Your SEL team will need to consider several factors prior to the adoption of an evidence-based program for SEL. This activity will assist your team to clarify the needs and priorities and chose a program best suited for your school.

Schoolwide norms are a set of agreed-upon expectations of how all students and staff will behave and interact to contribute to a positive school climate. This activity helps define what your schoolwide norms will be.

Reflect on SEL Competencies for School Leaders and Staff – an activity of self-awareness.

This tool will help the SEL team develop and document goals for schoolwide SEL implementation and outcomes using the SMARTIE goal-setting process.

Assembling the right team to lead a school-wide effort is key to success. This checklist will provide insight into the many stakeholders you should be keeping in mind.

Student-led social change is not just an extracurricular activity; it is an essential part of education. When students learn how to advocate for themselves and others, they gain skills that will serve them for a lifetime. Let’s commit to creating schools that uplift and empower young leaders, ensuring that their voices are not just heard but acted upon.

Hiring and keeping teachers is tough but crucial. Take action now to attract and retain the talent students need.

A well-designed schoolwide schedule supports equitable learning, fosters well-being, and strengthens your school community.

Embedding school identity in instruction, setting positive expectations, and embracing meaningful change are just some of the educational practices Angela Stevens-Stevenson — former principal at Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School in Pittsburg, California — is both passionate about and experienced with.

Develop a course where students do a community service based project.

There is growing recognition, grounded in research, that effective family engagement can contribute to improved student outcomes and to closing persistent achievement gaps among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and family income levels.

Experts advocate for family engagement as an essential strategy for building the pathway to college and career readiness for all students, as well as an essential component of a systems approach to school turnaround.

Some schools are embracing a comprehensive system based on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This resource walks you through steps to achieve this.

Learn the four thinking styles that you commonly encounter in any work environment. When you are presenting information, each type of thinker tends to be listening for the information that answers the questions they focus on most. You can achieve this with the 7 questions template.

This activity will help you analyze your current recruitment and retention efforts. Developing and nurturing a staff community aligned with your school’s identity and vision is key.

Imagine a classroom where students are no longer racing to keep up with the teacher’s lesson plan, but instead, learning at the pace that works for them—deepening their understanding, exploring their interests, and taking charge of their own progress. This is the promise of purposeful learning with autonomy, where flexibility in pacing and learning style empowers students to thrive.

Being a school leader means dealing with 100 urgent fires every day. It’s so easy to get distracted from the really important work that results in meaningful lasting impact. Here are six strategies that can help you keep the most critical initiatives moving forward no matter what else is going on.

The role of a leader of innovation is not to set a vision and motivate others to follow it. It’s to create a community that is willing and able to innovate. By studying the success of innovative organizations and companies, Linda A. Hill, Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove, and Kent Lineback identified key elements and practices of innovative leaders as well as paradoxes of innovation.

Education needs daring, innovative leaders who are able and willing to forge the way for future generations of students. The ideas and tips provided here can be where you start.

Carmen Gelman, Director of Professional Development at COSA, is all about student voice and equity. She joined Portico for a Crowdsource on December 15, 2022, to share about her experiences leading three high schools across two states.

We had the pleasure of hosting a Crowdsource webinar with Courtney Spelber from the Huntington Beach Union High School District on January 19, 2023. Courtney shared ways to use the start of each year and new term to get started the right way by reinforcing your school’s identity with your students and staff.

Implement programs like Roadtrip Nation to give students the opportunity to explore their interests and aspirations while also building ownership of learning skills.

Teach and model self-care to students to include: time, meditation, yoga, exercise, sleep, creative expression, and more. Adults on campus can openly share how they prioritize their own self-care and how it’s not “selfish” to put your well-being first.

Many schools and districts are struggling to hire and retain talented teachers, with small candidate pools and other constraints. In this Crowdsource Coffee, school leaders shared concerns and best practices for the upcoming hiring cycle.

Provide students time and space for processing major life transitions including the change from middle school to high school and the change from high school to postsecondary education.