You Envision a Great School Year Ahead. How Do You Make It Come to Life?

How do schools create instructional plans and goals that lead to sustained student success? At NIET’s 2026 Summer Institute in Indianapolis, educators built their next steps off a common theme: Coherence. After an insightful and invigorating two days, instructional teams examined how schools can create alignment between district priorities, coaching, and classroom instruction. 

While every school is different, we know that sustained improvement begins with aligned leadership, turning vision into strategic action, and supporting robust coaching for every level of teacher. As Instructional Leadership Teams prepare for the upcoming year, three pillars can help transform planning into practice:

Coherence Starts With Aligned Leadership

Step one for any Instructional Leadership Team is to establish clear shared goals for the upcoming school year. NSI opened with an emphasis on the importance of leadership alignment during a featured discussion between George Washington High School Principal Dr. Stanley Law from Indianapolis Public Schools and NIET Chief Executive Officer Dr. Joshua Barnett. 

As the principal of a 2026 NIET School of Promise, Dr. Law reflected on how his school transformed leadership structures by shifting conversations toward student learning and data analysis. He also emphasized that strong leadership is about the quality of the instructional improvement that stems from leadership teams, and not the quantity of people at the table. 

“The leadership team is not about how many people you have on teams,” Dr. Law said. “It's the effectiveness of the impact of that particular position.”

Turning Vision Into Practice With Teacher Leadership

Once teams establish a collective vision and goals for the upcoming school year, collaborative professional learning moments like those at NSI provide the opportunity to map out how teacher leaders could bridge district priorities and classroom practice. For Executive Master Teacher and former NIET Fellow Latonzia Beavers in Natchitoches Parish Schools, this process begins with her ensuring she is “never above the work.” 

“There should be an alignment between what we see happening at school, all the way to the district level. Our teachers don't see me as an 'outside' person; they just see me in the classroom helping them. So I try to ensure I’m with them to create coherence from the district all the way down to the school level.”

Beavers' role shows the firsthand impact of leaders remaining connected to the classroom. Student work analysis, professional learning meetings, and lesson planning are most powerful when examined and used to inform decisions at every level of the school system. These steps help Instructional Leadership Teams stay agile and responsive to changing needs in the classroom and approach them together. 

Strong Coaching Sustains Excellence

A spotlight moment during the summer institute’s opening session featured Dr. Barnett’s timely basketball analogy. In championship teams, much like strong school systems, each player in each position understands their place in the overall strategy of the “game,” and how their work supports and builds off each other. 

Educators and leaders can prepare themselves for a cohesive and committed school year with internal planning for student success that happens before school even begins, sustained responsiveness to ongoing school challenges and needs, and the enduring belief that even the best players need coaches.

“The best players in the world are receiving the most coaching of their career,” said Dr. Barnett. “We think the same level of investment that we would put into other industries that generate excellence is the same level of coaching and support we should put into every school and every classroom. Leaders also need coaches. They need individuals to provide feedback. They need opportunities to collaborate and grow.”

When districts expand their coaching capacity through teacher leadership and feedback cycles, support is extended to all levels of educators, continuing to drive growth even at the highest levels.

What resonated most with teams at NSI was the immediate benefit of exploring each of these opportunities moving into their school year and applying them to their unique district or school context. Generating classroom excellence starts in the summer by fostering collective responsibility in instructional teams, aligning priorities across school levels, and prioritizing coaching for all from day one.