Communities of Practice

Looking to join a Community of Practice? Find your Regional Academy here.

21CSLA Regional Academy Communities of Practice provide a space for leaders in similar roles to come together to engage in conversation around equity-centered problems of practice. Using continuous improvement principles, members of the Community work collaboratively to address shared problems, build individual leadership capacity, and respond to systemic educational inequities.

The focus and membership of 21CSLA Communities of Practice (CoPs) vary by location, context, and local interest. Some CoPs are organized by role, such as those for teacher leaders, school site leaders, and district administrators. Other CoPs are focused on particular topics, such as the use of AI in schools, Universal Transitional Kindergarten, or Ethnic Studies. Still others are organized as affinity groups for leaders, such as those for African American, Asian American Pacific Islander, Latinx, and White Anti-Racist leaders.

Participation in 21CSLA Communities of Practice is offered to TK–12 educational leaders at no cost to the participants.

To find out about 21CSLA Communities of Practice opportunities in your area, check out the current CoP offerings from the Regional Academy in your area.

For more information about 21CSLA’s Community of Practice work, including its research base, see Area 6 (pages 30–34) in our most recent Guidance Document.

Area 6: Communities of Practice

Facilitate small, sustained, and role-alike professional learning cohorts grounded in leadership for equity and improvement science.

Participant Testimonials

“It meant so much to have this space, to share and hear other site leaders’ struggles, and be honest about the challenges we are facing. In fact, this has been the only place I could be vulnerable for the last several weeks.”

“I admired the process we went through with the Community of Practice. We told our superintendent about this, and the process we went through, and how we can use that for other things in the district in the future. That was a good learning experience.”