Focus Your Whole Community on Learning and Teaching to Create Lasting Impact
PLANS (Plan, Lead, Act, Network, Sustain) is an evidence-based program funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This comprehensive program brings school leaders, staff, students and families together to dream big, examine data, identify root causes of their challenges, and develop actionable strategies that strengthen teaching, learning, and student experience.
During the recent community assets and needs mapping sessions, participants moved from looking at challenges as something outside of their control to finding ways they could all influence and take action. When they kept conversations centered on what matters most – learning and teaching – together they saw new places where they could lead meaningful change.
Stepping into the learning zone (or as we call it ‘the risk zone’) emerged as a key practice for exercising agency. One participant wrote, “I was in my risk zone when we talked about chronic absenteeism and its root causes openly and honestly at a table with students and parents .” Another reflected on “difficult conversations on what is needed to move the school forward.” A community member named the challenge of navigating “collaborative disagreement” and balancing sharing a perspective and listening to others as a form of growth.
Participants also recognized the power of collaboration. One parent noted, “If we all work together as a team I think it will make a great impact.” Another shared, “The more parents are involved in our students’ education, the better our school will be.” A participant described the session as transformative, saying, “Putting students, teachers, administrators and parents in one room allows us to see that for the most part we all have the same values and ideas at heart.”
These reflections show that participants did more than identify strengths and needs. They discovered agency in the work. They named what they can do, how they can grow, and how the school community can strengthen learning and teaching through shared action.
If you want to deepen this work in your own school or district you can take the next step.
- Join the next PLANS cohort to build widespread leadership and momentum to reach your goals
- Join the Principal Residency Network (PRN) to lead for impact and strengthen your principal pipeline
- Build capacity to facilitate impact through CLEE’s Facilitator Training
- Engage Your Community in Mapping Your Assets and Needs with CLEE
Continuous Improvement Supports the Implementation of High-Quality Curriculum and Instructional Materials
CLEE helps leaders and teams improve teaching and learning by supporting the implementation of high-quality curriculum and instructional materials (HQCIM) through multiple pathways. Our continuous improvement approach empowers educators to try new practices, learn from data, and develop shared practices that sustain rigorous learning experiences for all students.
If You Need to….
- Build shared understanding of rigorous content, materials, and teaching practices across classrooms.
- Strengthen instructional strategies that meet diverse learner needs, including culturally responsive pedagogy, scaffolding toward complex thinking, socialized learning, and constructivist approaches.
- Foster a culture of improvement that motivates the whole school community to believe in their own agency
CLEE provides proven methodologies to help you achieve your goals.
Check Out Our Key Pathways to Implementation:
- Leadership Coaching with a Continuous Improvement Focus: Personalized support for school leaders to lead instructional improvement with clarity and confidence
- Continuous Improvement Training for Teams: Collaborative structures for teams to learn, plan, and implement high-impact strategies together.
- Principal Preparation focused on student impact: Emerging principals and their mentors serve as engines for HQCIM implementation, ensuring high-quality instructional strategies are embedded across classrooms through the Principal Residency Network (PRN).
CLEE supports schools to translate curriculum into high-impact classroom practice through shared leadership, collaborative teams, and supported implementation to foster engaging learning experiences for each and every student.
CLEE Fall Meeting 2025: Growth, Connection, and Leadership in Action
On November 13–14, CLEE brought together educators, leaders, and students for our annual Fall Meeting in Warwick, Rhode Island. participants explored leadership, collaboration, and student-centered practice through homegroup reflective feedback sessions, a keynote address, and topic-based workshops.
Keynote Inspiration
Dr. Barbara Mullen challenged participants with her keynote on healing-centered leadership in schools, inspiring reflection on the choices and consequences inherent in leadership.
Home Groups: Learning From Giving and Receiving Feedback
Home Groups offered facilitated spaces for discussion, practice giving and receiving feedback, and reflective learning. Participants valued the space for growth:
- “I loved hearing from students from a school so different from my own.”
- “The small group protocols were risky, but the trusting environment allowed me to take risks and grow.
- “Practicing listening and asking probing questions in a supportive space was invaluable.”
- “Presenting my dilemma required vulnerability with a group I didn’t know well, but I realized my experiences were valuable to the learning of the whole group.”
- “I strengthened my ability to express myself and my ideas and dilemmas.”
Workshops to Deepen Learning
Workshops presented by CLEE community members provided space to go deeper on chosen topics. Participants highlighted the value of stepping into new roles, facilitating protocols, and sharing dilemmas from their own practice:
Across sessions, attendees noted the power of vulnerability, listening, and collaboration, and the ways in which these experiences would influence their work: “The Fall Meeting pushed me to take in new ideas and approaches to complex challenges.”
Even if you could not join us at Fall Meeting, there is an upcoming virtual experience like Fall Meeting Home Groups:
CLEE Community of Practice: Virtual Learning Community
Join CLEE’s virtual Community of Practice to collaborate with peers across the country. Build relationships, exchange feedback on real challenges, and practice giving and receiving feedback in a supportive environment that fosters growth and impact.
Or you can build deeper facilitation skills:
Facilitator Training (Virtual): In-Depth Skill-Building
Grow your capacity to lead with purpose and strengthen collaboration among colleagues. In this training you will practice facilitation skills, use collaborative tools to expand perspectives and guide teams to improvements that center student impact.
Evidence-based leadership support that’s fully funded.
With PLANS, leaders receive individualized coaching and teams engage in collaborative improvement work designed to accelerate measurable results.
Learn how PLANS helps districts retain leaders and impact outcomes at no cost
Facilitator Training builds your capacity to lead with purpose and to strengthen collaboration among colleagues. You will sharpen facilitation skills and practice using collaborative tools to share leadership, expand perspectives and generate improvements centered on student impact.
CLEE strengthens educators with professional learning and support so they can lead collaboration that improves student outcomes.
As a non-profit, CLEE relies on donors like you to amplify this work. Help us support educators as they take on the immense task of building schools where every student learns with purpose and joy
Ready to take the next step in your leadership journey? For over 25 years, CLEE’s Principal Residency Network (PRN) has helped aspiring leaders step into principal roles with confidence. Join an info session to learn how to get certified in RI or MA while gaining real-world experience.
Virtual Info Sessions
• January 13, 2026
• February 3, 2026
• March 2, 2026
4:30 – 5:30 pm
Each month, CLEE offers a question or two to help you reflect on what you are experiencing. Thinking about the importance of questioning and what your answers mean is one more step in your growth as a leader.
Join CLEE on social media to follow the monthly questions and share your answers.