 2. Explore specific strategies for implementing and sustaining excellence based on the domains of the framework, informed by the district example, and anchored in their own district’s strengths and needs. The interactive nature of the session will ensure that attendees get feedback and insights that drive towards meaningful results. 3. Prioritize actionable steps from the toolkit that leverage existing resources at the district level in support of making the greatest positive impact on student learning outcomes. Participants will emphasize measurable outcomes and sustainable practices.

Are your professional learning initiatives hitting the mark? This session equips you with practical tools, strategies, and data review techniques to simplify evaluation using a participatory framework that enhances participants’ Knowledge, Aspirations, Skills, Attitudes, and Behaviors (KASAB) to improve student outcomes. Explore proven strategies, protocols, case studies, impact data, and adaptable resources to strengthen your professional learning evaluation efforts.

1. Identify evidence-based resources, strategies, and data collection methods used in participatory evaluation design, delivery, and implementation. 2. Describe how formative and summative data are collected, analyzed, and applied to inform ongoing professional learning activities using KASAB. 3. Apply high-leverage professional learning evaluation techniques through hands-on practice. 4. Adapt resources, tools, checklists, and planning documents to support customized professional learning evaluation at the school, district, and state levels.

Professional learning experiences offer an incredible opportunity to empower educators to stretch their practice. However, too often, these events are one-size, fits all episodes. Together, we will explore a professional learning design cycle focused on priming, ushering, launching, socially constructing, and extending the learning loop beyond face-to-face engagements. We will examine ways to promote social construction during professional learning and consider the integral role reflection plays in the growth process. Participants will leave with tools and processes to guide their professional learning planning and facilitation to craft true experiences - not just events.

- Utilize the "PULSE" professional learning design cycle focused on priming, ushering, launching, socially constructing, and extending the learning loop to design and facilitate meaningful and personalized professional learning experiences. - Examine ways to promote social construction during professional learning, including collaborating with text and video, sharing strategies and examples, applying learning, and reflecting. - Consider how you might extend the learning loop between synchronous professional learning engagements by stretching participants' learning in-person as well as virtually.

This energizing, research-informed session invites participants to move beyond isolated acts of self-care and toward a collective, systemwide approach to educator wellness. Using Kanold and Boogren’s Educator Wellness Framework, participants will reflect on their own well-being, examine how adult wellness impacts professional learning, and leave with practical, team-friendly strategies that foster sustainable habits, deepen collaboration, and ultimately strengthen outcomes in schools and systems for adults, teams, and students.

Participants will deepen their understanding of how educator wellness serves as a catalyst for professional learning that is collaborative, sustainable, and systemwide. Grounded in Kanold and Boogren’s Educator Wellness Framework, this session will help participants: * Examine the connection between collective educator wellness and the conditions necessary for high-quality professional learning, exploring how attention to adult well-being strengthens relational trust, collaborative networks, and team efficacy across schools and systems. * Identify practical strategies and micro-habits within each dimension of wellness that teams can implement together to support one another, reduce burnout, and foster environments where educators feel energized to learn and grow collectively. *. Assess current wellness practices within their professional communities, recognizing gaps, strengths, and opportunities to create more united, wellness-centered adult learning cultures. *. Develop an action-oriented plan for integrating wellness practices into coaching, PLCs, and schoolwide learning structures to ensure that adults, and therefore students, benefit from connected, thriving professional learning communities. These outcomes support the conference theme by reinforcing that wellness is not an individual endeavor but a collective commitment that unites educators and elevates learning for all.

Unite with the Hawaii Teacher Induction Center (HTIC) to examine a systemic induction model that connects state, district, and school leaders into a unified support network. Analyze concrete, data-driven tools and culturally responsive mentoring protocols designed to foster educator belonging and collective success. Acquire actionable strategies to turn isolated mentoring efforts into a robust, sustainable system that accelerates teacher effectiveness and retention.

-Identify systemic supports—from state-level advocacy to school-level implementation—necessary to unite stakeholders for teacher retention. -Examine high-leverage mentoring tools and data-collection protocols that inform professional learning and drive instructional growth. -Analyze the roles of program stakeholders in building a culture of collaborative inquiry and collective responsibility for student success. -Design actionable strategies aligned with Professional Learning Standards that utilize cultural contexts to ensure inclusive support and belonging for all educators.

Fuel your passion for professional learning by discovering the power of Standards for Professional Learning with this introductory session. The standards point the way to improving student outcomes by drawing on research of system, school, and educator content, processes and conditions that lead to success. This session provides a formal introduction to Standards for Professional Learning while connecting them to real world scenarios and current educator practices – all while engaging in best practices for adult learning.

• Identify the key components of high-quality professional learning presented in the Standards for Professional Learning • Connect evidence-based theories to daily practices around professional learning • Analyze current professional learning practices against the Standards for Professional Learning

Apply learnings from a case study into NTC’s work supporting Hawai’i’s Math Teacher Leader Collaborative over multiple years to consider how these sustainable support structures and strategies could positively affect student achievement in attendees’ school communities and subject areas. Examine multiple layers of capacity building, including teacher and leader content knowledge, as NTC empowers attendees to build and leverage teachers/teacher leaders’ capacity to improve the culture of professional practice.

1. Use a case study to analyze how leadership and coaching strengthen educator capacity 2. Align on ways to create a plan to position coaching as a driver for instructional alignment/improvement 3. Develop concrete next steps to implement actionable coaching structures that will support teacher development in their contexts

Examining student work provides powerful evidence of how students think, learn, and make meaning. In this session you will engage in a type of curriculum-based professional learning that elevates everyday conversations about student work, strengthens instructional decisions, and improves both student learning and professional practice. Learn to use a structured, collaborative descriptive review process to analyze work against content standards and uncover implications for instruction. Leave the session ready to apply the protocol.

1) Learn the alignment between curriculum-based professional learning and the Standards for Professional Learning (especially Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Culture of Collaborative Inquiry; and Implementation)
2) Collaboratively examine student work to reveal how students think, learn, and make meaning of content and process.
3) Apply a structured descriptive review protocol to analyze student work against content standards and identify instructional implications.
4) Determine practical ways to implement the protocol within their own instructional context.

Assistant principals hold influential roles, yet their professional learning is often fragmented. This session introduces a research-based framework that positions APs as principals-in-practice, simultaneously leading and learning for future principalship. Grounded in instructional and distributed leadership, adult learning, and leadership pipeline research, the session helps systems design development structures. Participants gain tools, reflection protocols, and design principles to strengthen AP growth as a investment in school improvement and lasting sustainability.

This session advances Learning Forward’s vision and standards by positioning professional learning as a powerful driver of instructional improvement, equity leadership, and sustainable system capacity in large urban districts. Grounded in current research on instructional and distributed leadership, adult learning theory, and leadership pipeline development, the session offers a coherent, evidence-based framework for developing assistant principals as principals-in-practice. Participants will engage in a highly interactive, adult learning–aligned process that models collaborative inquiry, reflective practice, and job-embedded application. They will use diagnostic tools to examine how AP time, influence, and leadership responsibilities connect to school improvement, educator performance, and student learning outcomes, and will leave with a concrete 90-day action plan. Designed for system leaders who navigate complex, high-needs school environments, this session provides innovative strategies that move beyond managerial preparation toward instructional leadership, equity-focused decision-making, culturally responsive practice, and leadership identity development. Emerging implementation data from large urban partner districts demonstrate strengthened instructional leadership capacity, clearer leadership pipelines, improved principal support structures, and positive effects on school climate and teaching quality, factors that contribute to improved student learning conditions. This session offers a scalable, practical approach to professional learning that directly advances student achievement, educator effectiveness, and sustained district improvement in urban contexts.

Explore five research-based strategies administrators can use to create conditions for novice educator success, including belonging, targeted professional development, mentorship, peer observation, and workload management. Examine practical structures for school-based mentoring and differentiated supports that address the diverse needs of new educators while uniting them for learning across roles and pathways. Apply actionable tools and planning ideas to strengthen retention, instructional practice, and school culture within participants’ own contexts.

Identify the five key strategies for creating conditions for new educator success. Explore and share strategies for creating and supporting well-structured school-based mentoring programs. Brainstorm authentic supports specific to your location. Understand the diverse needs of different types of new educators you may have in your school.

Explore how professional learning can use AI to strengthen differentiation through empathy and intentional instructional design. Apply Tomlinson’s framework to generate, evaluate, and refine differentiated content, process, and products while preserving teacher judgment and equity. Design an AI supported instructional component that reduces planning burden and improves student access in your classroom or school.

Analyze how empathy driven differentiation grounded in Tomlinson’s framework and aligned to ISTE Educator Standards and the ISTE+ASCD Transformational Learning Principles supports the Learning Forward standards for Equity and Outcomes by expanding access to rigorous, student centered instruction. Apply the Learning Designs and Implementation standards by using AI as a professional learning tool to design differentiated content, process, and product that connect learning to the learner, cultivate belonging, and prioritize authentic learning experiences. Evaluate instructional decisions using evidence based practices to ensure AI supported differentiation strengthens educator performance, promotes inclusive learning environments, and advances the ASCD principles of reflection, agency, and expertise development. Transfer learning into practice by creating a differentiated instructional component that can be implemented in classrooms, professional learning communities, or district planning structures to improve student achievement, educator effectiveness, and school or district improvement.

Explore the power of micro-learning to overcome time barriers in assistant principal professional development. Examine a scalable district model that utilizes bite-sized, technology-driven content for just-in-time leadership growth. Design a customized micro-learning module to address specific leadership competencies in your unique school or district context.

1. Identify the benefits of micro-learning for busy leaders based on current research and adult learning theory. 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of a district-level micro-learning model designed specifically for Assistant Principals. 3. Apply a structured design process to create a micro-learning experience applicable to their own organizational context.

AI has forced educators to reflect on their teaching and learning practices, especially when it comes to academic integrity and student engagement. In this session, participants will see classroom-tested, research-based strategies for designing cheat-resistant assignments and how to foster sustainable cultures of academic integrity without sacrificing rigor. Case studies and activities provide participants practical strategies for designing and grading authentic, uncheatable assessments in classrooms of every grade level.

Through demonstration, case studies, and interactive activities, participants will leave this session with the mindset and practical strategies they need to design assessments that a) are uncheatable by design and b) disincentivize the desire for students to cheat to begin with. Some takeaways include: Understanding the reasons why students cheat and the ways traditional assessment strategies encourage academic dishonesty The role that student agency, curiosity, and purpose play in disincentivizing cheating, and what the practical application of these mindsets looks like in a class assignment (case studies). How to use multimodal, multimedia assignments to design uncheatable, student-centered assignments. When and where to use them, and how to ensure full coverage of the curriculum. How to design and grade their own authentic assignments, including standards alignment, and development of rubrics and alternative grading methods.

Participants will engage in evidence-based strategies that strengthen teacher collaborative learning cycles BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER instruction. Participants will explore how a district has partnered with campuses to develop protocols—including a Pre-Lesson Share, Unit Planning ideas, Learning Walks, and Debriefing templates—all that align with the Standards for Professional Learning: Learning Designs, Implementation, and Equity. Attendees will leave equipped with adaptable tools to enhance professional learning communities and improve teaching and learning for everyone.

By the end of this two-hour session, participants will: 1, Deepen understanding of how collaborative learning cycles promote continuous improvement aligned with the Standards for Professional Learning: Implementation and Learning Designs. 2. Apply evidence-based protocols—Pre-Lesson Share, Unit Planning, and Learning Walks—to improve educator practice and collective efficacy. 3. Adapt provided templates and facilitation strategies to meet diverse campus and district contexts, ensuring equitable access to professional learning. 4. Develop an action plan to integrate before-, during-, and after-lesson practices within PLCs to enhance instructional coherence and impact. Participants will experience hands-on modeling, reflection, and collaboration that emphasize learning as a shared responsibility and driver of equitable outcomes for all students and educators.

Explore how instructional coaches can use data and reflective questioning to shift conversations from informal check-ins to focused professional learning. Engage in tools and structures that support goal setting, noticing strengths, and identifying next steps for teacher growth. Practice these approaches through collaborative activities to prepare for coaching conversations that translate reflection into action.

Identify strategies for using data as an entry point to shift coaching conversations from informal check-ins to focused reflection on instructional practice. Facilitate conversations that move from relationship-building to intentional reflection on instructional practice and manageable next steps. Analyze how strengths-based feedback can be leveraged to support areas of growth without increasing defensiveness. Create a concrete plan for moving a current or upcoming coaching conversation toward implementation and instructional change.

Learn how Christina School District partnered with CPM Educational Program to align leadership, coaching, and instructional priorities to strengthen Tier 1 mathematics instruction. This session highlights how clarifying roles, balancing evaluative and coaching identities, and strengthening communication among leaders, coaches, and teachers fostered a shared instructional vision, elevated coaching practices, and built collective efficacy. Participants will leave with transferable strategies to improve coherence and accelerate student achievement across content areas.

Examine a replicable model for aligning leaders and coaches around a shared instructional vision that supports coherent teaching practice and improved student outcomes. Design professional learning structures that foster a positive culture of coaching by strengthening communication and role clarity among leaders, coaches, and teachers. Apply leadership coaching strategies that foster reflective dialogue, role clarity, and collective efficacy among administrators responsible for instructional leadership. Articulate the purpose and impact of coaching for leaders, coaches, and teachers, and identify strategies to balance evaluative and coaching roles to sustain trust and instructional growth.

Professional learning doesn’t fail because of lack of effort—it fails because systems stay locked. In this highly interactive session, Indianapolis Public Schools shows how they created their 6 Keys framework to operationalize the Standards for Professional Learning through shared expectations, leader learning, and a standards-aligned design tool. Participants will actively apply the Keys, pinpoint what’s blocking impact in their own systems, and leave with a clear, replicable action to unlock coherence, equity, and results.

- Participants will gain a clear, practical understanding of how the Standards for Professional Learning can be operationalized at a system level using a coherent, district-created framework rather than isolated initiatives. - Participants will actively apply the IPS 6 Keys to analyze a professional learning experience, identify strengths and gaps, and determine which conditions are keeping impact “locked” in their own contexts. - Participants will leave with a standards-aligned strategy, tool, or design move they can immediately implement to improve coherence, equity, and quality in professional learning. - Participants will strengthen their ability to design and facilitate professional learning that intentionally centers educator practice and student outcomes while supporting sustainable implementation over time.

This session explores how one district leader partnered with multiple campus guiding coalitions to transform professional learning from isolated events into collective practice. Participants will examine how guiding coalitions equip staff leaders to design aligned learning, provide feedback, and support accountability through collaborative planning. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to unite departments, strengthen implementation, and move professional learning into classrooms.

As a result of attending this session, participants will: 1. Understand how guiding coalitions function as a leadership structure that unites educators, distributes ownership of professional learning, and supports systemwide PLC implementation. 2. Identify key moves district and campus leaders can use to equip staff leaders to design aligned professional learning, gather feedback, and support accountability through collaborative planning. 3. Analyze how partnership between district leaders and campus guiding coalitions shifts professional learning from isolated events to sustained classroom implementation. 4. Apply practical strategies to strengthen or launch guiding coalitions on their own campuses or districts to ensure professional learning translates into improved instructional practice.

Unite human expertise with AI to multiply your impact and expand educator capacity as a professional learning leader. Engineer custom AI agents to analyze data and co-construct plans in this design lab session that is differentiated for beginner through advanced users. Leave with a functional, platform-agnostic framework to design an "AI Team" that amplifies your capacity to solve complex problems immediately.

-Define "Superagency" as a collaborative state where human wisdom unites with AI capacity to multiply the impact of professional learning leaders. -Apply a "Safety Net Protocol" to audit AI-generated content, ensuring all output adheres to data privacy standards and cultural context before implementation. -Engineer a custom AI solution by choosing a design pathway: building a "Blueprint Coach" for system planning, a specialized "Team Member" role, or a complete "Virtual Team" suite. -Synthesize AI-generated strategies with the KASAB (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Aspirations, Behaviors) framework to ensure learning designs address adaptive human challenges like educator beliefs and resistance.

Ignite systemwide learning by equipping facilitators with the knowledge, skills, and systems needed to deliver high?quality adult learning experiences that support staff growth and student success. Experience dynamic, research?aligned strategies that reveal what effective facilitation looks and feels like. Apply these tools to strengthen facilitator practice and elevate professional learning across schools and districts

Understand the PCS Five Professional Learning Tenets and explain how they establish shared expectations for designing and facilitating high?quality professional learning across district and school contexts. Apply adult learning principles and high?engagement strategies including tried-and-true techniques such as quick writes, Stand?Share?Sit, text marking, visual synthesis, and GIST writing to create professional learning that is interactive, relevant, and learner?centered. Analyze and reflect on existing professional learning experiences using the tenets and adult learning theory to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. Develop a practical action plan that outlines specific steps for improving their future professional learning sessions, ensuring stronger alignment with district priorities, improved facilitation practice, and enhanced adult learner experience.

Curriculum shapes instruction, yet educators often lack shared tools for analyzing how people, cultures, and topics are represented within instructional materials. This session introduces a research-based representational balance framework that supports collaborative curricular analysis and professional learning. Participants engage in structured inquiry to identify representational imbalances and strengthen instructional rigor, coherence, and student engagement.

Participants will be able to: Apply a shared, research-based framework to collaboratively analyze curricular materials for how people, cultures, and topics are represented, moving beyond surface-level inclusion toward complexity and rigor. Differentiate patterns of representational imbalance (limited, partial, and complex representations) and articulate how these patterns influence student engagement, sensemaking, and disciplinary understanding. Use precise, common language to engage colleagues in productive, learning-focused dialogue about curriculum quality, instructional coherence, and professional learning priorities. Develop actionable strategies to supplement or adapt curriculum and instruction, strengthening collective practice and supporting sustained improvement across classrooms, teams, and systems.

Leading transformational change requires building principals to create a multi-layered, high-quality system of professional learning. Becoming a catalyst for change is achieved through the purposeful use of the growth-mindset rubric presented. Focusing on the key elements of the design, facilitation, and evaluation of professional learning as well as, establishing organizational structures to support professional inquiry and job embedded learning, the rubric serves as a powerful tool for self-reflection and feedback.

Understand and clearly articulate the role a high-quality, multi-level system of professional learning plays in transformational change at the school level. Collaboratively work through problems of leadership practice related to underdeveloped systems of professional learning. Deconstruct, analyze, and then utilize the professional learning rubric to self-reflect on, and/or evaluate site-based leadership as it relates to creating, nurturing and sustaining a high-quality, multi-level system of professional learning which will support and accelerate transformational change. Engage in coaching conversations focused on upleveling the current professional learning system in their school/district and determine a leadership intention to take back into their current context in order to strengthen their school-based professional learning systems.

Lead lasting impact with coaching strategies that turn PD into powerful, year-round practice. Whether you're guiding a campus, shaping systems, or stepping into leadership, this session equips you with a six-step model and ready-to-use tools to drive teacher growth. Walk away with the clarity, confidence, and calendar to launch your year strong—and keep educator excellence at the center of student success.

Reflect on Leadership Practices: Use the Top 10 Leadership Moves to Coach Teachers to Mastery After PD resource to self-assess current strategies for supporting teachers post-PD and identify opportunities for growth. Create a Monitoring Tracker: Analyze a sample monitoring tracker and design a customized tool to track teacher progress, provide targeted coaching, and ensure accountability after PD sessions. Design a Leadership Calendar: Examine a sample leadership calendar and develop your own to strategically plan coaching, support, and accountability activities for the start of the new school year.

Clarify literacy assessment terminology and purposes to strengthen instructional decision-making, increase staff capacity, and improve MTSS practices. Examine how school and district leaders partner to audit, refine, and align reading assessments to instructional priorities. Apply practical tools, protocols, and leadership moves to improve coherence, reduce assessment overload, and increase the instructional value of data and outcomes for students.

Develop shared understanding of literacy assessment types (screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome) by clarifying purposes, questions answered, and appropriate use within an evidence-aligned system. Examine and assess current literacy assessment practices using a structured audit to identify redundancies, gaps, and misalignments with instruction, MTSS, and student learning needs. Apply assessment literacy and decision-making criteria to strengthen how leaders and teams interpret, communicate, and use assessment data to guide instructional planning, intervention, and progress monitoring. Strengthen collaborative leadership practices by using protocols and leadership tools to support consistent assessment use, improve instructional coherence, and embed assessment processes within ongoing professional learning cycles focused on student growth.

Analyze how teacher-driven professional learning days are intentionally designed as collaborative inquiry experiences that include student learning demonstrations, observation, and action planning grounded in student evidence, feedback, and artifacts. Examine how teachers across learning pathways debrief, reflect, adjust instruction, and lead professional learning for one another through collaboration and networking. Apply campus-based structures that support implementation, evidence collection, and sustained teacher-led learning, resulting in increased student engagement.

• Understand how teacher-driven professional learning structures use collaborative inquiry and student evidence to shift instructional practice and increase student engagement. • Analyze multiple sources of student evidence (observations, feedback, and artifacts) to inform instructional decisions and refine multimodal engagement strategies. • Design a teacher-led professional learning plan that includes action planning, implementation, reflection, and evidence collection across learning pathways.

How can districts balance coherence with autonomy in improvement efforts? Follow one school's implementation of FOCUS, an iterative district wide improvement cycle that centers student voice and practical measures of improvement. Learn how one district used this framework to maintain organizational coherence, while also allowing school leaders and teacher teams to collaboratively identify, test, and scale high-leverage practices that directly improve the student experience and drive equitable outcomes.

Understand the five phases of the FOCUS framework (Focus the Work, Observe and Learn, Create the Vision, Unpack Actions, Shift and Share) and how they fit into larger, multiyear improvement efforts. Identify strategies for incorporating student perspectives into district-wide learning systems to inform instructional shifts. Design practical measures for improvement, low-stakes, high-frequency data points, to determine if specific changes in teacher practice are having an impact on students' experiences. Develop an immediate action plan to apply these tools to a specific instructional or leadership challenge in their home district.

Examine one division’s journey to implement instructional rounds as a division wide strategy for continuous improvement. Instructional rounds, adapted from the medical rounds model, provide a structured system through which networks of adult learners work collaboratively to identify and learn about problems of practice through the examination of teaching and learning in authentic settings. Learn how instructional rounds can be a powerful strategy for cycles of job embedded professional learning among instructional staff to produce transformative and sustainable growth in teaching and learning. The foundation of instructional rounds is the instructional core - the relationship among teacher knowledge and skill, content rigor and relevance, student engagement, and task (City, Elmore, Fiarman, & Teitel, 2009). The rounds process involves cycles of observation, data collection and analysis, and collaboration to inform professional learning and growth in instructional practice.

- Understand how instructional rounds lead to a shared vision of high-quality teaching and learning. - Understand the methodology, evidence-base, and structure of instructional rounds as a form of action research based on cyclical, collaborative, job-embedded, inquiry-based professional learning aimed at improving instructional practice across teams and schools. - Examine how instructional rounds lead to engaging iterations of adult learning about the instructional core, targeted and sustainable improvement in instructional leadership and teacher practice, and gains in student learning outcomes aligned to continuous improvement goals. - Apply the learning to identify necessary steps to manage change and create the conditions that will foster a collaborative culture that supports learning.

With a focus on sustained growth, DeKalb County School District’s Professional Learning Department has transformed its previously varied efforts into a cohesive, data driven system that clearly demonstrates impact. This session highlights how facilitator impact data brought to life through dashboards, vignettes, infographics, and the voices of teachers and leaders strengthens professional learning storytelling. Together, these tools help boards, families, and communities engage more deeply as the district advances “Unite for Learning.”

Participants will be able to analyze how a cohesive, data-driven professional learning system can elevate the visibility and impact of districtwide professional learning efforts. They will identify key data sources such as facilitator impact data, session feedback, and implementation evidence and determine which are most appropriate for communicating impact to diverse stakeholder groups. Participants will learn how to transform these data into compelling stories using dashboards, vignettes, infographics, and leaders’ voices that highlight both quantitative trends and qualitative experiences. They will practice using customizable templates to draft sessions, school, and district-level impact summaries aligned to “Unite for Learning,” including models for board updates and internal leader briefings. Finally, participants will develop an action plan that specifies which storytelling tools and templates they will implement in their own context, how they will collect needed evidence, and how they will engage professional learning facilitators and leaders as co-authors of the professional learning story.

Learn how to integrate adult learning principles and the Standards for Professional Learning when designing a professional learning series designed to improve facilitation skills. Examine a five session, cross departmental initiative in a large school division that was collaboratively designed and delivered by a small team. Apply the team’s PLANT Method to strengthen coherence and unite central office leaders, coaches, and specialists around a shared commitment to high-quality professional learning.

Grounded in the belief that every educator engages in exemplary professional learning so every student excels in the content, participants will learn how to design and deliver high?quality professional learning by focusing on the needs of adult learners. They will explore how Knowles’ principles and the Standards for Professional Learning within the Transformational Processes (Evidence, Implementation, Learning Designs and Learning Drivers) are included in the five commitments of the PLANT Method. Participants will collaborate with colleagues to begin crafting a professional learning experience tailored to their role and identify data sources connected to Kirkpatrick’s evaluation levels. Finally, they will engage with practical planning tools and facilitation strategies that can be scaled to unite adult learners around a common goal at the school or district level.

Design a cross-institutional partnership model that prepares aspiring educational leaders to lead the classroom of the future through aligned leadership preparation and professional learning. Examine how higher education institutions and school systems unite to strengthen leadership pipelines, support instructional leadership, and respond to evolving classroom demands. Apply practical strategies to align leadership preparation programs with district priorities to support sustainable school improvement.

Understand how cross-institutional partnerships between higher education and school systems can strengthen leadership pathways and create coherent preparation for leading the classroom of the future, aligned to Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning. Analyze leadership competencies required to support instructional leadership, educator learning, and system improvement in evolving classroom environments. Apply strategies for aligning leadership preparation programs with district priorities, professional learning structures, and change management practices to improve educator performance and student outcomes. Develop an action-oriented framework to adapt partnership models, leadership preparation structures, or professional learning designs within their own school, district, or higher education context.

Strong principals don't happen by chance—they are developed through intentional systems and strategic support. This session highlights how our district cultivates leaders through a purposeful principal pipeline, using scalable structures from aspiring administrators to new principals. Participants will leave with practical tools and actionable strategies to strengthen leadership development in any district.

• Identify intentional systems and practices that build strong, ready, and sustainable leaders. • Leverage leadership practices to maximize student achievement. • Apply a scalable pipeline framework to grow leaders in your district or campus.

Data PLCs often stall despite strong intentions; this session examines the system gaps that prevent teams from taking action. Using the DWG Framework (Discover • Work • Grow), attendees explore how to structure collaborative inquiry, prioritize high-leverage data, and align professional learning to instructional needs. The session concludes with a practical PLC design participants can implement immediately to move from analysis to action.

-Analyze common breakdowns in data-focused PLCs and distinguish between compliance-driven meetings and action-oriented collaborative inquiry -Apply the DWG Framework (Discover • Work • Grow) to structure PLC agendas that move from data interpretation to instructional decision-making -Identify one high-leverage data source and determine clear next steps for instructional practice, professional learning, or coaching -Design a PLC process that aligns data use, adult learning, and implementation monitoring within their school or district context

How is AI-supported professional learning helping educators? Engage with leaders from Washington State University, Wisconsin’s Cooperative Educational Service Agency #4, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the American Institutes for Research to learn how AI is being used to strengthen instruction and assessment, based on real classroom experience. Hear about research on AI’s impacts for teachers and students. Gain tools, frameworks, and more to support implementing effective AI-enabled professional learning.

• Understand how AI-supported professional learning is being used across research, district, and regional service contexts to strengthen core teaching work, including assessment design, Tier 1 instruction, and lesson planning. • Explain practical, field-tested approaches for implementing AI responsibly, including how to define and evaluate evidence of student learning, support educator roles within AI-enabled systems, and avoid common pitfalls that limit engagement and adoption. • Examine examples of AI-enabled professional learning models—such as structured assessment design workflows, district-led pilots, and yearlong teacher learning experiences—to identify design features that support educator learning, collaboration, and application in practice. • Apply cross-project lessons learned to inform decisions about selecting, piloting, or refining AI-supported professional learning in participants’ own schools, districts, or partner organizations, with attention to scalability, educator experience, and instructional impact.

Consider how to write about your professional learning insights, experiences, and journeys for publication. Identify writing goals and ideas, gain strategies and tips for communicating effectively and compellingly to an educator and/or policymaker audience, practice writing in response to prompts, and give and receive feedback from peers and facilitators. Examine submission processes and guidelines for The Learning Professional and other publications.

Understand strategies for communicating insights, experiences, and stories about professional learning; Identify topics and messages specific to their work; Practice writing for an audience of educators and/or policymakers; Give and receive feedback from peers on quick-write drafts; Explore publication venues; and Set a writing goal and make an action plan.

Examine how Baltimore City Public Schools’ homegrown Design and Facilitation of Adult Learning (DFAL) course shifted the large urban district from fragmented professional development toward coherent, standards-aligned professional learning. Experience a modeled DFAL adult learning segment grounded in cognitive science, psychological safety, and active learning. Leave with concrete strategies, tools, and system-level design considerations for replacing episodic PD with sustained professional learning that drives educator performance and district improvement.

• Understand how Baltimore City Public Schools aligned school-based and district-provided professional learning to a shared instructional vision using Learning Forward Standards, leadership actions, and cross-role coherence structures. • Apply key DFAL design and facilitation strategies—grounded in adult learning theory, neuroscience, and psychological safety—to increase engagement, collaboration, and transfer to practice among educators. • Analyze a district-developed PL model, identifying the course architecture, implementation supports, and governance conditions that enabled diffusion and sustainability across a large urban district. • Interpret and use emerging multi-year impact data (educator aptitude, collaboration, coherence, indirect student impacts) to inform their own PL improvement efforts and anticipate implementation barriers. • Adapt DFAL strategies to local contexts, considering how district systems, leadership, and structures influence professional learning design, implementation, and continuous improvement.

How do districts move from intentions to results? Experience how Maize USD 266 utilizes the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to align building goals into one unified district vision. Explore the 4DX framework to overcome the "whirlwind," focus on what matters most, and leave with tools to round up your team and build collective capacity for sustainable change.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Identify the difference between the “whirlwind” of urgent tasks and strategic priorities to determine where to focus district efforts and select a Wildly Important Goal (WIG) for their district that drives the greatest impact on student learning and organizational success. 2. Apply lead measures and the Logic Model to create actionable steps that track progress toward their WIG. 3. Plan next steps for building collective capacity.

Examine how equity-centered professional development systems move educators from isolated efforts to collective impact for every student. Analyze district-level structures for collaborative data use, coaching, and inquiry that align roles, practices, and priorities across schools. Apply scalable strategies to design coherent professional learning systems that sustain equitable practice, shared accountability, and continuous improvement.

Understand how equity-centered professional development functions as a coherent system rather than a series of isolated initiatives, and how that system drives collective responsibility for student outcomes. Identify district-level structures and conditions, such as collaborative data practices, coaching models, and inquiry cycles, that align roles, practices, and priorities across schools. Analyze their own professional learning systems to surface gaps, misalignments, and opportunities for strengthening equity-focused collaboration. Design actionable, scalable strategies for implementing collective professional learning that sustains equitable practice, shared accountability, and continuous improvement in their own contexts.

What would it take to weave well-being supports for educators into the fabric of an entire district? Explore how Stockton Unified has embedded research-based professional learning for educators and administrators at scale. Examine the innovative practices Stockton Unified uses to define, measure, and strengthen educator well-being, and leave equipped to address the five most common barriers to educator well-being while applying strategies that support retention in your own context.

Learn how Stockton Unified School District is embedding research-based professional learning for educators and every school-based administrator throughout the district, and reflect on how you might do the same in your own context. Learn about the five most common pitfalls leading to educator burnout and practice with an “I can use this tomorrow” strategy empirically proven to increase well-being. Identify ways to embed educator well-being programming into existing organizational structures so that it’s not just “one more thing.”

Explore how educational neuroscience and the Learning Forward Standards equip instructional leaders, coaches, and teacher leaders to elevate teaching, learning, and professional development. Experience brain-based, adult-learning strategies that deepen understanding of how the brain learns from an educator-leader perspective and strengthen engagement, transfer, and achievement. Apply research-aligned practices to design and implement brain-aligned learning environments that accelerate educator effectiveness and drive school and district improvement.

Understand core principles of educational neuroscience and their alignment to the Learning Forward Standards, enabling leaders to make research-informed decisions that strengthen instructional design, professional learning systems, and schoolwide improvement efforts. Apply brain-based, experiential learning strategies to real instructional or professional learning scenarios, modeling high-quality adult learning that enhances educator performance, deepens engagement, and increases the transfer of learning to classrooms. Analyze current school or district practices through the lens of how the brain learns, allowing instructional leaders, coaches, and teacher leaders to identify system-level opportunities to advance student achievement and support sustained educator growth. Develop actionable next steps for implementing brain-aligned learning environments and professional learning structures, including early indicators of impact and emerging data collection methods that support continuous improvement across classrooms, teams, and districts.

Explore a research-informed framework designed to transform educator fatigue into sustained energy while analyzing the consequences of exhausted educators on the learning environment. Apply the "Empowerment Compass" to foster efficacy and agency, building lasting resilience powered by reflection and coaching. Develop an action plan to turn everyday interactions into growth opportunities on your journey from exhausted to empowered.

Analyze the systemic consequences of the "Exhausted" state versus the "Fully Empowered" state to identify specific areas for growth within their setting. Evaluate their current school or district environment against the five essential conditions for growth: vision, commitment, leadership, structure, and collaboration. Learn and practice conversational coaching techniques, including deep listening and thoughtful questioning, to foster trust and collective capacity. Develop an action plan using the "Empowerment Compass" to turn everyday interactions into growth opportunities, fueling a continuous journey of reflection and professional renewal.

Engage in a high-energy, evidence-based session designed for leaders and systems thinkers seeking a clear blueprint for whole-child learning. Through interactive scenarios, brain science, and collaborative protocols, participants explore how aligning adult learning, climate, and engaging practices transforms disengagement into mastery. Attendees leave with an implementation-ready framework to guide professional learning, unify stakeholders, and address the human needs that drive sustainable academic growth.

Analyze the research-based connection between learning environments, adult practices, and school climate to understand their collective impact on academic outcomes. Evaluate how adult beliefs, behaviors, and professional learning structures shape climate and culture across a system, using an implementation framework to support coherence and alignment. Assess current practices through a guided reflection and audit process to examine how voice, agency, and engagement are cultivated for educators and learners. Design prioritized next steps that strengthen engagement, self-efficacy, and belonging, with the goal of improving attendance, instructional effectiveness, and long-term educator retention.

The public education workforce is evolving. Paraeducator new hires are coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, some with little or no experience in schools, instruction, or with students. This session will focus on empowerment of novice paraeducators with induction programs that teach the necessary job-related skills paired with mentor programs that provide ongoing support and culture building, including the utilization of the NEA ESP Peer Mentoring Learning Path course.

Objective 1: become familiar with successful induction programming and identity specific strengths related to their own programs Objective 2: investigate individual settings and participate in strategic work with thought partners to analyze strengths and weaknesses Objective 3: develop a plan for data collection which will allow participants to better implement a plan of action for professional learning and support staff Objective 4: Create a plan of action for individual professional growth With consideration of the Learning Forward Standards (specifically the transformational process of equity drivers, evidence, learning designs, and implementation), our session aims to bring the description and learning objectives to life for all participants, whether ESP’s or district leaders. All participants will have the opportunity to actively engage with the content and with each other to gain a deeper understanding of what a successful induction program looks like. With a goal of creating a plan of action for individual professional growth, presenters will use a variety of materials and modalities to ensure all participants are engaged and inspired to implement their own action plan in their district!

This session examines how alternative education can disrupt long-standing narratives of failure and fundamentally redefine what success looks like for Black male students. Grounded in the lived experiences of Black boys and the educators who serve them, participants will explore why alternative learning environments often succeed where traditional systems fall short—particularly in fostering engagement, authentic relationships, and culturally responsive, affirming support. The session highlights essential design elements of effective alternative schools, including smaller and more personalized learning environments, flexible instructional models, restorative and relationship-centered discipline practices, and cultural structures that prioritize growth, dignity, and accountability over punishment. Participants will analyze how these elements create conditions where Black male students are not merely retained, but empowered to thrive academically and socially. Attendees will also confront common misconceptions surrounding alternative education, challenging deficit-based assumptions that frame these settings as last resorts rather than innovative pathways. Through discussion and reflection, participants will examine how alternative schools can serve as incubators for academic achievement, leadership development, identity affirmation, and postsecondary readiness. Designed for educators, administrators, and policymakers, this session invites participants to critically rethink traditional measures of success and reconsider how equity-centered approaches in alternative education can transform outcomes for Black male students—and, by extension, the broader educational landscape

1. Analyze how alternative education models disrupt deficit-based narratives and redefine success for Black male students through culturally responsive and relationship-centered practices. 2. Identify key design elements of effective alternative learning environments—including instructional flexibility, restorative structures, and personalized supports—that contribute to improved engagement and academic outcomes. 3. Evaluate common misconceptions about alternative education and distinguish between punitive placements and equity-driven, innovation-focused models. 4. Develop an equity-centered lens for policy and practice that prioritizes growth, dignity, and access to opportunity when serving Black male students.

Engage in activities and discussion to refine your understanding of family engagement. Then collaborate with colleagues to inventory your district’s or school’s current family engagement practices and reflect on possible areas for improvement. Create a plan to implement a high-impact family engagement strategy in your role and setting.

1. Differentiate between parent involvement and family engagement. 2. Examine family engagement strategies based on their impact. 3. Create a family engagement inventory for their school or district. 4. Determine next steps for implementing a high-impact family engagement strategy in their district, school, or community.

Review a district-wide framework for transitioning from inconsistent walkthroughs to calibrated, structured learning walks that strengthen instructional leadership capacity. Examine strategies for using aggregated observation data to identify systemic trends, prioritize professional learning, and foster a collaborative growth mindset. Adapt sample protocols and implementation templates to transform routine school visits into a consistent, data-informed process for continuous district-wide improvement.

-Evaluate a structured framework for instructional calibration to replace inconsistent walkthrough practices with a unified vision of high-quality teaching. -Analyze aggregated observation data to identify systemic instructional trends, allowing leaders to align professional learning resources with documented district needs. -Design non-evaluative feedback loops that utilize shared protocols to build trust, foster a growth mindset, and increase the instructional coaching capacity of campus administrators. -Apply a replicable implementation roadmap, including sample schedules and communication templates, to integrate data-driven learning walks into their own district’s continuous improvement cycle.

Examine how Glenbrook North High School implemented a no-cost, Math Classroom Assistant program to deliver targeted Tier 1 and Tier 2 support within a comprehensive MTSS framework. Experience evidence-based coaching structures, teacher mentoring practices, and collaborative planning strategies that build instructional capacity and improve math outcomes. Apply these strategies to design sustainable, scalable intervention systems that strengthen student learning, advance educator effectiveness, and promote equitable access to rigorous instruction.

Align classroom assistant and coaching practices to create a model program recognizing and improving teacher clarity and instruction, and incorporating high-yield practices to enhance teaching, learning, and classroom environments. Analyze evidence-based MTSS structures and coaching strategies that improve teacher efficacy and student achievement in mathematics. Apply practical frameworks to develop or enhance classroom assistant programs, including training and tiered interventions. Interpret emerging impact data demonstrating improved math performance, improved climate/culture, and enhanced teacher instruction.

Collaboratively learn differentiated coaching principles grounded in readiness dispositions, knowledge, and skills. -Learn differentiated coaching principles that are evolving a statewide tri-level approach to support 225 school leaders participating in the principal pipeline programs across 15 complex areas and 6 islands. -Build your capacity for differentiated coaching by analyzing leadership readiness dispositions, knowledge, and skills. -Learn to measure improvements in school and district principal pipelines by applying change management research.

A presentation team of 6 (six) members will form groups of attendees to engage in professional conversations grounded in differentiated coaching principles. -Attendees will learn differentiated coaching principles grounded in statewide research and evidence-based practices. The principles will consist of leadership dispositions, foundational characteristics, and qualities essential to effective professional practice. Through coaching differentiated for the pipelines of teachers, vice principals, and new principals, leaders reflectively examine their daily practice and apply new learning to improve student achievement. -Attendees will engage with the presentation team, who are school-level practitioners, to extend their learning. In addition to understanding the quantitative and qualitative data related to the pipeline development, professional conversations will dig deeper into change management research and how to track contextualized improvements beyond reporting summative scores, which cannot convey a meaningful story of improvement. -Attendees will validate the importance of emerging data that highlights the positive outcomes of differentiated coaching. The emerging data will corroborate feedback processes that improve coaching practices in real-time. In doing so, participants will engage in contextualized feedback processes while building clear connections to their individual school and district coaching practices.

One of the most impactful things a leader can do is empower PLCs and teams to improve Tier 1 instruction by working collectively toward meaningful change. This work is especially crucial in Title I and turnaround schools, where addressing instructional gaps and increasing student success are top priorities. Yet, chaos and complacency often derail progress, making it challenging to maintain alignment and focus. Come learn two practical strategies designed to help PLCs identify a collective focus, overcome resistance and elevate Tier 1 instruction for lasting school improvement.

1. Consider how to focus PLCs and teams 2. Be equipped with tools and strategies that increase teacher ability to affect learning 3. Discover how instructional leaders can hold teams accountable without micromanaging

Help teachers move from resistance to readiness with AI tools! This session equips instructional coaches and leaders with a practical system to engage staff, scaffold growth, and integrate AI meaningfully. Leave with tools, strategies, and a blueprint for building your own AI Solutions Lab in your school or district.

Develop a practical coaching framework to engage educators at all levels of AI readiness, from enthusiastic explorers to cautious resisters. Design a replicable AI Solutions Lab model tailored to your audience, focused on educator growth and instructional impact. Gain ready-to-use facilitation tools and strategies to reframe resistance, spark curiosity, and support sustainable professional learning around AI.

Redesign middle school math collaborative planning by harnessing a research-backed tool to bring the formative assessment cycle to life—slashing grading time, lightening cognitive load, and turning data into action. Experience data reports that surface student thinking, replacing lengthy data meetings with focused conversations about what students need. Transform team planning from curriculum-driven checklists into learning-centered collaboration where educators leverage collective strengths to create responsive pathways so every student feels seen.

Lead a transformed model of collaborative planning in middle school math by guiding teams through the full formative assessment cycle—from designing tight, purposeful tasks to using student evidence to plan responsive instruction. Coach teachers to create formative assessments that matter, generating clear, actionable data that reduces grading lift and replaces lengthy data meetings with focused, high-leverage instructional conversations. Use powerful, instruction-ready data reports as a launch point for team dialogue about which students need what and why, shifting the work from analyzing spreadsheets to making decisions about learning. Unlock the true power of collaboration by leveraging teacher assets and instructional strengths to design responsive moves and customized learning pathways so students feel seen and supported.

Building teacher capacity is not about adding initiatives, it’s about strategic alignment, instructional clarity, and leadership coherence. This session highlights how focused professional learning and coaching improved instructional practice and student engagement in a middle school setting. District and school leaders will examine leadership decisions, teacher actions, and student outcomes while leaving with practical tools to support effective instruction and sustainable improvement across schools.

1. Understand how aligned leadership actions and professional learning systems support continuous improvement in educator practice and student engagement. 2. Analyze evidence-informed professional learning structures including coaching, feedback, and collaborative practice using multiple data sources to assess their impact on educator performance and student outcomes. 3. Apply a professional learning design that models effective adult learning through structured reflection, collaboration, and problem-solving. 4. Develop an action plan outlining next steps for strengthening professional learning coherence at the school or district level.

What happens when educator humanity becomes the foundation of professional learning? Explore how partnerships established by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year can nurture belonging, joy, and sustainability through intentional adult social-emotional learning (SEL) grounded in identity, reflection, and connection. Use this partnership model and practitioner insights to name adult SEL needs and design responsive practices that strengthen culture and sustain educators in your own system.

Participants will: 1. Examine adult social-emotional learning as essential professional learning by reflecting on educator identity, belonging, joy, and sustainability within their own contexts. 2. Understand how cross-institutional partnerships support adult SEL by analyzing the roles districts, universities, and practitioner organizations can play in sustaining educators. 3. Identify adult SEL needs and outline an actionable practice or project tailored to their school or system

Joy in education is often treated as an individual mindset, yet research suggests it emerges from coherent instructional design. This session explores how clear learning goals, aligned curriculum, and engaging learning experiences reduce cognitive overload and restore educator energy. Participants will examine how intentional instructional structures can make joy visible as an outcome of effective teaching and learning systems.

1. Understand how joy functions as an outcome of coherent instructional design related to cognitive load, teacher well-being, and instructional clarity. 2. Identify specific practices and structures that reduce educator overload and support sustained engagement for both teachers and learners. 3. Analyze their own instructional or leadership context to determine where misalignment, over complexity, or unclear expectations may be unintentionally diminishing joy and instructional effectiveness.

Drive systemic change by shifting professional learning from administrative compliance to shared teacher ownership. Examine how our "PLATT" model distributes leadership to align district goals with individual teacher growth. Adapt our specific tools, rubrics, and facilitation strategies to implement a high-quality, job-embedded learning ecosystem that measurably impacts student outcomes.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to: Identify the strategic steps for creating a Professional Learning and Training Team (PLATT) to lead and implement professional learning aligned to districtwide areas of focus. Analyze a 4-layered framework for differentiating professional learning across a district, from new-teacher induction to expert-led action research. Examine key artifacts, including a "PL Playbook" and "Site-Based PL Expectations," “Learning Library” designed to ensure consistency and quality in all learning environments. Adapt tools and protocols from our playbook to build educator capacity and drive PL alignment with their own district's strategic goals.

Engaging principals in effective practices that bring joy to their school communities is the key to any school's success. This session illuminates the practical role that principals play in their schools’ success from instructional coherence to the technical aspects of school management. We reconceptualize the principals’ role as one that requires specific skills to be developed and offers practical, real-world activities with which they interact, analyze, and grapple. Finally, we offer pragmatic ways that principals can improve their schools through engaging activities, access to evidence-based resources, and real-world leadership practice opportunities.

Participants will leave this session with a clearer definition of system coherence and develop deeper competence about their own leadership capabilities and the elements necessary for designing a joyful, successful school. Specifically, participants will... 1. Learn about our "Every Single Student Mindset" and how we help principals focus on five core learning conditions: affirming student identities, creating supportive and collaborative learning environments, fostering caring educators, implementing responsive teaching practices, and building equitable systems. 2. Participate in learning that promotes deep self-reflection, that encourages them to confront systemic practices, and influences them to take courageous, audacious actions to promote joyful, successful schools. 3. Access resources that give them the tools to move from belief to action. Our resources use concrete examples and we embed practical exercises designed for immediate application in your school.

Refine your feedback to make it more effective, motivating, and impactful for teachers. Explore practical strategies and approaches that build on strengths, focus on high-leverage priorities, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Apply these approaches immediately to become a more confident, trusted, and influential school leader—without adding to teachers’ stress—or yours.

Balance challenge with support: Deliver feedback that motivates growth without diminishing teacher trust or confidence. Adapt feedback to individual teachers: Tailor feedback to different mindsets, skill levels, and experience for maximum impact. Strengthen relationships and school culture: Use feedback to build trust, deepen professional relationships, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Apply practical strategies immediately: Implement approaches that increase confidence and effectiveness in giving feedback that drives real growth.

School leaders face a near-constant barrage of crises and threats resulting in sacrifice, stress, and burnout. What can be done to address this reality and promote sustainable leadership? Learn how one school district created intentional opportunities for principal renewal, utilizing emotional intelligence and fostering equity-centered leadership.

1) discuss the challenges of school leadership and the Sacrifice/Renewal Cycle; 2) examine school leader retention data as an issue of equity; 3) review a model to develop emotionally intelligent and sustainable leadership practices; and 4) create a plan for personal and professional renewal

The HOPE Professional Learning Model addresses a persistent challenge in professional learning—transfer to practice. Grounded in NCTM’s Principles to Actions and Learning Forward’s Transformational Processes, HOPE moves educators from evidence-based learning to supported enactment by aligning with how adults learn best, through evidence, observation, planning, and coached practice within an integrated system of professional learning, coaching support, and leadership involvement.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe the HOPE Professional Learning Model and explain how professional learning, instructional coaching, and leadership coaching work together as a coherent system to support sustained instructional improvement. 2. Identify high-leverage instructional practices grounded in Principles to Actions and analyze how these practices foster student understanding and discourse while promoting sense-making through productive struggle across content areas. 3. Apply structured observation and reflection tools to support teacher learning through evidence-based dialogue, peer observation, and collaborative planning. 4. Identify leadership actions that protect and sustain teacher learning, including aligning PLC structures, observation processes, and coaching support.

This session highlights how Normandy Schools Collaborative addressed the teacher shortage by coaching and developing international, non-traditional, new, and experienced teachers. Participants will hear from teachers, principals, math coaches, and district leaders about strategies that improved instructional practice, belonging, and retention. The session will explore Professional Learning Communities and provide actionable ideas for strengthening teacher support systems, enhancing student engagement, and sustaining high-quality instruction in Kindergarten through 12th grade.

1. Examine how Normandy Schools Collaborative used targeted coaching and professional development to support international, non-traditional, new, and experienced teachers during a teacher shortage. 2. Analyze how Building Thinking Classrooms, PLCs, job-embedded professional development and instructional coaching strengthened instructional practices, collaboration, and student engagement in Kg-12th Grade. 3. Identify district-level actions and support systems that improve teacher effectiveness, belonging, and retention. 4. Apply insights from Normandy’s model to reflect on and design strategies for addressing teacher shortage challenges in their own contexts.

This session explores how shifting from transactional practices to transformational, hospitality-driven leadership can improve teacher retention. Drawing on principles from the book Unreasonable Hospitality, participants will examine research-based strategies that help educators feel valued, supported, and connected to purpose. Attendees will leave with practical, people-centered approaches for building school cultures where teachers feel their work matters—and choose to stay.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: - Understand the research connecting teacher retention to school culture, leadership practices, and feelings of value, belonging, and purpose, and how these align with the principles outlined in the book Unreasonable Hospitality. - Identify the difference between transactional and transformational approaches to teacher support, and recognize everyday leadership behaviors that either contribute to burnout or foster long-term commitment. - Apply hospitality-driven strategies to their own roles by designing intentional practices that help teachers feel seen, appreciated, and supported beyond compliance and compensation. - Develop at least one actionable idea to shift their school or district culture toward a retention-focused model that prioritizes relationships, trust, and meaningful recognition.

Analyze seven core cognitive brain functions to bridge the gap between the science of learning and the classroom foundations of effective, daily instruction. Integrate "sticky" techniques—including background knowledge, visuals, and storytelling—to transform complex content into unforgettable student mastery that lasts long after the bell rings. Utilize AI-tools to design research-based mini-lessons that empower all teachers to deliver high-impact, engaging instruction in their classrooms the very next day.

Explain the seven core cognitive brain functions to understand how the science of learning dictates how students receive and store new information. Transform passive lecture moments into active lessons by embedding impactful engagement structures that prevent cognitive fatigue and increase "stickiness." Build a bridge between immediate student engagement and long-term retention using research-based strategies that support learners at all readiness levels. Construct a strategic action plan using AI-powered tools and an instructional toolbox to refine lesson delivery, ensuring classroom routines prioritize student talk and visual processing for immediate next-day use.

Everyone says cast a vision, but how is it done and even harder – how do you make it come true? Hear from an elected Superintendent who went on an unbelievable journey to lead his school district from a performance of 30 out of 67 counties to the #2 school district in Florida. Through his story, participants will learn the communication, culture, systems, and leadership behind continuous improvement with EPIC results.

Participants will hear from Superintendent A. Russell Hughes (a background in middle and high school) and Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Hawthorne (a background in elementary school) about how to transform the systems of a district – school by school - from top to bottom with EPIC results. • Participants will learn how to cast a vision and develop a theme to communicate that vision to all stakeholders – from employees to students to parents and the greater community. • Participants will learn how high expectations with no excuses is communicated to staff and how leaders are taught to balance high expectations without “blowing up the system”. • Participants will learn about the systems of the Walton County School District created by Superintendent Hughes. These systems focused on continuous improvement and monitoring of the expectations and vision that was cast. This includes new and special programs and procedures such as “EPIC Day”, “Get It Right”, the “Admin Handbook”, “VIEW” visits, “Feeder Meetings”, and much more. • Participants will learn how to use data and results to transform the culture of a school and district as well as the trajectory of the lives of students and a community.

Learn how a cohort model of professional learning in one Texas led to more trust, less fear of failure, and greater willingness to take risks in teaching, learning, and leading. Participants will leave with a framework for implementing Lab Cohorts: 2-year cycles of professional learning designed to build community, strengthen culture, and promote growth for participating teachers, instructional coaches, building leaders, and students – as well as their colleagues and peers.

- Understand the key structures for professional learning that comprise a Lab Cohort experience, including the purpose(s) and goal(s) of each structure, and their relationship to one another. - Identify the conditions necessary for Lab Cohort success – and potential barriers to that success. - Create a strategic roadmap to develop, sustain, and grow Lab Cohorts in their own context.

Examine how instructional feedback can be intentionally designed as job-embedded professional learning that both celebrates effective practice and grows teaching. Engage in hands-on learning using the Point–Prove–Explain structure to analyze, practice, and refine leader feedback across observation and coaching cycles. Leave with practical learning designs, tools, and protocols leaders can embed immediately to strengthen instruction and educator growth.

1. Design leader feedback as a form of job-embedded professional learning that celebrates effective practice and advances instructional growth using the Point–Prove–Explain (PPE) structure. 2. Differentiate feedback designs and coaching moves for teacher leaders, assistant principals, principals, and district leaders to build coherence across leadership roles. 3. Apply PPE tools and protocols to analyze, revise, and calibrate written and verbal feedback aligned to high-quality Tier 1 instruction. 4. Implement sustainable feedback routines that embed professional learning into observation, coaching, and leadership development systems.

Examine how generational experiences influence educator engagement, communication, feedback, and implementation of professional learning initiatives. Analyze multigenerational dynamics through the lens of the Standards for Professional Learning to identify barriers to coherence, sustainability, and collective efficacy. Apply research-informed, stereotype-free strategies, tools, and protocols to design and implement professional learning that increases educator engagement and follow-through across career stages.

Understand how generational experiences influence educator beliefs, engagement, communication preferences, feedback responsiveness, and participation in professional learning across career stages. Analyze and identify how multigenerational dynamics impact the design, implementation, coherence, and sustainability of professional learning initiatives within their schools or districts. Apply research-informed, stereotype-free leadership strategies, tools, and protocols to design and facilitate professional learning that increases educator engagement, trust, and follow-through. Use provided templates and planning resources to adjust current or upcoming professional learning initiatives, strengthening alignment to the Standards for Professional Learning and supporting continuous improvement in educator practice.

When students read like writers—examining how authors organize & develop their ideas and use language—they strengthen comprehension and writing skills. Using literature as the foundation, participants will learn a practical four-step method: start with a text, model techniques, guide practice, and support application. Drawing upon the proven, research-based connection between reading and writing, this approach teaches students to analyze & annotate author's craft, recognize genre, and apply strategies in their own writing.

1. understand a practical, four-step method to teach writing skills with consistency and clarity 2. identify strategies for deeper text comprehension and improved writing 3. leave with ready-to-use tools that build confidence, inform responses to text, and support all learners—equipping students with essential skills for meaningful learning across subjects 4. use knowledge to close literacy gaps, align reading and writing instruction, and raise achievement—directly supporting student learning goals and driving measurable improvement across and between grade levels

Examine what true implementation means by exploring the history of Implementation Science and why evidence-based practices often fail to produce results. Analyze the research-to-practice gap through the lens of implementation drivers and a real-world case study from a large urban district, including impact data. Apply implementation principles and tools to strengthen leadership decisions, improve fidelity, and support sustainable practices that positively impact student outcomes.

1. Understand the foundational principles and history of Implementation Science, including the distinction between training, adoption, and true implementation of evidence-based practices. 2. Analyze the gap between evidence-based practices and student outcomes by examining the critical components of effective implementation (Drivers) through the lens of the Active Implementation Framework. This analysis will be grounded in a case study of a large urban school district that successfully implemented evidence-based instructional practices in elementary classrooms, resulting in measurable and meaningful improvements in student outcomes. 3. Apply implementation tools and strategies to evaluate current initiatives, identify strengths and gaps, and improve fidelity of practice within their schools or districts. 4. Begin planning actionable next steps that address both technical and adaptive leadership components to support sustainable implementation and improved student outcomes.

Explore why system innovations often feel impossible and learn how leaders can create a clear path through uncertainty and resistance. Use structured questioning, evidence, and feedback to shape action during implementation, illustrated with a real-world innovation example. Develop a practical roadmap to move your system toward an ambitious vision—one strategic step at a time.

Articulate an ambitious system vision and reframe it in ways that make the change feel possible, leveraging existing influence to help others embrace and move toward the vision. Identify key sources of resistance and uncertainty within their system and generate actionable next steps to address them using structured questioning and evidence. Apply a structured questioning framework to map concrete next steps, incorporating feedback and evidence to move incrementally toward their vision. Leverage allies and existing successes in their system to build momentum, strategically expanding comfort zones for innovation.

Explore Aldine ISD's SHINE program and its positive impact on teacher retention and student success. Learn how to build a robust support system for novice educators through research-based strategies, practical examples, and inspiring testimonials. Apply these best practices to enhance your own induction and mentoring programs, fostering a supportive, collaborative environment for new teachers.

Participants will be able to identify key components of an effective teacher induction program. Participants will understand the impact of various coaching models on teacher growth and development. Participants will learn strategies for fostering a supportive and collaborative environment for new teachers. Participants will be able to apply research-based best practices to enhance their own induction or mentoring programs.

Discover how instructional coaches can empower new teachers to build confidence and thrive in the classroom. This session explores the needs of today’s novice educators, effective coaching strategies, tips for fostering growth, and ways to support early-career educators on their journey to success. Help new teachers shine by cultivating their skills and confidence!

1. Explore the unique needs of new teachers and how coaches can tailor support to address common challenges such as classroom management and work-life balance. 2. Identify key strategies for instructional coaches to support and build confidence in new teachers during their first years in the classroom. 3. Develop actionable plans for ongoing mentorship and personalized guidance that cultivates long-term success in new teachers.

Discover how one school district reimagined teacher leadership to empower educators to grow their skills and assume leadership roles while remaining in the classroom. Through a multi-year partnership with outside consultants, the district aligned teacher and administrator leadership development with LCAP goals, creating site- and district-based instructional leadership teams that support coherent professional learning and improved student outcomes.

Learn how one district intentionally redesigned teacher leadership roles to expand educator influence, expertise, and impact while keeping teachers in the classroom. Examine how teacher and principal leadership structures were reimagined to create coherent, sustainable instructional systems across sites. Understand how a multi-year partnership with external consultants supported capacity-building, leadership development, and alignment between LCAP priorities and school-based goals. Explore proven leadership models and structures that strengthened collaboration, clarified instructional focus, and supported consistent practice across the district. Identify practical, adaptable strategies to grow teacher leadership, increase instructional coherence, and improve student outcomes in their own context.

Examine the physiological impact of systemic leadership stress on instructional decision-making and executive function. Practice evidence-based "Desk-to-Mat" restorative movements designed to regulate the nervous system within professional environments. Apply these somatic sustainability tools to district-level professional learning structures to improve leader retention and school culture.

1. Identify physiological markers of leadership fatigue and their direct correlation to executive function and system-wide decision-making. 2. Master 3-5 "Desk-to-Mat" spinal mobility and breathwork activations specifically designed for professional attire and settings. 3. Design a systemic "Leadership Sustainability Plan" to normalize somatic wellness as a professional standard within their respective district or school cultures.

Explore how a large district leveraged paraeducators as hidden experts to address professional learning presenter shortages while building a Grow-Your-Own teacher certification pipeline. Examine the design of a paraeducator presenter academy that develops facilitation skills, builds professional expertise, and identifies future certified teachers. Apply a scalable framework to expand internal capacity, strengthen retention, and grow educators from within your own system.

-Understand how district leaders can intentionally develop paraeducators as professional learning leaders to expand presenter capacity while creating pathways into teacher certification and Grow Your Own programs. -Identify the leadership structures, systems, and conditions necessary to design and sustain a paraeducator presenter academy that is job-embedded, role-specific, and scalable across multiple campuses. -Analyze how leveraging internal expertise strengthens collective efficacy, improves retention, and addresses both professional learning and teacher shortages in large and complex systems. -Apply a leadership planning framework to assess their own context and outline next steps for building internal leadership pipelines that grow professional learning capacity and future teachers from within.

Learn to lead teachers in using AI strategically to create mathematics lesson plans that guide practice and include differentiation tools and strategies while maintaining mathematical rigor. Develop lesson plans using structured templates, discovering where AI excels as a planning tool and where teacher pedagogical expertise remains essential. Leave with facilitator-ready templates, customizable prompts, and protocols you can use to lead collaborative lesson planning in your context.

Understand where AI excels and where teacher expertise is essential in mathematics lesson planning, including AI strengths in generating examples and differentiation strategies, and the critical role of teacher judgment in maintaining cognitive demand, making pedagogical decisions, and addressing equity. Be able to use a structured lesson planning system with templates and enhancement prompts to create or refine mathematics lessons based on high-quality curriculum and facilitate this process with teachers in collaborative planning settings. Be able to evaluate AI-generated lessons using quality criteria (language clarity, reasoning opportunities, differentiation) and coach teachers in refining lessons through targeted prompting and collaborative revision. Apply these tools and protocols to support ongoing mathematics professional learning in their contexts, including use in PLCs, coaching cycles, and curriculum implementation efforts.

Strengthen professional learning leadership and facilitation to build equity-centered Communities of Practice through intentional accountability and inclusive facilitation. Examine and practice approaches to addressing harm, and explore reflection and mindfulness strategies that support relational trust. Gain concrete tools, facilitation protocols, and decision-making frameworks for immediate application to improve engagement, belonging, and learning culture in virtual and in-person community of practice settings.

Learn to distinguish between calling in and calling out, and identify appropriate contexts for each approach when addressing harm, bias, or misalignment in professional learning spaces. Discuss and apply equity-centered facilitation strategies, including shared agreements, structured accountability practices, and inclusive communication techniques, to strengthen belonging and psychological safety in Communities of Practice. See demonstrations and then practice mindfulness-based facilitation moves (e.g., pausing, grounding, intentional language) to respond to challenging moments with clarity, regulation, and relational care. Discuss in small groups a design and plan for actionable next steps, including ready-to-use language, meeting structures, and follow-up strategies, that can be implemented immediately in virtual, hybrid, or in-person professional learning contexts.

Participants will examine how school systems move from fragmented initiatives to coherent professional learning systems aligned to instructional vision, equity goals, and continuous improvement. Explore a district case example illustrating how leadership, learning design, coaching, and data structures were intentionally aligned to support educator growth and instructional coherence. Apply tools and processes to assess and strengthen professional learning coherence in participants’ own systems.

Participants will: -Analyze the components of a coherent professional learning system and how leadership decisions, structures, and routines support alignment across professional learning, coaching, and instructional priorities. -Identify common sources of fragmentation in district professional learning efforts and strategies to address them through intentional system design. -Apply a coherence framework to assess the alignment of vision, professional learning structures, and implementation supports within their own context. -Develop actionable next steps for strengthening system coherence to improve educator practice and advance equitable outcomes for children.

Reconsider what it means to lead when pressure, pace, and expectations pull you away from the leader you know you are in this keynote with Joe Sanfelippo. The retired superintendent of the Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin, leadership expert, and best-selling author of Hacking Leadership and Lead From Where You Are will share the Personal, People, and Process Rhythms framework for grounding yourself, building trust through presence, and creating habits that sustain a positive culture. You’ll reflect on why leadership isn’t about becoming someone new but showing up with clarity, humanity, and consistency to be the best version of yourself when it matters most.