CSET Professional Learning

School Leaders Program

 

 

The purpose of the CSET School Leaders Program (SLP) is to build a movement of teacher leaders and school site leaders who are committed to disrupting power dynamics and cycles of oppression through social justice leadership and a critical examination of school curricula, policies, and culture. By centering liberatory pedagogy and leadership practices on developing and enacting a social justice stance, our leaders will co-create classrooms, schools, and communities that are humanizing, culturally sustaining, critical, and liberatory. 

This international program is an opportunity for site leaders to deepen their knowledge, skills, and impact in a community of practice where collaboration enables transformational change. Through the exploration of research and literature, an explicit focus on social justice, and community-based transformative learning, leaders design and enact plans that address specific and pressing challenges relevant to their unique contexts. 

Participation in this virtual program will provide site leaders with a professional and collegial environment that is safe and intellectually challenging. In this environment, leaders will actively explore, critically examine, and further develop their beliefs, knowledge, and skills as social justice leaders. Within this professional climate, the SLP is designed to be counter-cultural, to nourish school leaders intellectually and emotionally, and to help school leaders consider critical questions of leading for social justice and instructional excellence.

 

The program learning arc focuses on three core domains:

  1. Strong, liberationist instructional pedagogy
  2. Community-based transformative learning
  3. Development of personal leadership identity and stance

 

Virtual Summer Institute July 8-12, 2024 

 

Click below for more program information:

 
Program Structure 

The structure of the SLP is informed by the fundamentals of  liberatory pedagogy. We begin with the practice of exploration by creating spaces for participants to individually and collectively explore their personal social justice stances in relation to the unique characteristics of their school sites.  Through this exploration, we model “user-centered” leadership by co-creating learning experiences alongside participants. We enact a three-fold learning arc that will help leaders build skills and develop tools related to the program's core domains.

To enact this learning arc, the SLP leverages three primary program components: 

  1. Inquiry-based discourse - Individual and collective needs assessments used to inform programmatic content, community-building, and unique approaches to social-justice work at each site. 

  2. Professional learning - Summer Institute and Monthly Virtual Sessions & Whole-group learning sessions focused on research-based transformational leadership practices.

  3. Individual and small-group coaching sessions where participants engage in an ongoing community of practice with other leaders.

 

 

Ultimately, through their experiences in this program, participants will individually and collectively:

  • Enact social justice leadership that fosters a learning culture where all stakeholders are valued for the rich assets they bring.
  • Strengthen their leadership capacity, sense of identity, and instructional vision.
  • Analyze and map the systems they work within to co-design site goals and plans with stakeholders.
  • Identify technical and adaptive challenges in their systems and discern how to respond to them appropriately. 
  • Construct and operationalize plans to build and sustain trusting relationships with their teaching teams and foster a positive school community and culture. 
  • Support liberationist instructional best practices among their teaching teams that promote equity and deeper learning for all students.    
  • Participate in a community of leaders and expand their professional network. 

By the end of the program, participants can expect to be more reflective, instructionally-minded leaders who are equipped with tools to support the needs of all learners and build sustainable liberatory systems at their sites. Participants will walk away from the program with more effective leadership guided by a strong vision; a social justice-driven school improvement plan; and a strong professional network rooted in shared leadership and learning.

Who is eligible to participate in the CSET SLP? 

Program participants will currently hold a formal teaching or leadership role in K-12 education. Possible roles include Principal, Assistant Principal, Dean, Instructional Coach, Grade-Level Chair, Department Chair, and Teacher Leaders, etc.

We are especially interested in: 

  • Teachers and leaders who work with historically marginalized and underserved students (e.g. African American, Latinx, low-income, English learning, special education, and foster and homeless students)
  • Teachers and leaders who work in under-resourced schools, including those in rural and urban communities
  • Teachers and leaders who are committed to disrupting systemic inequities at their sites. 

Can I register for the CSET SLP with other teammates from my site or district?  

Yes! Participants are encouraged to register in teams either with other teachers or administrators within the same site or across the district or charter organization. 

Can I register and participate if I am not in the Bay Area?

Yes! We hope to recruit teachers and leaders from a variety of districts and charter management organizations across the world.  The CSET SLP is a virtual opportunity. Synchronous sessions during the school year will take place between the hours of 3-6pm Pacific Time (or 6-9pm Eastern). 

Can I register for the CSET SLP if I’ve attended the Hollyhock School Leaders Institute or other CSET institutes in the past?

Yes! All previous CSET program participants are welcome to participate in this program.  While inclusive of the best practices related to the Hollyhock Fellowship, the SLP is a comprehensive experience designed to cover a wide range of aspects related to effective site leadership.

  • All participants must complete an online registration (Participants registering with a school team must state that information on their individual profile)

The CSET School Leaders Program is a virtual opportunity, which includes monthly virtual gatherings, a week-long summer institute, and quarterly small-group coaching.

Tuition for the CSET School Leaders Program is $3,500 per year. 
Participants also may earn 6 Continuing Education Units each year (CEU) at no additional cost. Please note: Stanford CEUs are NOT graduate school credits and cannot be applied toward any university degree. These CEUs are considered professional learning hours and may be applied toward salary tier systems (per your school district’s policies). 
If you are interested, we encourage you to discuss funding options with your school administrators.

Here are a few of the participants from our 2023-2024 cohort:

John Villanueva Nepomuceno

Social Justice Leader and Equity Advocate (also Assistant Principal)

I've been a steward of urban education, from being a Substitute Teacher in Southeast San Diego to English Teacher in East Oakland, for over twenty years. I am rounding out nearly a decade as an Assistant Principal in San Francisco, and can say from experience, that social justice is part and parcel of the disruption of educational inequity, whether you're leading the classroom, the schoolhouse, or an entire District. To ensure that all our students, especially those from the most historically socio-economically disadvantaged populations in our community, thrive while simultaneously pushing for positive change in my school. These ongoing challenges are truly what keeps me in this business...what keeps me in this fight.

Valuable Takeaway: 
Being a few years removed from my graduate as well as credential induction programs, I haven't had the opportunity to connect with other like-minded leaders in a learning environment that was both challenging as well as academically and professionally stimulating, until I found myself with Stanford SLP. This has been a tremendous opportunity to continue the learning, while simultaneously learning from a small but mighty cohort of school leaders from across the country, all while being pushed not just by our peers, but by two incredible professors in Dr. Tawheedah Abdullah and Dr. Tammy Wu Moriarty, who both bring on a wealth of professional experience, and no shortage of useful resources to help us as we continue our pursuits of improving our practice as leaders, and the lives of the people we impact in our schools, day in and day out. Thank you Stanford CSET SLP!

Dr. Monica Koziol

Administrator

Highlights of my career include being a teacher, director of education, and an educational policymaker. I served on the Local School Council and Higher Education Council. It is important for me in education and social justice to increase empathy and provide educational stakeholders with greater psychological stability.

Valuable Takeaway: 
How to map my educational leadership journey and sharing it effectively with others

Albert Maldonado

Vice Principal

Leadership is an opportunity to develop connections, build communities of learning and provide access to opportunities that empower teachers, students and parents. Growing up in an immigrant household has taught me that education is the highest leverage point that counters injustices and oppressive structures that currently exist in various systems.

Valuable Takeaway: 
The most valuable takeaways I’ve learned from my experience in SLP are the connections established with fellow like minded leaders who are educational social justice driven, engaging in leadership topics relevant to my service, while building my leadership identity.

Jamie Crosen

Principal

I have the pleasure of working in largely minority schools and with the help of my team having success moving my schools to academic good standing based on the state accountability metrics. It is my life calling to impact marginalized communities to create opportunities and close gaps for students of color as it is a pleasure to serve our students.

Valuable Takeaway: 
Having like minded colleagues that recognize the need for social justice and are doing the work is the most valuable takeaway from this experience.

Crystal Catalan

Vice Principal of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

I am grateful for the opportunity to accompany young people on their journey towards learning more about their gifts and talents, and how they may serve others and create positive change in the world. As a diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner, I have found myself in spaces that have both challenged me, fulfilled me, shaped me, and forever changed me. I am a lifelong learner, and I will continue to be bold in seeking justice, and serve as an advocate for peace.

Valuable Takeaway: 
I am so grateful to have received individual coaching throughout the school year to deepen my identity as a social justice-focused educational leader, and to learn alongside and share community with other school leaders who are too, grappling with the issues we commonly and uniquely face today.

 

Meet Our Team

 

Photo of Tawheedah Abdullah

Dr. Abdullah has ten years of experience in public and charter school settings, serving in several capacities— ELA instructor, department chair, instructional coach, equity training facilitator, and assistant principal. An alumna of CSET’s Hollyhock fellowship program, Dr. Abdullah leverages her professional experiences, research interests, and passion for social justice and educational equity through her work. Her role includes identifying opportunities for collaboration in professional learning and research, translating research into practice, and assisting with long-range envisioning and planning for CSET. Dr. Abdullah holds a BS in Jazz Studies from Florida A&M University, an MA in Urban Pedagogy from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy from Florida State University.

Photo of Tammy Wu Moriarty

Dr. Moriarty’s work focuses on instructional excellence and strong teacher and school leadership. Dr. Moriarty’s work includes facilitating professional learning experiences as well as instructional and leadership coaching. Her experience includes being a secondary science teacher, a district science resource teacher, school administrator, and educational consultant. She holds a BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego, an MA in Educational Leadership from the University of San Diego, and a PhD in Leadership Studies, PK-12 Specialization from the University of San Diego.

photo Janet Carlson

Dr. Carlson’s research interests include the impact of educative curriculum materials and transformative professional development on science teaching and learning. She began her career as a middle and high school science teacher and has spent the last 20 years working in science education developing curriculum, leading professional development, and conducting research. Dr. Carlson received a BA in Environmental Biology from Carleton College, an MS in Curriculum and Instruction from Kansas State University, and a PhD in Instruction and Curriculum (science education) from the University of Colorado.