School leadership, and particularly the role of the school principal, is an awesome responsibility. The positive impact principals can have on students, staff, and a community as a whole is unquantifiable and has residual impacts that last a lifetime. However, with this responsibility can come a sense of loneliness and isolation. Principals, like all professionals, need and deserve a thought-partner who understands their challenges, who can serve as a non-evaluative "sounding board," and can provide timely, practical counsel. Using the Core 4 Framework, Strategic Education Services provides customized coaching and mentoring designed to meet the unique needs of each school leader.

The term "data-driven" has become a widely used term throughout the education sector. As with all industries, when used appropriately data can act as a powerful conductor of school improvement. Yet, many leaders struggle with discerning through and analyzing data, and this can lead to school leaders being "data rich and information poor." Strategic Education Solutions consults with school leaders to ensure they are able to pinpoint high leverage data points, and helps them to analyze this data in a manner that allows them to glean meaningful insights. To do this, SES works closely with school leaders to help devise systems, structures, and protocols for data review, analysis, and utilization. Equipped with right data analyzed the right way, leaders will be poised to utilize data in a manner that drives desired results.

Leading the school improvement process is among the most important roles associated with school-based leadership. The most effective school leaders understand and fully embrace this notion. Strategic Education Solutions partners will school leaders to support the development of sound and research-based approaches to improvement planning. To do this, SES supports principals in successfully applying the Team Initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) Model. This includes: a) identifying areas in need of improvement, b) developing hypotheses for why these areas are in need of improvement, c) discussing and developing solutions, d) developing and implementing an action plan, and e) evaluating and revising your plan of action. Principals will receive direct support with each step of the process with an intentional focus on achieving marked improvement in their identified areas of need.

The effective design of instructional systems is of central importance to sound instructional leadership, and it is a key lever to achieving quality learning for all students. An effective instructional system design successfully braids together curricular standards and instructional practices and intentionally aligns these practices to assessment criteria. Understanding this, SES engages school leaders in a step-by-step process by which they are supported in developing a framework for instructional systems. These systems are grounded in effective research-based practices aimed at optimizing student learning and school results.