CALSA Summer Institute 2025

Women tend to shy away from sharing our personal lives in the workplace due to cultural and gender stereotypes we want to avoid. Despite this, people make generalization and assumption about us regardless of how we speak, how we look, etc. This session explores how sharing our stories with each other builds a kinship within the workplace that provides strength, mentorship, and common ground for a more balanced opportunity to lead authentically.

School systems thrive when we intentionally develop and nurture leadership potential from within. This session will highlight an internal leadership development model designed to grow assistant principals through purposeful collaboration, mentorship, and experiential learning. Participants will explore how our Assistant Principal Cohort fosters leadership readiness by engaging in School Culture Walkthroughs, Professional Learning Communities, and Critical Friends protocols.
We will share how creating structured leadership pathways supports succession planning, builds stronger leadership pipelines, and strengthens school culture districtwide. The session will feature a dynamic panel of current and former Assistant Principals who will share their growth journeys, mentorship experiences, and how the cohort model helped prepare them for higher leadership roles, including principalships. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to implement or refine district leadership development structures.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will:
Understand key practices for building internal leadership capacity among assistant principals.
Learn how collaborative models (culture walkthroughs, PLCs, critical friends protocols) support leadership growth.
Hear authentic experiences from cohort participants and how mentorship accelerated their leadership trajectory.
Gain strategies to create or enhance leadership development and mentorship programs within their own districts.

This interactive workshop addresses the critical issue of disproportionality of Latino students in special education while focusing on creating sustainable and transformative change through the implementation of high-leverage strategies within Universal Design for Learning (UDL) frameworks. In California, where Latinx students represent more than half of the public school population, 61 Local Educational Agencies were found significantly disproportionate for Latino students in special education during 2018-2019, primarily in the area of Specific Learning Disability (CDE, 2020). In 2023-24, nearly 60% of Students with Disabilities in California were identified as Latino. Participants will explore culturally responsive evidence-based practices for co-teaching models, develop skills in designing expected measurable outcomes (EMOs), and gain practical knowledge of effective Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions that create lasting impact for Latino students and other diverse learners.

I want to spotlight a program that is bridging the digital divide for minority students. By teaching coding and providing support to both students and their families in today’s digital world, we can close the gap and foster a more equitable, culturally relevant future for all students.

This session will explore strategies and approaches to ensure that English Learners are not misidentified as students in need of special education unless appropriate. Presenters will outline a process that could be used to carefully consider if an EL should be exited from special education services.

Did you know that 40% of students report having persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness?1 
Building a community of belonging is one of the primary ways to address student wellness and increasing access to healthcare improves the feeling of connectedness. 
Join us as we talk with Dr. Vivian Ekchian, Retired Superintendent of Glendale Unified School District and Hazel Health advisor, and current Hazel Health partner school districts, about the critical supports that schools can provide to promote the mental and physical wellness of our TK-12th grade students. 
This session will highlight school-based wellness initiatives, clinical data, and an interactive fireside chat with the facilitators. 

As educational leaders we are challenged with the critical work of empowering school teams to ensure equity and support the whole child to succeed. The timeliness and individualization of interventions can make all the difference in guiding our school teams to help students realize their potential. Join me for an interactive workshop designed to help school level administrators work with school teams to harness the power of AI tools to better support the students who need us most. We will explore and practice ways to use AI tools to more efficiently identify students for targeted interventions using data sets, develop lessons for Tier 1 interventions, and materials to support or establish Tier 2 and 3 interventions. Come with a laptop and data, ideas for teacher professional learning or student interventions.