ELSD provides many opportunities for you to find out more about our work helping teams to refine and strengthen leadership structures and to see if they are the right fit for your system.

The ELSD 30-minute information sessions offer leaders opportunities to learn about our offerings, ask questions, and connect with other leaders developing their network and leadership skills. We also offer 1-hour preview sessions to provide leaders an opportunity to sample our offerings to get a better sense of how our sessions are designed and to engage with other leaders.

Other ELSD Learning Opportunities

The Bridge Project

Retaining excellent, diverse principals is critical to student success. With funding from the US Department of Education, WestEd has partnered with 6 Illinois Regional Offices of Education and 12 Illinois public school districts to create and test a model for principal apprenticeship and induction. Over the next two years, WestEd provides coaching and support to 53 educators of color and women educators in support of their journey to principal positions.

Arizona Supervisors of Principals’ Academy (SOPA)

Now in its 4th year, Arizona Supervisors of Principals’ Academy (SOPA) is a statewide learning network for current principal supervisors in charter and public schools. SOPA principal supervisors learn together about leadership coaching, evaluation, and central office design to support principal supervision, a key principal pipeline process. 70 principal supervisors are currently engaged in Arizona SOPA! While registration for 2023-24 is now closed, you can learn more about SOPA by clicking here or contacting SOPA directly (sopa@wested.org).

Equity Centered Principal Pipeline Improvements

WestEd is engaged with University of Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA, Teachers College, Brown University, University of Texas and University of Taiwan in studying equity-centered principal pipeline improvements in eight, urban school districts. With support from the Wallace Foundation, WestEd specifically leads a multi-year study of policy network efforts by using social network analysis. For more information, contact Matthew Clifford (mcliffo@wested.org).

The University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI)

The University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) is a national network of principal preparation programs seeking to advance principal preparation quality, in support of better principal retention and workforce diversity. WestEd supports the UPPI network by disseminating research and stories of improvement.

Utah Principal Supervisors’ Academy (UPSA)

The Utah Principal Supervisors’ Academy (UPSA) is a statewide learning network for current principal supervisors from charter and public schools across Utah. In collaboration with the University of Utah, WestEd provides evidence-based coaching and online learning to support 39 supervisors. UPSA will be launching again in October, 2023! If you are a current Utah principal supervisors and want to join the network, email (sopa@wested.org).