Leadership Academy for Black Educators

Participants will confront and discuss institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status. The session will conclude with strategies participants can use to ensure equity of educational opportunity and culturally responsive practices that promote students' academic success and well-being.

Participants will discuss and learn the importance of acting ethically and professionally in personal conduct, relationships with others, decision-making, stewardship of the school/district resources and all aspects of school leadership. The session will conclude with strategies participants can use to promote ethical and professional behavior among themselves and others.

Participants will discuss and share strategies that promote adult-student, student-peer and school-community relationships that value and support academic learning and positive social and emotional development for students of color. The session will conclude with recommendations on how to cultivate an inclusive, caring and supportive school community that promotes the academic success and well-being of each student.

Participants will learn how to deliver actionable feedback about instruction and other professional practice through valid, research-anchored systems of supervision and evaluation to support the development of staff members’ knowledge, skills, and practice. The session will conclude with ways that leaders can empower and motivate staff to the highest levels of professional practice and to continuous learning and improvement.

Participants will learn how to develop and support open, productive, caring, and trusting working relationships among leaders, faculty, and staff to promote professional capacity and the improvement of practice. The session will conclude with strategies for job-embedded and other opportunities for professional development that fosters collaborative examination of practice, collegial feedback, and collective learning.

Participants will discuss and learn how to implement coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that promote the mission, vision, and core values of the school district, embody high expectations for student learning, align with academic standards, and are culturally responsive. The session will conclude with strategies that leaders can use to develop and support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction and assessment to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

Participants will discuss ways to understand, value, and employ the community’s cultural, social, intellectual, and political resources to promote student learning and school improvement. The session will conclude with leaders learning how to engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

Participants will learn how to institute, manage, and monitor operations and administrative systems that promote the mission and vision of the school district. The session will conclude with strategies that leaders can use to develop and maintain data and communication systems to deliver actionable information that impacts classrooms and offices within the school district.