Updated for Back to School 2026.
Congratulations! You’ve ascended to a leadership position in your school or district. And although it seems as if it’s been a long journey to just get to this point, the real work is just beginning!
John F. Kennedy famously said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” To help you along on both paths, we’ve collected here some of the best advice, insight, practices, and tips from education leaders across the country, gathered from our original articles, Regional Leadership Summits, Tech & Learning’s advisors, and Innovative Leader Award winners.
Good luck, you got this!
T&L KEY RESOURCES
- AI Resources for District Leaders
- AI Starter Kit for Teachers
- New Teacher Starter Kit
- Best Tools for Teachers
- Best Hardware for Teachers
LEADERSHIP ADVICE
Tech & Learning regularly features leadership advice and best practices from actual school leaders. Find our most recent leadership articles here.
Tech & Learning's Conversations With Kevin Hogan is a podcast/video series that features engaging, deep-dive conversations with innovative edtech leaders from school districts, industry, researchers, and more.
COMMUNICATION
When Digital Silence Speaks: Email Responsiveness as a Leadership Disposition - 5 practical ways for school leaders to handle email without breaking trust.
4 Ways to Leverage AI to Bridge Cultural Gaps in K-12 Classrooms - By providing personalized learning experiences, enhancing communication and collaboration, and fostering cultural awareness, AI can help bridge gaps.
Why Humans Still Own Writing: A Lesson For School Communities - Writing is one of the most important critical thinking skills to help develop the mind and express creative thought, which AI cannot do.
Rebuilding Trust In School Leadership In An Untrusting World - Trust in leadership is increasingly fragile. School leaders must prioritize rebuilding and maintaining it now, more than ever.
6 Ways For School Leaders to Address “Whispers” - Whispers have the loudest echoes: Stand on the rock, don’t crawl under it.
How to Lead Through Digital Communication - School leaders can demonstrate leadership through their digital communication practices.
Why I Ignore Social Media (Mostly): Advice for School Leaders - Don’t let social media lead you into its toxic swamps.
I Tested Social Media Civility Around A Hot Topic And The Results Will Surprise You - Can online social media platforms foster meaningful exchanges, not toxic destructiveness?
Ohio Is The First State To Mandate School Districts Have A Formal AI Policy. Here’s What Other Districts Can Learn From It - What to consider when developing a formal AI policy, from an Ohio CIO who has been leading the effort to draft his district’s policy.
MANAGING STAFF AND COMMUNITY
Devices Down Is The Wrong Goal - Where the AFT's new 10-point plan gets it right, where it falls short, and why “devices down” is not the path to meaningful learning.
Supporting the Mental Wellness of Teachers in the Year Ahead: 7 Practical Strategies - Teaching teachers to help themselves so they can help their students.
4 Steps School Leaders Can Take To Improve Process Management - Process management is an essential leadership task.
Eyes Wide Shut: Handling Toxic Staff Who Use “Spying” To Disrupt School Culture - By proactively handling negative individuals, school leaders can create a psychologically safe learning environment for everyone.
Managing The Victim Mindset In Teaching - How to not be overpowered by negative, victim mindset by adopting a fair and balanced approach.
Dealing with Difficult Bosses: 3+3 Strategies - Navigating bad leadership starts with practical wellness and protective factors.
Effectively Countering Blame Displacement - By refusing to accept displaced blame, educators can protect their time and energy, and focus on supporting students.
Optimizing Teacher PD with AI - How utilizing the best AI tools, including NotebookLM, can improve teacher performance.
How AI Can Make Graduation Memorable–For The Right Reasons - The best uses of AI in education should help educators and leaders become more thoughtful and prepared.
7 Things School Leaders Can Do To Promote Digital Citizenship in the Community - By prioritizing digital citizenship and literacy, we can prepare our students and their families to navigate the digital world responsibly and safely.
The Role of School Leaders in Ensuring Ethical Technology Use and Data Privacy - As technology continues to expand in education, school leaders need to drive its ethical use and the protection of student data.
Maximizing Existing Technology Before Adding More: What To Know - When education institutions prioritize thoughtful technology use over constant acquisition, they can save resources and build a stronger culture of purpose-driven innovation.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and How to Tell: The Data That Should Drive K–12 Edtech Decisions - District leaders, now more than in years past, are less interested in vendor promises and more focused on evidence that learning took place.
A Tale of Two Struggles: Instilling Resilience In At-Risk Students - How two failing kids fooled the world.
How to Quiet the Hyperactive Hive Mind in Schools - School leaders need to identify and quell toxic groupthink that can lead to a hyperactive hive mind that impairs everyone.
5 Steps to Developing an Unbeatable IT Leadership Team - Having a strong IT leadership team is essential to successfully supporting your entire school community.
I Used An Edcamp to Educate My Teaching Staff on AI Tools. Here’s How You Can Do It Too - Using an edcamp can be a powerful way to invigorate and engage your teaching staff.
Reimaginine Learning Spaces to Empower Students - If we want to prepare students for tomorrow, we have to provide access to the tools of today
3 Tips to Advocate for Teachers - Here are simple ways to support your teachers when they feel attacked by the small percentage of critics who carry the loudest megaphones.
Creativity Unleashed: Using An Observed Behavior Chart to Limit Disruptions - Being creative and finding your why can lead to classroom solutions such as using an observed behavior chart with disruptive students.
How School Leaders Can Address the Inequities of the AI Digital Divide - As AI becomes more integrated into schools, it's going to be up to school leaders to make sure it is equitable.
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
A Day In The Life Of A Principal Using AI - How one school principal uses AI to save time on administrative tasks that can be better spent with students and staff.
The 2-Minute Story That Saved My Career: How Storytelling Can Be The Most Effective Form of Feedback - By harnessing the power of story, school leaders can create a culture in which feedback is embraced as an essential ingredient for growth.
Elevating the Classroom: A Blueprint for Strategic AI Integration and Student Empowerment - Practical advice for district leaders implementing AI in their district.
AI, Education, and The Law: A Practitioner's Guide - Understanding the ethics and legal implications around the use of AI in schools is becoming increasingly critical for school leaders.
6 Digital Pet Peeves I Notice in Schools - A school leader’s poor digital habits can create more unnecessary work and confusion for everyone.
The Difference Between Average And Remarkable Leadership - Well-delivered, constructive feedback is critical to leadership success.
Strategic School Planning for Fall: 11 Key Considerations for Leaders - In a time of rapid change, strategic planning must be both rigorous and responsive, and the most successful leaders will be those who can achieve that balance.
In An AI Classroom, Content Knowledge Matters More Than Ever - Strong instruction in an AI-rich classroom depends on strong content knowledge.
Human Judgment Still Matters in an Era of AI-Powered Data Analysis - Human judgment is a critical factor in making data-informed learning decisions.
9 Ways School Leaders Can Use AI - Effective ways that building leaders can use AI tools to improve their leadership.
10 Ways Educators Can Use AI to Streamline Daily Life - By offloading some of the daily mental tasks to AI, you can save time and free up brainpower for the things that matter most.
3 Key Concepts Education Leaders Need To Understand About Technology - Organizational leaders must develop a strong foundational understanding of how technology influences strategic and operational decisions.
The Power of Humility: Why Egoless Leadership Helps Schools Thrive - Leaders who embrace humility often have more success than those who follow their egos.
School Leadership: How to Make Lemonade - School leaders who find ways to turn obstacles into opportunities help everyone win.
Lifelong Learning: Modeling for Students and Faculty - By being a lifelong learner, an education leader can create a win-win opportunity.
T&L LEADERSHIP EVENTS
Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits - The Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits bring together Superintendents, CTOs, CAOs, and Instructional and Tech District Leaders to share ideas, best practices, and solutions to help to reshape and reimagine the future of education. Each free to attend Tech & Learning Leadership Summit focuses on the unique needs of the region to give attendees the valuable insight they need to develop action plans.
When Educators Talk, You Should Listen: A Report from the EdExec Summit - This year's Tech & Learning EdExec Summit was all about making sure the educator's voice was heard.
From AI to Career Identity: How Northeast Leaders Are Redefining Student Success - At the heart of the inaugural pre-NYSCATE Tech & Learning Leadership Summit conversations was the student, with an eye on how district leaders can best prepare them for an unknown future workforce.
Midwest 2024: Regional Leadership Summit Report - Bringing together district leaders and service agencies for a deep dive into what it means to teach in the age of AI.
AI, Absenteeism, Cybersecurity, and More at the Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit in New England - Forward-thinking educators collaborated during a day of information sharing, fact finding, and a bit of entertainment at the Tech & Learning Summit in Boston.
The View from Utah: Leadership, Innovation, and Learning - The recent Tech & Learning regional leadership summit offered a great opportunity for education leaders to network, learn, and collaborate.
Immersive Learning, Networking, Model Schools, and More at the DMV Regional Leadership Summit - District and school leaders engaged in an immersive professional learning experience at the Tech & Learning regional leadership summit in Baltimore.
INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP
As part of our Regional Live Summits, Tech & Learning recognizes exceptional district administrators in select regions around the country who are leading innovation in their schools with Innovative Leader Awards. These recognize district leaders who are reimagining and reinventing education by developing and launching unique and forward-thinking programs, policies, and best practices that have shown to have a positive impact and are also replicable at other districts.
Find profiles of and best practices from our most recent Innovative Leader Award winners here.
Here is a sampling:
Creating 5 Pillars To Guide AI Use In Your District - Director of Information Technology Kadion Phillips discusses implementing AI in a school district as well as how to bolster cybersecurity.
Thoughtfully Leveraging AI To Improve Learning Outcomes, Efficiency, And More - Matt Kuhn of Volusia County Schools shares how his district has implemented AI for use by students, staff, and leaders.
Organizing And Running A Tech Camp For Teachers PD Event - Four tips (and more!) for starting your own Tech Camp for Teachers professional development event, from Eva Harvell
5 Tips For Superintendents To Use Tech To Serve Your District - Advice that any superintendent can follow to get the most out of education technology.
5 Tips To Launching A Cyber Champions Program - Dr. Shanique Worthey discusses her impressive Cyber Champions program and shares how to launch a similar digital citizenship program in your district.
The Importance of Working With (Not Through) Technology - Just simply embracing education technology is not enough for positively impacting learning outcomes.
How to Integrate AI Policies Into Professional Development Programs - Providing an emphasized outlook on professional development in regards to technology and, more specifically, artificial intelligence.
How AI Can Help Support Administrative Processes for Educators - Adding AI to a school’s administrative systems can help save both time and money.
How A Two-Pronged Approach Helped To Protect Student (and Staff) Data - One district has gone about protecting school and staff data by addressing the issue in two distinct ways.
Creating A Comprehensive Cybersecurity Plan For Schools - How to develop and implement a district-wide cybersecurity plan that includes regular staff training and more secure storage solutions.
Gamifying Cybersecurity Training - By gamifying cybersecurity training, you can increase engagement and the retention of best practices, ultimately increasing your district’s safety.
Building Equity Through Next Generation Science Standards - How one district is addressing DEI while implementing NGSS.
Best Practices for Launching a Digital Curriculum at Scale - Lessons from launching a digital curriculum for Chicago Public Schools.
