"The greatest challenge of leadership isn't securing followership—it's cultivating distributed capacity for leadership while maintaining strategic coherence." Everyone Has a Plan—But Few Have a Strategy for Execution Nearly every school and district has a strategic plan—improvement frameworks, equity initiatives, continuous improvement cycles, and instructional priorities. However, most educational leaders lack a systematic approach to executing those plans with precision. Pr

"We can't hold schools accountable for what we're unwilling to model as district leaders." A Shift in Perspective We would never accept a one-size-fits-all approach to student learning. Every educator knows that students come to us with different strengths, needs, backgrounds, and readiness levels. We've built entire frameworks around meeting students where they are—Response to Intervention, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, differentiated instruction, personalized learning pa

"The greatest challenge of leadership is not getting people to follow you. It's getting them to lead with you." The Problem With Most...

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."  — John F. Kennedy Why Most School Improvement Plans Never Reach Their...

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” - Mahatma Gandhi We All Want Better Schools—But Where Should Change Begin? Most of...

“Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices. The difference is in how they apply...

"The greatest challenge of leadership is not getting people to follow you. It's getting them to lead with you." A new principal walks...

"Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices." — Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins (2019) When it...

“Clarity around the goal changes everything. What we notice, how we act, and what we build” In our last blog, we unpacked the “WHAT” that...

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”  — Hans Hofmann Improving schools is often...

“Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school.” —...

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”  — Dwight D. Eisenhower In the...

“The future depends on what you do today." — Mahatma Gandhi Change fails when we start the process too late in the season. Many leaders...

“ No significant learning [or change] occurs without a significant relationship. ” — Dr. James Comer We often think successful change...

“Accreditation isn’t where the flight ends—it’s where momentum begins.” We often treat accreditation like a landing. After all the stress...

"Improvement doesn’t happen to people—it happens with them." The Common Assumption: Most school improvement efforts begin with experts...

“You can only expect what you inspect.” Recently, I was working with a building leader who had done everything right. She had a clear...

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every...

"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it."  — Stephen R. Covey (1) The Common Assumption : Many leaders believe that if they...

" People don't believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They...