SEPTEMBER 2023
From the directors
Dear friends and colleagues,
Welcome back from what we hope was a rejuvenating summer.
As we move into the first weeks of the new school year, we’ve added a platform for engaging with and supporting over-burdened school leaders that we hope you’ll find enjoyable and inspiring: our Equity Leadership Now! Podcast.
Equity Leadership Now! is hosted by 21CSLA Leadership Board Chair Jabari Mahiri and will feature an array of prominent scholars and educational leaders talking about innovative and effective ways we can advance equity in schools. Our first episode's conversation with the host, moderated by Professor Robyn Ilten-Gee, launches today. Please listen and share with fellow educators, scholars, and friends.
We’re also excited to share news from 21CSLA Regional Academies that spent the summer bringing together and nurturing leaders across the state.
Thank you for being part of the 21CSLA community. We’re looking forward to the year ahead.
Warmly,
Dr. Rebecca Cheung Director, 21CSLA State Center
Dr. Jabari Mahiri Chair, 21CSLA Leadership Board
Dr. Kim Wallace Associate Director, 21CSLA State Center
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Leadership Board grows with new members
We are excited to announce three new esteemed members of the 21CSLA State Center Leadership Board: UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Professor Rucker C. Johnson, from the Goldman School of Public Policy, and Professor Daniel G. Solórzano and Professor John Rogers, both from the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. “With their longstanding commitment to advance equity, these new members elevate an already-strong group of researchers by adding more scholarly depth and insight to our endeavors in 21CSLA,” said Board Chair Jabari Mahiri, professor at Berkeley School of Education. Other board members include Dr. Annamarie Francois, Associate Dean of Public Engagement at UCLA School of Education and Information Studies and Claudia Martinez, Executive Director of California Subject Matter Project, located at the UC Office of the President.
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Podcast launch: Equity Leadership Now!
Our just-launched Equity Leadership Now! podcast hosts conversations with equity-conscious leaders from pre-K through university settings who transform structures and strategies for educating, particularly for those who are marginalized. We explore their innovative ideas and compelling work to realize individual, social, and environmental justice at the intersection of research, policy, and practice—because our democracy depends on it. Housed in the Leadership Programs at the Berkeley School of Education, we complement its mission and goals as well as those of 21CSLA. Our first episode features Professor Jabari Mahiri, chair of the 21CSLA advisory board and the host of ELN!, interviewed by Robyn Ilten-Gee, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Listen on Spotify, Amazon Music, and more.
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Space still available: New UTK leadership certificate and courses
The UTK Leadership Certificate courses are available to any current Preliminary or Clear Administrative Services Credential candidate. These are free, online, synchronous courses offered through UC Berkeley Extension. Participants receive four units credit along with a certificate upon completion of the two-course series. A few spots are still available—apply by Wednesday, September 13 to join our fall cohort. Learn more about the UTK leadership courses or email us with your questions.
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Digitally Mediated Learning: A series on Ethics and AI
If you’re interested in learning about how we can use the latest digital education trends, tools, and features to advance equity in leadership, join the 21CSLA Alameda Regional Academy in partnership with the State Center for an “Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (AI)” series in 2023–2024, facilitated by Richard Zapien and Jennifer Elemen, with Bay Area education leaders meeting virtually on a monthly basis. Register for the series and learn more about 21CSLA’s Digitally Mediated Learning team.
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Regional Academy Summer Reports
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Alameda Regional Academy
In June, the 21CSLA Alameda Regional Academy hosted its Leading for Justice Summit, “Realizing Justice,” a two-day intensive learning experience with more than 90 leaders from six Bay Area school districts intended to deepen their focus on educational equity. The Summit featured keynote speakers Berkeley Assistant Professor Jason Okonofua and 21CSLA Research Director Aki Murata, who spoke about research that can inform practice to improve leadership for equity. In August, the Alameda Regional Academy also co-hosted with UC Berkeley School Psychology Program a two-day conference—"Social Justice in Schools: Key Practices for More Equitable Outcomes”—featuring Dr. Charles Barrett. Read more about the Summit.
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Kern Regional Academy (Valley to Coast Collaborative)
The Valley to Coast Regional Academy is continuously exploring methods of collecting data related to leader professional learning needs and interests in the areas of leadership, equity, and continuous improvement. This summer the ValCo Regional Academy hosted four large scale, in-person conferences that resulted in hundreds of responses to a newly created formalized needs assessment, which will inform the design of the 23–24 program. See the responses to the needs assessment.
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Placer-Sacramento Regional Academy (Sacramento County Office of Education)
Sacramento County Office of Education’s 21st Century California School Leadership Academy, in collaboration with Creative Leadership Solutions, offered an enhanced regional schedule for Placer-Sacramento leaders at the Equity and Excellence Summit this summer. The focus of the enhanced schedule was to strengthen region leaders’ capacity and focus to lead for equity and continuous improvement. This included a SCOE 21CSLA pre-Summit kick-off, followed by daily small group debriefs facilitated by a SCOE Team Leader, and a post-summit planning session. Read more about Placer-Sacramento.
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San Diego and Riverside Regional Academy
Los Angeles Education Partnership and 21st Century California School Leadership Academy hosted the Learn. Lead. Liberate. conference in Riverside, California on July 27, 2023. The event brought together some 250 educational leaders from across Southern California to learn ways to strengthen liberatory practices and remove barriers in order to foster communities that honor BIPOC students, parents, and staff. Read more about Learn. Lead. Liberate. and watch this video about the event.
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Shasta Regional Academy
Spanning two days in mid-June, NorCal ELC hosted its third annual Summer Leadership Institute spotlighting its ongoing commitment to equity where “Everyone is a Leader.” Kicking off the two-day virtual institute with over 200 educators across the North State region was keynote speaker Dr. Gregory Peters with the San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools. He spoke on “How do we foster a culture of inquiry to systematize and maintain a commitment to equity.” Read more about Shasta.
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Sonoma Regional Academy (Sonoma County Office of Education)
The CA Early Elementary Teaching Pyramid is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach designed to support educators in promoting healthy social-emotional development, establishing preventative practices that assist in preventing challenging behaviors in children, and creating safe and nurturing classroom environments. This year-long opportunity will provide learning experiences for TK–2 educators, including classroom teachers, instructional assistants, Special Education staff, and site administrators. Participants will experience in person learning sessions, facilitated reflective practice and coaching as they engage in classroom implementation. Read more about Sonoma.
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Tulare Regional Academy (Mid-State)
The 21CSLA Mid-State Regional Academy kicked off the summer with an amazing professional learning experience in June. Our 2023 Summer Leadership Retreat: “Continuous Improvement: A Process for Successful District Initiative” was hosted by the Stanislaus County Office of Education. 21CSLA Associate Director Kim Wallace, author of Leading the Launch, took leaders through a ten-stage initiative implementation process to help them lead the charge for change. One participant said: “This was one of the best retreats I have attended.” Read more about Mid-State.
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21CSLA Research: new team members, briefs, and webinars
This summer, the 21CSLA Research team grew to include Alison Munzer and James Wright. We are strategically planning all dimensions of Research Expansion work for Cohort 2 (increasing research collaboration, professional learning lesson study, research-practice partnership, and webinars/briefs), to understand better how educational leaders are learning to lead for equity through 21CSLA professional learning offerings and how their learning is making impacts in PK–12 schools across California. We had two new 21CSLA professional learning briefs published this summer: Online Hate Speech and Teacher Shortage in Universal Transitional Kindergarten. New webinars and briefs topics/schedules for the 2023–24 year will be announced soon. Please stay tuned.
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Welcome Stefanie Baker, Alison Munzer, and James Wright
Stefanie C. Baker is a former LAUSD classroom educator with a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Supporting school leaders nationwide as an urban education scholar allows Dr. Baker to create spaces where students are honored, celebrated, and challenged. Twin-Mom, advocate, and co-conspirator, Stefanie maximizes inherent potential. Joining the 21CSLA team as Coaching Coordinator allows Stefanie to call California home once again.
Alison Munzer is our new 21CSLA Education Researcher. She is a former elementary school teacher who earned her PhD from UCLA and recently completed a postdoc at UC Irvine. She has taught teacher education courses for Chapman University and Alder GSE. Her research interests include culturally sustaining pedagogy (especially in elementary school settings), teacher noticing, and equitable math instruction. Alison is thrilled to stay in the UC network and support 21CSLA.
James Wright joins the 21st Century California School Leadership Academy at Berkeley School of Education, transitioning from his role as an assistant professor in San Diego State University's (SDSU) Department of Educational Leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in K–12 Educational Administration from Michigan State University. With expertise in teaching social justice leadership in doctoral programs, James employs critical policy analysis and coloniality perspectives to reveal entrenched historical inequities in US schools that impede historically marginalized students’ progress.
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More on 21CSLA and leading for equity
The 21st Century California School Leadership Academy provides professional learning opportunities and support to help California’s educational leaders create equitable learning environments to improve instruction and achievement outcomes for underserved students. Headquartered at the UC Berkeley School of Education, 21CSLA is led in partnership with the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, California Subject Matter Project, and seven Regional Academies throughout the state.
Find us at 21cslacenter.berkeley.edu. Connect with us on Twitter @21CSLA, on Instagram @21CSLA, and on LinkedIn at 21st Century California School Leadership Academy. Not a subscriber to 21CSLA News? Join us.
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