Leadership Institute for School Change:
Building Capacity by Supporting Adult Development

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For more information, questions, group rates or to register: Email cps@tc.columbia.edu
Program Description:
We are living, teaching, learning, and leading in the context of ultimate adaptive challenges. Today—perhaps more than ever before—we need to support educators across all levels as we continue to navigate the urgent challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and create, together, futures grounded in racial and educational justice. How might you better support teachers, leaders, and yourself during these unprecedented, complex and ever-changing times? Investing in supporting adult learning and building capacity is one promising pathway forward.
This two-day online interactive workshop provides leaders and educators across levels—principals, assistant principals, teachers, professional developers, curriculum specialists, coaches, district leaders, policymakers, professors, community college leaders, administrators, and for- and non-profit leaders who support others—with an opportunity to more deeply understand how to support other adults’ growth, and one’s own, by learning about adult developmental theory, a developmental model of leadership for supporting adult growth, and promising, capacity-building practices that can be implemented in your school, district, or organization.
Participants will have multiple opportunities during and after each seminar day to apply their learnings, develop action plans, and enhance their noble practice of leading in support of adult development—including supervision for growth, coaching, and practices that support adult development.
During the Institute, participants will learn about:
- Adult developmental theory and its practical applications for supporting growth and capacity building (Drago-Severson, 2004a, 2004b, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016; Drago-Severson & Blum-DeStefano, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020; Drago-Severson, Blum-DeStefano, & Asghar, 2013; Drago-Severson, Roy, & von Frank, 2015; Kegan, 1982, 1994, 2000)
- A developmentally-based model for leadership and professional learning comprised of four pillar practices—teaming, collegial inquiry, providing leadership roles, and mentoring—that you can employ to enhance collaboration and PLCs, grow teacher leadership, and give and receive effective feedback (Drago-Severson, 2004a, 2004b, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016; Drago-Severson & Blum-DeStefano, 2018; Drago-Severson, Blum-DeStefano & Asghar, 2013; Drago-Severson, Joswick-O’Connor, &Blum-DeStefano, 2018; Drago-Severson, Roy, & von Frank, 2015).
- Practical strategies for building successful teams in schools and online, differentiating professional learning, building a culture of collaboration, and supporting instructional improvement in both groups and individuals.
- Takeaways for applying and implementing learnings in practice through action plans.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Everyone really! This Institute is designed for leaders and collaborators of all kinds—principals, AP’s, teachers, professional developers, curriculum specialists, coaches, superintendents and other district leaders, policymakers, and anyone interested in building capacity across non-profit and for-profit sectors. All are welcome!
FACILITATORS
Ellie Drago-Severson, Faculty Lead and Co-Facilitator
Professor of Education Leadership and Adult Learning & Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University, Faculty Lead and Co-Facilitator of Institute
“Ellie Drago-Severson is one of our most insightful experts on the development of adult educational leaders. She is unique in her ability to move back and forth comfortably between powerful ideas and promising practices.”
–Howard Gardner
Professor of Cognition and Education
Harvard University
Author of Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons
Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Co-Facilitator
Faculty at Bank Street Graduate School of Education