February 13, 2025
Effective school and district leadership is essential for creating positive and accessible outcomes for students and communities. This Spotlight offers resources for leaders about complex issues such as driving school improvement, keeping a clear organizational vision, and implementing restorative practices.
Webinar: Strategic Leadership Actions to Ignite School Improvement
A recent webinar, the third in WestEd’s Leading Together Series, features experts sharing evidence-based practices to support positive outcomes and thriving communities. WestEd’s Contann Dabney provides school leaders with strategies and tools for a strong academic year.
Dabney emphasizes setting a positive tone aligned with continuous improvement goals and effective communication of critical actions to unite the school community around achieving end-of-year results.
Participants learned how to maintain momentum through monitoring progress regularly, making strategic adjustments, and celebrating small wins, which help sustain improvement efforts throughout the year.
Session Topics:
- Prioritizing Critical Actions for Early Impact
- Sustaining Momentum and Celebrating Successes
Maintaining Organizational Clarity
No matter how talented the team or how effective the intervention, mission-driven organizations often struggle to achieve sustainable impact. Part of this challenge is the complex environment in which nonprofits and other organizations operate.
A new resource aims to support leaders with two complementary goals:
- establishing organizational clarity
- taking an ecosystem approach to impact
The guide discusses why these approaches matter, defines key terms, and presents real and hypothetical examples to deepen understanding of these concepts.
Read Establishing Organizational Clarity Within a Changing Ecosystem: A Guide for Nonprofits.
Restorative Ways of Being to Embody What Is Possible
Educators and leaders looking to embrace restorative practices in educational settings must navigate countless decisions without simple or easily identifiable answers. To help restorative practitioners navigate such challenging complexity, this guide frames restorative practices not as a program but as a paradigm, supporting a shift from asking, “What is the right answer?” to instead asking, “What are the steps I will try first?” and “How can I center my own and others’ humanity as I decide what to try?”
A recent guide offers insights into adopting a restorative paradigm by exploring five restorative ways of being that can guide decision-making in difficult situations:
- looking within oneself
- getting to the root causes of incidents
- holding complexity rather than seeking simple solutions
- keeping dignity intact
- staying proximate to those most affected
Read Restorative Ways of Being to Embody What Is Possible.
WestEd’s Educational Leadership and Systems Design experts provide education leaders with professional development that promotes positive and accessible outcomes for students and communities. Visit our Focus Area page to learn more.
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