Session 9 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, March 10 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Participants develop the leadership skills that carry a project through people: supporting colleagues, building trust, listening well, giving and receiving feedback, and responding to confusion, resistance, or competing priorities without losing the room.
- Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Resistance is usually information. A colleague who pushes back on a new practice is often telling you something about workload, past initiatives, or a gap in the plan. Leaders without positional authority cannot require compliance, which makes trust the only currency that works. This session is about earning it and keeping it when things get hard.
In this session you will:
- Read resistance for what it is telling you about the plan
- Practice feedback conversations that keep colleagues engaged
- Build trust when you have influence but not authority
- Hold your project’s purpose steady against competing priorities
Sessions 9 through 12 ask how you bring people into the work, communicate its purpose, use feedback, and keep leading after the program ends. This session opens that arc, just before the cohort gathers in person at Spring Forward.
Session 8 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, February 24 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Participants design a realistic path forward for their capstone, weighing workload, timing, available resources, early actions, and the boundaries of their own leadership role, including what can actually happen within 30 days of program completion.
- Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Plenty of strong projects end at the presentation. The difference between a capstone that becomes practice and one that becomes a slide deck is a plan sized to the person carrying it. This session closes the design arc by making each participant commit to first steps they can take with the authority, time, and resources they really have.
In this session you will:
- Set early actions you can complete in the first 30 days after the program
- Match the plan to your workload and the school calendar
- Name the resources you have and the ones you still need to ask for
- Define where your leadership role ends and who you need alongside you
From here the program shifts to its final arc, building support, communicating impact, and sustaining leadership beyond the cohort.
Session 7 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, February 10 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Participants explore how leaders use evidence, feedback, observations, and stakeholder input to make better decisions, with the emphasis on finding evidence that improves the project rather than evidence that proves a point.
- Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Usage numbers tell you what got clicked, not what changed for a student or a teacher. Leaders who want their work to hold up need better evidence than that, and they need it early enough to change course. This session covers where to look, who to ask, and how to fold what you learn back into the design.
In this session you will:
- Decide what evidence would tell you the project is working
- Gather feedback and observations from the people closest to the work
- Use stakeholder input without letting it pull the project off course
- Revise your design based on what the evidence says
Participants apply this directly to their capstone, so they arrive at Session 8 with a design that has already been tested against real input.
The 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort closes on Wednesday, April 14 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT with the Leadership Showcase. Participants present their capstone projects, reflect on how their leadership has changed since October, and learn how to join the CALIE Certified Educator Exchange, a community of innovators and education leaders committed to continued growth, collaboration, and impact.
- Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
The showcase is the first time each participant presents their capstone as the leader of that work, with a plan already in motion and evidence behind it. Graduates leave with a project they can put in front of a principal, a district office, or a hiring committee, and can pursue the optional Advanced Certificate in Leading Innovation in Education through graduate-level extension credits.
In this session you will:
- Present your capstone project and implementation plan
- Reflect on your growth as a leader across the program
- Learn about the optional Advanced Certificate in Leading Innovation in Education
- Join the CALIE Certified Educator Exchange
Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026.
Session 11 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, March 31 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. The session focuses on communication, stakeholder engagement, and building the shared understanding that turns one person’s project into something a school or district owns together.
- Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
A project that lives in one person’s head leaves when that person does. Shared ownership means colleagues, administrators, and sometimes students can explain why the work matters and what their part in it is. This session helps participants plan how they will communicate their capstone, who needs to hear it, and how to invite people in rather than announce at them.
In this session you will:
- Write a plain explanation of your project that a busy colleague can repeat
- Map stakeholders by what they need to hear and when
- Choose engagement moves that build ownership rather than compliance
- Prepare the story you will tell at the Leadership Showcase
This is the last content session before the cohort presents its capstone projects on April 14.
Session 10 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort is an optional in-person gathering at Spring Forward, CALIE’s annual conference in Palm Springs, March 18 to 20, 2027. Every certified educator receives free conference registration, so the cohort can meet face to face, sit in on sessions together, and connect with educators from across California.
- Date: Thursday, March 18, 2027 (Spring Forward runs March 18 to 20)
- Time: Cohort meeting time shared with participants before the conference
- Location: Spring Forward 2027, Palm Springs, California
- Registration: Free for certified educators, included in the program
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Nine sessions in, the cohort knows each other through a screen, and Spring Forward is the one chance to close that gap. Participants can compare capstone progress in person, see the work CALIE members are presenting, and add a March 17 pre-conference workshop if they want one (those are a separate $250 registration). Meeting details for the cohort will be shared closer to the conference.
What is included:
- Free Spring Forward 2027 registration, included in the program
- In-person time with your cohort
- Full access to the Spring Forward conference program
Attendance is optional, and the cohort returns online on March 31 for Session 11.
Session 6 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, January 27 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Participants use systems thinking to examine the conditions that will help or hinder their project, identifying barriers, enabling conditions, resources, people, timelines, and the implementation realities that decide whether a good design survives contact with a school year.
- Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Schools and districts are systems with their own calendars, approval paths, budgets, and habits. A project that ignores them tends to get filed under someday. This session gives participants a way to see their system clearly, find the levers they can reach, and plan around the ones they cannot.
In this session you will:
- Map the system your project lives in, including who decides what
- Separate barriers you can remove from constraints you must design around
- Identify enabling conditions and the people who control them
- Build a timeline that respects testing windows, breaks, and workload
Participants leave with a systems map for their capstone that shapes the evidence work in Session 7 and the implementation plan in Session 8.
The 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort returns from the winter break on Wednesday, January 13 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Session 5 opens the design arc of the program, where participants connect their capstone project to meaningful outcomes for students, educators, or systems and learn how to design for access, participation, usability, and realistic implementation.
- Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2027
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
It is easy to design something that works for the teachers who were already on board. Designing for the students who need it most, the colleagues who are stretched thin, and the constraints that will not go away takes more discipline. Participants come back from the checkpoint with a sharpened challenge and spend this session deciding what their project will actually do for learners and how they will know.
In this session you will:
- Define the outcomes your project is meant to produce and for whom
- Design for access and participation across the full range of learners
- Test usability against the daily reality of a classroom or school
- Set implementation expectations you can meet
Sessions 5 through 8 ask what you are designing, how it supports learning or educator effectiveness, what evidence is shaping it, and how it can be implemented realistically. This session starts that work.
Session 4 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, November 18 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. Participants look at how adults learn, change, and adopt new practices, then apply that to designing support, professional learning, coaching structures, tools, and resources that are realistic for the educators they serve. It is the last session before the winter break.
- Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
A single training day rarely changes what happens in a classroom the following Monday. Adults adopt new practice when the support fits their workload, answers the questions they actually have, and continues past the kickoff. Since almost every capstone in this program depends on other educators changing something, this session is about designing that support so it lands.
In this session you will:
- Understand what moves adults from awareness to changed practice
- Choose the right form of support for your context: coaching, tools, resources, or professional learning
- Design for the time and capacity educators really have
- Plan follow-through that outlasts the first session
After this session the cohort pauses new content for eight weeks. Participants use the December capstone checkpoint to refine their challenge, clarify who is impacted, and sharpen the purpose of their project before the cohort returns on January 13 to begin the design arc.
Session 3 of the 2026-27 CALIE Certified Educator cohort meets Wednesday, November 4 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT. This is where participants move from broad ideas to a clearly defined leadership challenge, learning to separate symptoms from root causes, use early evidence and observations, and explain why the challenge matters.
- Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2026
- Time: 4:00 to 5:30 pm PT
- Location: Virtual (live meeting for enrolled participants)
- Applications: Applications for the 2026-27 cohort close October 14, 2026
- Cost: $2,000 program fee, payable in 1, 2, or 4 installments
- Applying: Free, and nothing is due when you apply
Every educator can name a problem, but naming one that is specific enough to act on and important enough to sustain a year of work is harder than it sounds. Low engagement is a symptom, and the reason behind it is the challenge. This session gives participants a process for getting underneath the first answer and landing on something they can actually move.
In this session you will:
- Distinguish symptoms from root causes in your own context
- Use early evidence and observations to test whether the problem is real
- Write a challenge statement that names who is impacted and why it matters
- Check the scope against the time and influence you have
This session closes the first arc of the program. Participants leave with a working challenge statement that becomes the foundation of their capstone project and the focus of the December checkpoint.
