Placer-Sacramento Regional Academy Spotlight

April 28, 2023

As we rush toward the end of the first three-year cycle of 21CSLA Cohort 1, we are pleased to share that we are ending on a high note. We’ve had many great successes with highlights that include:

  • Creation of a strong and effective regional structure that supported shared leadership, visioning, and facilitation of program development that has established 21CSLA as the premier leadership development program in the region.
  • Development and implementation of our guiding principles and frameworks including the SCOE 21CSLA Leadership Pillars and our leadership framework, Five Key Practices of Effective School and District Leaders.

We have met and exceeded all program deliverables for Year 3 (2022–2023) and are excited to deepen and expand our professional learning opportunities with the goal of developing our region’s capacity to lead for equity and continuous improvement.

Spring Professional Learning Events

The Placer-Sacramento Regional Academy (SCOE 21CSLA) facilitated two very successful in-person professional learning events this spring focused on supporting leaders in leading effective change initiatives and in creating the vision for and leadership to build equitable UTK classrooms.

Deep Change Leadership with Dr. Doug Reeves

SCOE 21CSLA offered a two-day intensive professional learning event where school teams and individual leaders focused on the elements of effective change leadership to support more equitable outcomes across their schools and systems.

Teams identified a specific challenge directly related to their classroom, school, or district, and created a written change plan for immediate implementation. The content included an examination of why most change initiatives fail and how leaders and teams can avoid these mistakes. In addition, the evidence on short-term wins propelling long-term goals is essential for staff morale and for mainlining focus and energy behind the desired change. A unique feature of the Deep Change Leadership plan is the “not to do” list, clearing time and resources for the most important change that schools and districts need now. Additionally, plans reinforced the focus on equity and continuous improvement across systems. In addition to the on-site seminar, the facilitators continued to provide one-to-one feedback and support for the implementation of the change plan, guidance on how to deal with resistance to the proposed change, and support for bringing focus and clarity to the change process.

Dr. Reeves was able to skillfully thread the research on effective change leadership, the impediments to change, and accelerating change throughout the two days in a way that was aligned to each team and individual’s change plan. SCOE 21CSLA is currently planning a follow-up event with participants this summer to review the impact and plan next steps.

Envisioning and Leading Equitable UTK Classrooms (Pilot) hosted by the 21CSLA Center’s UTK Team

In partnership with our 14 COE’s in the region, SCOE 21CSLA developed an extensive UTK leadership database to support recruitment of a broad range of leaders and leadership contexts that represented the Placer-Sacramento Region. 51 teacher, site, and district leaders attended the two-day pilot of two new UTK modules:

  • Leadership Practices to Support, Integrate and Align UTK
  • Leading Equitable UTK Classrooms That Foster Social Emotional Development

Led by the 21CSLA State Center’s UTK team, the content truly met session participants “where they were” in terms of their knowledge and development around building, implementing, and nurturing high-quality UTK classrooms and the leader’s role in making that happen. Through an engaging and highly interactive format, participants explored the research, delved into issues of equity, learned about the role of play and social-emotional learning and how schools can ready their systems and teams to support all students as they enter UTK and school. Session evaluations were very strong, and feedback built our region’s understanding of what the region and individual schools, LEAs, and COE’s need next.

The opportunity supported building a foundation and network for UTK implementation and leadership across the region that SCOE 21CSLA plans to capitalize on as we develop Cohort 2 offerings and partnership.