CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Center for Educational Leadership

We define leadership as the collective capacity to continually improve the sphere of student success, the number of students for whom current practices are working. The Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) promotes research, training and the development, testing and spread of effective practices that serve this end.

CEL is grounded in the Scaffolded Apprenticeship Model of school improvement through leadership development (SAM), which was co-developed by Liz Gewirtzman and Nell Scharff Panero at the Baruch College School of Public Affairs in collaboration with New Visions for Public Schools. The model—piloted in 2005 and refined based on evidence from formative evaluation and practice-based research over six iterations—forms the basis of Baruch’s current school leadership certification program (SAM Citywide) and building- and district-level school improvement initiatives in NYC, Boston, Oakland and beyond.