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 reflection.
Traditional professional development remains largely top-down and expert-driven, offering generalized strategies disconnected from leaders’ daily needs and realities. Role-specific Communities of Practice offer a fundamentally different approach: sustained, peer-based collaboration grounded in real problems of practice.
These groups create a structured space to step out of isolation. As Gary Highsmith, Superintendent of Hamden Public Schools, explains, “The superintendency is such a lonely job. You’re the only one doing that job in that district.”
Members of SIIP Network in discussion during monthly meeting.
Communities of Practice are so effective because they create the conditions for leaders to make meaning of their experience with true peers—to test ideas, confront complexity, and refine thinking with others who understand the role.
Trust and Role-Specific Design Make Learning Possible
This kind of learning depends on intentional design. Role-specific Communities of Practice create conditions for honesty and trust that mixed-role settings rarely support.
Kath Serino and Kerry Lord co-facilitate the Systemic Instructional Improvement Program (SIIP), one of Partners’ Communities of Practice. SIIP brings together assistant superintendents and central office leaders focused on system-wide instructional improvement. Members bring authentic problems of practice and use structured protocols to co-construct solutions.
Serino explains that the group, rather than the leader, is responsible for generating the learning: “In a well-designed Community of Practice, you create the conditions. You never know exactly what’s going to happen, but you know it’s going to be good.”
Grounded in Real Work, Not Abstract Training
Because trust and shared context are established, these communities can stay close to the real work of leadership. Unlike episodic professional development, leaders bring current challenges directly into the space, making learning immediately relevant.
Sasha Douglas and Matt Conway in conversation at a Superintendents’ Network meeting.
As Matt Conway, Superintendent of Derby Public Schools and a participant in PEL’s Superintendents’ Network since 2013, explains, “The way they define our monthly learning is in real time, with real issues impacting superintendents in their day-to-day work.”
Conway describes how this has reshaped his leadership: “I used to have a more authoritative approach. Now, I’m more reflective, more compassionate. I’ve learned to go slower to get further faster.” He adds, “If we don’t give others time to digest and reflect, change is not sustainable.”
Shared Learning Builds Coherence and Trust
These communities emphasize continuity over time rather than one-off engagement. Sustained focus on shared problems builds coherence, while repeated interaction strengthens trust.
As Highsmith notes, “Workshops and conferences are good, but you won’t see those people regularly. In the Superintendents’ Network, we take one larger question and work on it through the year, month by month. In both large and small groups, we talk about our ‘big bets’ and how they’re going in order to get feedback and recommendations.”
This ongoing cycle of inquiry allows leaders to revisit challenges, test approaches, and deepen understanding—something traditional conferences and workshops rarely support.
“It’s not done in the typical way; this is so much more intellectual,” Highsmith says. “I don’t know where else you would get this.”
From Reflection to Action: Learning in Practice
Nicole Walsh, Director of Accountability and School Improvement for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS), describes how quickly her experience in SIIP translated into action: “In an opening circle, I brought up a problem of practice I was struggling with. We talked it through, and the group gave me actionable next steps to try.”
She adds, “I didn’t say a word; I just kept writing.”
She emphasizes confidentiality as essential: “There’s a shared understanding of the gravity of confidentiality. If you had people in different roles, they wouldn’t understand the importance.”
Walsh also highlights facilitation and trust. She notes that SIIP leaders Kerry Lord and Kath Serino are excellent listeners and synthesizers. “So, along with everything else,” she says, “you take away facilitation techniques.”
Strengthening Leadership Through Collective Insight
At their best, these communities develop stronger leaders. As Highsmith reflects, “You can’t do this job by yourself because we all get stuck in our heads. I know I have blind spots. I don’t get embarrassed about what people in the group find. I want to know.”
Richard Lemons, executive director of PEL, explains, “A powerful community of leaders, where the optimal conditions are set, creates a magical space—a space where people can admit their insecurities, own their developmental goals, and focus on learning.”
Ultimately, Communities of Practice offer a more sustainable and less isolating model of leadership development that traditional PD. By centering real problems, fostering trust, and supporting ongoing reflection, they provide a critical foundation and sense of community for leaders navigating complexity and striving for coherence in their systems.
