Superintendent turnover is often described as inevitable—but the current level of churn is not simply a feature of the role. It is a signal. When superintendents leave at elevated rates, it reflects a misalignment between the demands of the position and the conditions districts create for leaders to succeed. If districts want sustained improvement, they cannot focus only on hiring strong leaders; they need to build the governance, support, and coherence that make it possible for those leaders to stay.
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Participants work on group activity during monthly ILC meeting. Educational leaders are expected to respond to pressing challenges with speed and certainty. But the work of leadership is too complex to rely on individual expertise alone. What leaders need is not just new information, but practical wisdom—developed through reflection, experience, and dialogue with others facing similar challenges. Yet the most consequential aspects of leadership, like establishing coherence, navigating political tension, and sustaining instructional improvement, depend on ongoing, context-specific
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On May 12th, PEL co-authors Tom Nobili, Isobel Stevenson, and Andrew Volkert gathered with family, friends, and colleagues at Elicit Brewing in Manchester to celebrate the launch of their new book, Maximizing Opportunity to Learn: A Guide for Equitable and Ambitious Instruction. The event served as both a celebration and a call to action, bringing together a community of educators committed to improving outcomes for all students. At a time when educators continue to confront persistent inequities, this book offers
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Kath Serino, Partners associate and co-facilitator of the Systemic Instructional Improvement Program (SIIP), is less interested in quick fixes than in better questions. That instinct traces back to a childhood shaped by both structure and adventure. She grew up in Plainville, Connecticut, one of eight siblings in a household where conversation was constant and ideas mattered. Her father was a math professor and textbook author; her mother later became a professor as well. Learning wasn’t confined to school—it showed up
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Superintendents are moving from reaction to strategy—building systems that guide responsible, values-driven adoption   When a group of superintendents recently gathered to discuss artificial intelligence, the conversation quickly moved beyond the technology itself. What emerged instead was a deeper leadership question: who will shape how AI enters our schools—and what values will guide its use? Just two years after the public release of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has moved from a classroom curiosity—often framed as a concern about student cheating—to a
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Superintendent Alex Estrella speaking with a student Norwalk Public Schools is turning heads—and for good reason. Recent gains in SBAC scores and graduation rates, along with state and national recognition of Superintendent Dr. Alex Estrella, have put the district in the spotlight. But this progress is not a quick turnaround story—it reflects deliberate, coherent work over time. As Partners for Educational Leadership Executive Director Richard Lemons observes, “Norwalk is on an important journey, and evidence suggests it is
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In recognition of Women's History Month, women leaders at PEL share reflections    PEL Staff & Associates (from left to right): Amber Ortiz, Bridget Nahabedian, Patrice Nelson, Tisha Markette, Kathryn Serino, Kerry Lord, Betty Feser, Kelly Lyman Each March, Women's History Month invites us to celebrate the impact of women leaders while also acknowledging the challenges they continue to navigate. In education, women make up the majority of the workforce yet remain underrepresented in top leadership roles. The
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Tom presenting at PEL's Next Level Instructional Leadership Workshop in Providence, RI - March 2025 PEL Staff Associate Tom Nobili didn’t set out to become an educator. Growing up in Trumbull, Connecticut, his father was a CPA, his mother a legal assistant for the Stratford town attorney, and Tom—sandwiched between an older sister and a younger brother—was the only one who would eventually choose education as a career path. Tom had always gravitated toward working with children—camps, clinics,
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Peter Liljedahl working with participants at workshop in CT - Fall 2025 On a gray Connecticut morning in September at Manchester High School, about 60 educators filed into a large professional development room, defined by small tables, large windows, and walls adorned with dry-erase boards. Within minutes, they were on their feet, huddled around Peter Liljedahl (founder of Building Thinking Classrooms—BTC), who was hooking them with a story and a challenging task.  As people stood in random triads,
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Kerry Lord (right) and Isobel Stevenson (left) model a coaching conversation for participants. At Partners for Educational Leadership, coaching isn’t a standalone service—it’s a way of being. Whether the focus is instructional leadership, system improvement, or equity-centered design, a “coaching stance” underpins every interaction. Richard Lemons, Executive Director at Partners, says coaching is really at the heart of how the organization does what it does. “It’s not something we simply offer as a service; it’s the backbone of
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