In this Issue
As we move into a new season of learning and collaboration, we explore ways to bring people together around the work that matters most: improving outcomes for students. Across the CLEE community, educators, stakeholders, and leaders are creating opportunities to listen, learn from one another and turn what they are learning into action.
Explore how you can improve outcomes through three CLEE programs featured in this issue. PLANS is helping schools bring more voices into school improvement, Strategic Planning process turns shared vision into a clear path forward and PRN supports educators as they advance their careers and strengthen their school’s leadership pipeline. You will also find ways to stay connected with the CLEE community, bring practical resources into your work and take your next step as a collaborative leader.
Learning in Action
- Spotlight: Bring More Voices Into School Improvement
- Stay Connected With the CLEE Community
- Service Highlight: Turn Your Vision Into a Plan You Can Act On
- Grow Your Leadership; Strengthen Your School
Reminders
- Two Ways to Bring CLEE Resources Into Your Work
- Intro to Adult Facilitation
- Leadership in Practice
- Emerging Leader Professional Learning Series
Each month, CLEE offers a question or two to help you reflect on your growth.
Who has a perspective you need to hear, and what could change if you made more space for their voice in your work?
Better Outcomes for Students Start With Expanding Collaboration and Stakeholder Voices
CLEE can help school and district leaders bring people together around the work that matters most: improving experiences and outcomes for students. Plan, Lead, Act, Network, and Sustain (PLANS) is CLEE’s federal grant-supported schoolwide professional learning program available in CT, MA, and RI. PLANS helps teams turn school and district priorities into focused action and student impact, through coaching, learning sessions, resources and ongoing support.
Improve Student Outcomes Together
School improvement impacts students most when they and the people closest to them have meaningful opportunities to contribute. PLANS supports leaders to engage students, families, educators, district leaders and community members in collaboration about what students need and how schools can improve.
When more voices shape the work, teams can:
- Strengthen the instructional core by focusing together on teaching, learning and student needs
- Connect improvement efforts to student outcomes by using meaningful data to identify priorities and monitor progress
- Build shared ownership by creating meaningful opportunities for students, families, staff and community members to contribute
- Turn collaboration into action by connecting what teams learn to the improvement work already underway
The goal is not to add another initiative. PLANS supports you in the work you are already doing, helping make that work more focused, collaborative and connected to results for students.
A Story of PLANS Impact: When Stakeholder Engagement Becomes Shared Leadership
At Dudley Elementary School in Dudley, MA, a recent PLANS Community Assets and Needs Mapping session showed what is possible when school leaders intentionally bring a wide range of voices into the school improvement process. Principal Chris Audette, a PRN alum, carefully designed the experience around the people he wanted to learn from, inviting students, families, teachers, district leaders and community members into the conversation. Rather than simply presenting data about areas of success and growth, Chris selected information that would be meaningful to those in the room and created space for participants to engage in focused conversations about the school’s future.
The experience showed what can happen when stakeholder engagement is designed not simply to gather input, but to build shared leadership. Chris’s CLEE coach, Julia Hendrix, helped connect the work to implementing student-centered improvements, and school and district leaders created the conditions for meaningful stakeholder engagement. Families felt their perspectives mattered, staff left feeling hopeful about implementing improvements for students and the group developed a stronger shared vision for where the school could go next. The experience reminded us that when we bring people into the work and create meaningful opportunities for them to contribute, we move faster and better together to make improvements that directly impact students.
Keep Learning With Us: Reconnect, Contribute, Discover
We are excited to gather with the CLEE community tomorrow for Fall Meeting and reconnect around learning from student work, collaborative leadership and the work that brings us together: improving outcomes for students.
If you cannot join us in person, there are still opportunities to connect, contribute and learn with the CLEE community this year.
CLEE Community Insight Lab
Practice a process for learning from your community, turning insights into action, and help shape what comes next at CLEE!
About two years ago, CLEE community members gathered with Danny Warshay’s See, Solve, Scale process and looked closely at the experiences and needs of the people we serve. We are reconvening that work and inviting new voices to join us.
This free, three-part virtual gathering is both a chance to contribute to the CLEE community and to learn a process you can use in your own work. Together, we will practice a Bottom-Up Research approach for gathering perspectives, identifying needs and patterns, testing ideas, and learning from what happens.
Between sessions, you will gather observations from your own community, bring them back to make meaning with colleagues, and use what you learn to inform a small action or experiment. Along the way, you will gain an approach you can use to better understand needs and inform decisions in your own school, organization, or community.
You will have the opportunity to:
- Learn and practice a Bottom-Up Research process you can use in your own context
- Bring your experiences and observations into a broader CLEE community conversation
- Learn from what colleagues are seeing across different schools , organizations, and communities
- Identify patterns and needs, test ideas, and learn from what happens
- Help inform CLEE’s continued learning and direction
CLEE Community Insight Lab Gatherings
Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 4-5pm Eastern
Reunion and launch: reconnect with the original project and welcome new participants
Thursday, January 14, 2027 | 4-5pm Eastern
Share observations and learn from one another
Tuesday, March 2, 2027 | 4-5pm Eastern
Make meaning together and explore what we are learning
No cost to participate. Each session will build on the prior one, so we strongly recommend that you attend all three for the full experience.
Whether you are joining us at Fall Meeting or connecting with us from wherever you are, we hope you will find a way to stay part of the CLEE community this year
Turn Your Vision Into a Plan of Action
Schools and districts need a clear path to transform schools to provide every student an opportunity to thrive. CLEE helps communities build and move down that path together.
A Strategic Plan should be more than a document that sits on a shelf. It should help your school or district make shared decisions, laser focus improvement efforts and move swiftly toward better outcomes for students.
CLEE’s Strategic Planning process brings staff, students, families and community members into the work from the beginning. Our experienced facilitators guide your team through a focused, research-based process that makes stakeholder engagement efficient while creating meaningful opportunities for people to share what they see, what they need and what they believe is possible.
Over approximately four months, CLEE facilitates a series of steering committee and community sessions that help your team identify priorities, develop strategies and create a three to five year plan with clear outcomes and action steps.
Build a Plan and Pathway That Belongs to Everyone
When stakeholders help shape the direction, the plan becomes more than a leadership team initiative. It becomes a shared commitment.
“CLEE’s collaborative process has been key to our progress this time. CLEE has tools at every step to quickly gather input and feedback from all of our stakeholders: students, parents and staff. We are collectively building a vision of a graduate to anchor our plan to student outcomes. This collaboration also allows me to fully listen and participate with stakeholders rather than being seen as ‘The Leader’ in this process. Importantly, the plan belongs to all of us because it is being facilitated by CLEE.”
-Sheila Hoffman, Superintendent, Agawam Public Schools
What You Gain
- A shared direction shaped by the people closest to your schools and community
- A focused process that allows leaders to listen and participate rather than manage every step
- Clear priorities and strategies connected to student outcomes
- A three to five year plan with outcomes and actions to guide your improvement work
Planning for what comes next? Connect with CLEE to explore how our Strategic Planning process can help your community build a shared path forward.
Grow Your Leadership; Strengthen Your School
Ready to take the next step in your education career? PRN prepares experienced educators to become school leaders who can improve outcomes for students.
The Principal Residency Network (PRN) is CLEE’s principal preparation program for educators who are ready to move into school leadership. Through hands-on learning, mentorship and experience in a school setting, participants develop the skills and confidence to lead with a focus on teaching, learning and student outcomes.
PRN also helps schools and districts build their leadership pipeline by developing educators who are prepared to step into principal and other school leadership roles.
Prepare to Lead Where You Are
PRN is designed for educators who want to advance their careers while making a greater impact in their schools and communities. The program combines real-world leadership experience and support from experienced mentors to prepare candidates for a seamless transition into transformational leadership roles.
PRN is available in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island with reciprocity in other states, and offers one and two year program options.
Ready to explore your next step in leadership? Learn more about PRN and see if it is the right fit for your leadership journey.
Two Ways to Bring CLEE Resources Into Your Work
A new CLEE book is on the way, and there is still time to pick up a copy of a longtime favorite.
Pre-Order Transformation Protocols
Our new book, Transformation Protocols, is coming soon. Building on CLEE’s experience with collaborative learning and facilitative leadership, the book offers protocols designed to help educators create meaningful conversations, examine their work and move from reflection to action.
Pre-order your copy today and be among the first to bring these new tools into your school, district or organization.
Get the Resource & Protocol Book for $20 with free shipping
We are clearing inventory to make room for Transformation Protocols, so this is a great opportunity to add the Resource & Protocol Book to your professional library at a special price.
Looking for practical CLEE tools you can use right now? Our Resource & Protocol Book is just $20 per copy with free shipping while supplies last (bulk discounts available – contact clee@clee.org).
Get the current book while it is available at a deep discount, then pre-order our newest book to continue your educational leadership journey.
Introduction to Adult Facilitation is a flexible, online learning course designed to build capacity in the frameworks, tools, and mindsets required to lead effective and collaborative adult learning communities.
Through seven course modules, participants learn how structured dialogue and guided inquiry create conditions for reflective practice and shared leadership. Each module offers practical strategies that can be applied immediately in professional learning settings to support instructional improvement and learner success.
Leadership in Practice provides formative support for Massachusetts educators completing the four Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) tasks required for initial principal and assistant principal licensure. Through a collaborative online cohort, participants apply structured inquiry to authentic leadership challenges while receiving facilitator guidance, peer feedback and practical tools that strengthen leadership practice and prepare them for successful PAL submission.
Designed for teacher leaders and other instructional leaders, this professional learning series helps participants develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to lead meaningful improvements for students. Through collaborative learning, practical application and optional personalized coaching, participants use continuous improvement processes, data informed decision making and facilitative leadership practices to strengthen instructional leadership and build lasting capacity within their teams.
