The Center for School Study Councils provides three broad strands of technical assistance to superintendents and their affiliated school districts:  

• Customized professional development

• Strategic planning

• Public leadership and community engagement 

Customized Professional Development

The Study Council staff works with affiliated school districts and other educational organizations to develop professional development workshops and restreats to meet identified organizational needs. Sample programs include:  

Workshop Series         

• School Leadership for Community Engagement
• An Appreciative Look at Change
• Positive Psychology: Implications and Applications for Educaitonal Leadership

Organizational Retreats  

• System Thinking and Acting Systemically
• Understanding and Applying Appreciative Inquiry to Leadership Activities

Strategic Planning 

The Study Council staff has adapted a variety of strategic planning models for use with educational organizations.   Those adaptations incorporate aspects of idealized redesign, appreciative planning future search and deliberative planning into more traditional models of strategic planning to create a process that best fits the needs of our clients.

Public Leadership and Community Engagement

Public leadership is an essential component of the superintendency. This leadership goes beyond traditional public relations and beyond making district policies and practices available to parents of children in schools. Given the essential role of parents in the education of the children, parents must be engaged as partners, as co-producers of the educational program. And the demands of public leadership extend beyond parents to the community as a whole. Community residents must be included in the partnership.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Harris Sokoloff, Executive Director
Center for School Study Councils
University of Pennsylvania
215-898-7371