Services We Provide

Unlike traditional investments in teacher professional development that have not consistently yielded results for students, CEL's approach to professional learning develops teacher collective efficacy — a long-term, sustainable approach to addressing persistent challenges of student learning. Our partnership methodology ensures that your investment will be aligned with ESSA’s requirement for professional learning activities that are sustained, intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven and classroom-focused.

The Instructional Leadership Academy is a yearlong professional development program that CEL delivers directly within a school district. Through the academy, a school district’s principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and central office leaders become stronger and more effective instructional leaders.

Our content area-focused professional development helps district leaders, administrators, coaches and teachers build content knowledge and hone pedagogical skills.

Side by side, we work with teachers and leaders to improve the quality of education for all students.

The Measures of Instructional Leadership Expertise provides independent measures of one’s expertise in observation and analysis, providing feedback to teachers, leading professional learning and one crosscutting skill of adopting an inquiry stance in one’s leadership.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers a variety of services focused around the 4 Dimensions of Instructional Leadership (4D™) framework. Through professional development opportunities, school leaders and their supervisors develop a clear understanding of the instructional leadership practices that will help them increase student achievement in their schools.

Instructional Leadership Teams professional development increases school leaders’ and instructional leadership team (ILT) members’ abilities to improve teaching and learning in a results-focused learning environment. Participants will walk away with a viable, customized plan to develop and maintain ILTs at their school. All participants will have access to an ILT toolbox that includes online resources for sustaining the work of the ILT.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers a comprehensive approach to school turnaround that focuses on a through line from the district office to the classroom. Our experience has shown that effective turnaround has to include a clear framework for improving the quality of teaching, the quality of school-based leadership, and principal support.  Implementing this type of framework requires the use of effective strategies and routines at every level of a school system.

Research and practitioner experience have deepened our understanding of the most salient practices of instructional leaders. We believe that when school leaders consistently put these practices into action, instructional practice improves. When instruction improves, student academic performance improves.

The Center for Educational Leadership conducts comprehensive school reviews on behalf of schools and districts engaged in improvement efforts. Working with school teams to gather and analyze data, CEL identifies a school’s strengths and areas for growth, in order to guide improvement efforts that will positively impact teaching and learning.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers a professional learning series designed to help school leaders develop their understanding and skill in developing and evaluating professional development, including creating professional development plans that align with student and teacher needs. Through this professional learning series, principals, assistant principals and instructional leadership team members will develop the skill to identify professional development needs, and understand what effective professional development looks like and how it will help them improve instructional practice and student achievement.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers a year-long training series for new and aspiring leaders during which participants learn the critical aspects of instructional leadership. Participants are provided an opportunity to delve into their own practice, learn from others, apply new skills and receive feedback on their developing practices.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers training designed to help educators learn how to use learning walkthroughs as a process for improving instructional practice. Leaders sharpen their ability to observe, analyze and discuss issues of student learning and teaching practice.

CEL’s nationally recognized faculty, staff and consultants have expertise that supports schools, districts and states in strengthening instructional practice and leadership to improve student learning. We believe that teacher evaluation is an ongoing process that goes hand in hand with deepening the expertise of teachers to engage students in high-quality learning while simultaneously increasing the expertise of school leaders to guide and support teachers in this improvement process.

The University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership offers school districts a two-day institute, “Targeted Feedback for Teacher Growth: Tools and Processes to Support Teacher Evaluation.” The Targeted Feedback Institute supports principals, teachers and central office leaders in learning the skills for giving feedback and creating a culture that results in effective teacher evaluations centered on growth of teacher practice and improvement of student learning.

The one-day Leading Professional Learning Institute supports school leadership teams in determining what kind of professional learning to provide for teachers and why. Effective professional learning needs to address the highest-leverage instructional strategies that are focused on the specific needs of instructional staff as identified by the school leadership team through instructional analysis. School leaders will learn about ways to plan and deliver professional learning that supports those highest-leverage instructional strategies.

We realize how critical it is to provide leaders and teachers with the skills necessary to support excellent classroom practice and we also know that this work needs to be thoughtful, intentional, and focused. That’s the intent of our research-based instructional framework, the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning™ (5D), composed of the core elements that constitute high-quality teaching.

The Center for Educational Leadership offers a two-stage training program designed to help educators develop their understanding of the 5D+ Teacher Evaluation Rubric and the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning™ instructional framework. Training participants learn how to effectively use these tools in daily classroom practice.

Stage I Online Training presents learners with an overview of the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning™ instructional framework and the 5D+ Teacher Evaluation Rubric. Through the online training, learners will develop their skills in the use of the inquiry process during teacher evaluation to support teacher growth. Stage I Online Training is an ideal support for principals, teachers and central office staff as they learn how the new model of teacher evaluation is different from the old model.

5D+ Stage II Online Training develops and deepens learners’ knowledge of the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning™ instructional framework, the 5D+ Teacher Evaluation Rubric (Version 2), and the 5D+ Inquiry Cycle. 5D+ Stage I Online Training introduced participants to the Classroom Environment & Culture dimension of the framework and rubric as well as the 5D+ Inquiry Cycle. 5D+ Stage II Online Training provides learners an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of each of the remaining four dimensions.

Developing reliable evaluators of teachers is a key component to the success of any school district’s teacher evaluation system. Teachers and students benefit from principals and evaluators who are trained and certified to observe, analyze and rate instruction, before they ever step into a classroom to observe a teacher for the purpose of evaluation.