Leadership Development Pathways

Building Transformative Leaders for Better Student Outcomes

Sean McClung
New Leaders Alumni, 2012

Our Leadership Development Pathways are immersive programs designed to implement a competency-based professional learning experience. Our development model provides participants with the interactive tools, instructional strategies, individualized coaching, and community support required to deliver effective results, measurable change, and sustainable student outcomes.

Connect With Our Partner Engagement Team
New Leaders teacher in discussion with students

Your Journey in Building Leadership Excellence

As leaders work through our Leadership Development Pathways they deepen their expertise and build their capacity around what it means to be an effective and equity-focused instructional leader. Key competencies explored within our Leadership Development Pathways support leaders in learning to:
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Lead high-performing and equitable teams, schools, and systems by implementing systems and structures to drive team and school-wide improvement and student achievement gains
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Use a 4-Part Action Planning Process to diagnose, set goals, create action plans, and monitor/adjust plans in order to drive instructional excellence and equity
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Develop a strong and positive team, school, and system culture of shared mission and values in which equitable practices are at the forefront
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Utilize data-driven decision-making and coaching cycles to support teacher practice, align content, and increase outcomes for all students
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Establish instructional leadership teams and utilize distributed leadership to scale best practices and build the capacity of others
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Effectively implement strategies for addressing the technical challenges, adaptive challenges, and implementation dips that result from changes in practice
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Examine their own leadership practices to maximize impact

Your Journey In Building Leadership Excellence

Our pathways can be structured into a one, two, or three-year engagement using a combination of programs to meet your leadership development needs. Through all pathways, participants will focus on setting a foundation of learning, building capacity by scaling best practices, and sustaining impact with coaching and support.

Year 1

Year 1 programming builds a strong foundation within your area of focus, leading with the major categories of the Transformational Leadership Framework:
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Personal Leadership
centers on defining leadership stance and style, acting with integrity in accordance with values, reflecting on performance, and seeking feedback for improvement.
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School Culture
targets actions that set high expectations community-wide, shared accountability, and a culture of deep learning.
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Talent Management
dives into developing and sustaining professional learning communities while providing actionable feedback to staff.
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Planning And Operations
focuses on implementing key structures to support school-wide learning and align resources with instructional priorities.
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Learning And Teaching
focuses on the rigor of curriculum and planning, the consistency of instructional strategies and classroom routines, the use of data to improve instruction, and the process of differentiating instruction to meet students’ needs.

Year 2

Year 3

Learning For Every Leader, School- and District-Wide

District Leaders

These roles include: Principal Supervisors or any system leaders who directly supervise and manage principals. Pathways for District Leaders include:

Strengthening System Leadership: Principal Supervisor Community

Anchored in the Principal Supervisor Model Standards, this program is designed for principal supervisors who lead educational systems. Participants are provided with personalized, confidential, high-impact coaching unique to their contexts coupled with training on relevant cohort specific topics, identified through coaching and reflective of the day-to-day work of principal supervisors, to support them in promoting and advancing equity across their systems.

Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support

Our Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support pathway is designed to gradually release implementation of critical leadership practices to equity-focused leaders through personalized, confidential, high-impact coaching unique to their contexts and communities of practice. Participants engage in rich reflective practices, goal setting, action planning, and executing against plans, all driving towards building capacity in leading for equity.

School Leaders

These roles include: Principals, Assistant Principals, Heads of School. Pathways for School Leaders include:

Breakthrough Leadership-Principals

Anchored in the Transformational Leadership Framework, this pathway is designed to build the leadership skill set of equity-focused school leaders and develop them in establishing or refining systems and structures that support both staff and student development and that promote instructional excellence and equity for all students. Principals in this pathway learn to: establish an instructional leadership team and use distributed leadership to scale best practices and build the capacity of others; effectively apply the Instructional Core to advance teacher practice and positive student outcomes; and develop a strong and positive school culture in which equitable practices are at the forefront.

Breakthrough Leadership-Assistant Principals

Breakthrough Leadership is designed for assistant principals who are next in line for the principalship and are looking to build upon their expertise in personal, cultural, and adult and team leadership. In this pathway, participants learn to develop and lead high performing teams in preparation for the principalship. Critical leadership practices include scaling best practices across teams and establishing effective school-wide systems and structures that drive instructional excellence and equity, in preparation for becoming an equity-focused school building leader.

Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support

Our Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support pathway is designed to gradually release implementation of critical leadership practices to equity-focused leaders through personalized, confidential, high-impact coaching unique to their contexts and communities of practice. Participants engage in rich reflective practices, goal setting, action planning, and executing against plans, all driving towards building capacity in leading for equity.

Teacher Leaders

These roles includes: Team Leaders, Department Chairs, Instructional Coaches/Facilitators (school and district-level), Deans of Instruction, and Assistant Principals. Pathways for Teacher Leaders include:

Instructional Leadership Team Summits

Transformational school leaders are the leverage point for moving schools from struggling to great. Strong school leaders can further accelerate their impact on student learning and well-being when working with equally strong instructional leadership teams. In our Instructional Leadership Team Summits (ILT Summits), school teams learn how to work together effectively as they implement and monitor collaborative planning processes designed to accelerate equity and excellence throughout the building.

Emerging Leaders

Emerging Leaders supports teacher leaders and other leaders of teams in developing the personal leadership skills required to: develop and lead a high performing team; effectively implement and monitor observation and coaching; and develop the collaborative planning processes, systems, and structures required to support their school team in advancing instructional excellence and equity for all students.

Team Leadership‍

Team Leadership supports leaders of teams in leading and establishing a high-performing team and leveraging the collaborative planning structure to drive instructional improvements across a team. ‍

Observation & Coaching ‍

In the Observation & Coaching pathway, leaders of team focus on leveraging coaching cycles for improved teacher practice towards improvement in student outcomes. Participants use their personal leadership skills to develop the capacity of teachers they support through high-impact coaching, effective implementation of critical action steps, monitoring of observation, as well as coaching systems and structures in moving towards instructional excellence and equity.

Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support

Our Coaching & Strategic Leadership Support pathway is designed to gradually release implementation of critical leadership practices to equity-focused leaders through personalized, confidential, high-impact coaching unique to their contexts and communities of practice. Participants engage in rich reflective practices, goal setting, action planning, and executing against plans, all driving towards building capacity in leading for equity.