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.

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.

This training helps principals, central office leaders and teachers recalibrate their understanding of the teaching and learning practices described by each indicator, transitioning from version 2 to version 3 of the 5D+ Rubric 5D+™ Rubric for Instructional Growth and Teacher Evaluation.

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 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.

CEL's one-day Creating Focused Goals Institute helps school leadership teams learn a process to enable teachers' professional goals to be strategic, with a greater impact on student learning. This institute addresses how adults learn best, how to create goals that align with student needs in the classroom and how a school leadership team can support teachers in growing in their practice based on a focused goal. Participants in this institute learn a process to create focused goals and ensure that teachers’ goals positively influence student learning and their own instructional practice.

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.

5D+ Summative Scoring Training develops the summative part of the 5D+ teacher evaluation process. It provides participants with the opportunity to learn how to analyze the formative instructional practice data that has been collected over the course of the school year and determine indicator and overall instructional practice scores using a four-point scale. 5D+ Summative Scoring Training is ideal for principals and principal supervisors.

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.