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Introduction to the CSET School Leaders Program

The CSET School Leaders Program (SLP) is designed 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.

Program Overview

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.

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.

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

Program Components

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.

Program Outcomes

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.

Eligibility

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.

Registration Process

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

Tuition

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).

Meet Our Participants

A few of the participants from our cohort include:

• John Villanueva Nepomuceno, Social Justice Leader and Equity Advocate (also Assistant Principal)
• Dr. Monica Koziol, Administrator
• Albert Maldonado, Vice Principal
• Jamie Crosen, Principal
• Crystal Catalan, Vice Principal of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Each participant shares their valuable takeaways from the program, highlighting the impact of the CSET School Leaders Program on their professional growth and commitment to social justice in education.

Meet Our Team

Our team includes:

• Dr. Abdullah, with 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.
• Dr. Moriarty, whose work focuses on instructional excellence and strong teacher and school leadership.
• Dr. Carlson, whose research interests include the impact of educative curriculum materials and transformative professional development on science teaching and learning.