Who We Serve

Center for Evaluation and Educational Leadership serves district and building level leaders across the state of Kansas.

School districts in Kansas have the opportunity to engage in a variety of professional development opportunities at the teacher, building, and district levels, from teaching and learning strategies to instructional leadership and financial planning. These opportunities are provided by a host of organizations that the district can select from, including educational service centers, the Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas Association of School Boards, Kansas National Education Association, and the United School Administrators. There is also a principal and superintendent mentoring program at Kansas State University that mentors building and district leaders in their first two years on the job.

The majority of the professional development opportunities for school leaders is delivered in large group settings where the focus is on the group of leaders and not tailored for the individual leader or local district. In this model, the principal or superintendent is then tasked with taking the information back to the local district for implementation. While this may be of value, it does not fill a current need at the local district level. In addition, there are times when school and district leaders would like to be a part of their team and have an outside organization, such as CEEL, conduct a local needs assessment, provide recommendations for consideration, and personalize leadership activities for the district.

What is currently missing from the support services for a school district is to have a team of experts come to the district and work one-on-one with the local leadership team to accomplish a variety of objectives. The types of customized leadership support programs could include guiding the district through a comprehensive needs assessment process, providing strategic planning trainings, developing a district strategic plan implementation model, creating guidance on developing positive school cultures and climates, and organizing community engagement input and activities.