PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SCHOOL AND SYSTEM LEADERS
Leading for Equity: The Essential Leadership Practices
Custom learning sessions, coaching and facilitation for principals, district leaders and leadership teams. Every offering is grounded in NEP's Essential Leadership Practices and the Leading for Equity Framework.
WHAT WE OFFER
Work with us
We partner alongside leaders and teams over time, modeling the equity practices we ask others to adopt. Choose the option that fits where your leaders are today. Not sure? Tell us what you are working on and we will help you find the right fit.
OUR CORE OFFERING, BUILT AROUND YOUR TEAM
School & District Professional Development & Coaching
Custom-designed learning sessions, coaching and facilitation built around the topics your system needs most. This work scales from a single coaching relationship to a sustained, multi-year partnership.
Best for: a principal, a leadership team, or a district ready to build the practices together.
LEARN ALONGSIDE PEERS
Cohort & Network Programs
Programs where leaders learn with peers from other schools and systems, including:
Equity Fellows Cohort for individual leaders
District Redesign Network for district leadership
Communities of Practice for teams across programs, departments or institutions
NEP Alumni Network for leaders and organizations that have partnered with NEP
Best for: leaders who want a learning community beyond their own system.
JOIN ANYTIME
Open Professional Learning
Scheduled learning that any individual can join: self-paced NEP Online courses, open-registration institutes, workshops and webinars, built on the same core equity topics as our custom work.
Best for: getting started with the practices on your own schedule.
THE ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
What this means for leaders
Leading through complexity and uncertainty requires leaders to shift from managing the implementation of plans with pre-determined solutions, to direction-setting and creating the conditions needed for change. Transforming our approach to public education will require leaders who:
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1. See ourselves: self-awareness and self-efficacy
Regularly check in on your own beliefs, biases, and how your background affects your interactions and work with others
Pay attention to your emotions and reactions, and find ways to care for yourself and work through discomfort
Stay grounded in your core values and commitments to young people to guide your actions and decision-making
2. See our system: systems awareness
Gather multiple kinds of data and information - including people's real experiences - to understand what's happening across the system and who isn’t being served well
Distinguish which challenges have known, reliable solutions and which are complex and require learning and adaptation
Look for opportunities to redesign parts of your system, and identify community resources to create better experiences for young people
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3. Build trusting and collaborative relationships
Prioritize listening to people throughout the system, especially young people and families most impacted by inequities
Lead with compassion and empathy to build conditions for increased trust across differences of identity and experience
Invite diverse and dissenting perspectives to ensure representation and to build community
Help yourself and others deal with uncomfortable situations and uncertainty
4. Create conditions for collective agency and innovation
Create environments where people feel cared for and connected as they engage in calibration about high quality instruction, collective meaning-making, innovation and action to improve student experiences and outcomes
Seek out different perspectives and ways of thinking to identify what needs to change and co-create new solutions
Help others develop leadership skills and create opportunities for more diverse leadership, including young people informing decisions
Approach conflict as a necessary part of the work, and support repairing conflict in ways that strengthen relationships
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5. Take actions to learn and adapt
Establish a set of universal goals for all young people in our system (e.g. “all students reading at grade level by 3rd grade”) and collectively develop targeted strategies toward those goals
Work with youth and families to try small actions, test ideas, and check assumptions
Focus on shifting patterns (rather than finding one comprehensive solution), and regularly check progress and make adjustments
Build on what's working –and learn from what isn't– to create system conditions that support lasting change
WHAT IT IS GROUNDED IN
The Leading for Equity Framework
The Essential Leadership Practices come from NEP's Leading for Equity Framework. Drawing on equity, complexity, and design, the framework helps leaders frame their challenges and focus their activities.
EQUITY
Name what is happening
Awareness of systemic oppression and its effects, and the commitment to take on equity challenges.
COMPLEXITY
Match the approach to the problem
Knowing when a problem is simple, complicated or complex, and leading in a way that fits.
DESIGN
Share power to innovate
Human-centered design that brings the people closest to the problem into the decisions.
IMPACT IN YOUR SCHOOLS
What changes when leaders build these practices
For 30 years, NEP has partnered with school and system leaders to lead for equity. In the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years alone, we partnered with 38 districts and systems that serve more than 460,000 students.
Results from a three-year network of 66 district and school leaders, from superintendents to principals and teachers.
100%
of three-year District Redesign Network leaders say the work shaped their equity leadership to a good or great extent.
97%
satisfaction rating from network leaders.
100%
of leaders surveyed said their team got better at disrupting harmful practices.
“I’m more comfortable listening to dissenting views. This has uncovered hidden spots in my leadership and made me stronger.”
100%
of leaders surveyed said their team got better at testing bold ideas.
“You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and that’s the direction that we’re moving in.”
Sources: Leading for Equity self-assessment, Year Two evaluations, team assessments, NCES enrollment data.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Ready to center equity in your leadership?
Tell us about your leaders and what you are working on. We will set up a short conversation and help you find the right fit.
Email us a little about your team and what you are working on.
Together we choose the right fit and design the work