November 16-18, 2026| Boston, MA, USA | Conference Website| Hotel | Contact us Please note the schedule is subject to change. Details are updated regularly to reflect the latest information.
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Students and teachers need clear guidance on how and when to use AI in education. At the same time, the guidance must be flexible enough to meet the specific needs of academic departments and grade levels. In this session, we will share the process by which our district created AI guidance that aligns with our core values and responds to a broad range of viewpoints within our school community. The session will include a Socratic Seminar, which is a collaborative instructional practice in our district and one of our key methods for gathering input on AI. Participants will leave the session with practical strategies for creating district-level AI guidance in the form of infographics, websites, and classroom messaging.
Director of Professional Development and Innovation, Cape Cod Collaborative
Dr. Sonia Tellier earned her B.A. in English along with a minor in Secondary Education in 2001 from Bridgewater State University. Sonia began teaching at Falmouth High School later that year in September. She then earned her Masters in Educational Leadership in 2005 from Bridgewater... Read More →
How can schools leverage summer and auxiliary programs to advance both mission and margin? SPARC Advisors David Sullivan and Bob Rojee will share national trends, growth strategies, and best practices for building sustainable auxiliary programs that strengthen enrollment, maximize campus assets, and expand institutional reach. St. Mark’s School Director of Auxiliary Programs & Operational Excellence Kristi Jacobi will share how St. Mark’s transformed its summer programming from a start-up initiative into a thriving enterprise in just three years. Attendees will also learn how creating a dedicated auxiliary leadership team elevated programming across the school through innovation, operational excellence, and community engagement. Participants will leave with practical strategies for developing mission-aligned, financially sustainable summer and auxiliary programs.
Director of Operations & Auxiliary Programs, St. Mark's School
Educator. Camp Aficionado. Seeker of Joy. Lover of all things Logistical. 25+ years of experience in the summer camp/out-of-school time/enrichment/non-profit world. I find my flow doing whatever I can to support other people having their best experience - from concept to clean-up... Read More →
David began his career in education as an instructor, then Director, at Explo and later was on the faculty at Milton Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon School. For the last 23 of his 36 year career, he led The Brooklin School and Breakwater Learning, the latter being an educational... Read More →
Tuesday November 17, 2026 10:50am - 11:50am EST TBA
Work-based learning (WBL) is a powerful opportunity, but schools often struggle to ensure every student has a consistent, meaningful experience. This session shares a practical WBL seminar model designed to bring clarity and purpose to workplace learning.
Built as a two-part seminar in the junior and senior year, the model uses a restorative, discussion-based format where students reflect on real workplace situations, learn from peers across trades, and build skills they can apply immediately. The focus is on communication, accountability, problem solving, and professional behavior.
Participants will see how this seminar connects classroom expectations with real-world learning, creating a more aligned and measurable system. Attendees will leave with a clear, usable structure they can adapt in their own schools.
Schools spend significant time developing strategic plans, competencies, goals, accreditation reports, innovation initiatives, and improvement frameworks. However, the true success of a strategy is not measured by the quality of the document itself, but by whether students actually experience its values and priorities in their everyday learning.
This session explores how school leaders can create coherence between vision,leadership decisions,learning design, wellbeing, professional culture, technology integration, and student experience.
The session is grounded in one essential question: “Can students feel our strategy in the way they learn every day?”
School staff spend significant time answering parent and student questions, much of it repetitive and often outside regular school hours. This creates strain on teams and can lead to inconsistent information for families.
In this session, we’ll share how schools around the world are using website chatbots to manage high volumes of routine inquiries while improving responsiveness and consistency. You’ll see what chatbots can realistically handle, from daily school life questions to admissions and support requests, and how they provide accessible, multilingual support for diverse communities.
We’ll also explore how chatbot data provides clear insight into what families are actually asking. This helps schools identify content gaps, reduce friction, and continuously improve how they communicate and engage with their community.
Leaders often judge effectiveness through plans and outcomes. Students, however, experience leadership through the clarity of expectations, the consistency of learning, and the coherence of adult practice across their school.
This session explores leadership alignment through the lens of student experience. Grounded in the NEASC Framework for High Quality Learning, it considers how leadership decisions related to strategy, culture, and routines are felt, often invisibly, in classrooms. When leadership is aligned, students experience coherence and purpose.
Drawing on their own experience, participants will examine how leadership behaviors shape the conditions of daily learning and consider student experience as a design constraint for leadership decisions. Participants will leave with practical ways to use student perspective to strengthen leadership coherence.
The session will engage participants in exploring how a shared understanding of high quality learning, grounded in NEASC ACE Learning Principles, can centre school communities. Participants will consider the benefits of simplifying complex guiding statements into intentional, mission aligned, learner impacts that represent their graduate profile. They will reflect on how school learning and operational systems can be aligned to produce a culture united around measurable student growth that provides concrete evidence of their unique selling points.
As Finance and Operations Director at Waring School, Will Potter faced a familiar challenge: years of deferred technology maintenance, an overstretched IT department, and accumulated tech debt that left the school operationally vulnerable. What began as a needs assessment with OunceIT quickly evolved into a strategic opportunity to free up leadership capacity, reduce institutional risk, and help the school's educational mission to thrive. In this session, Will and OunceIT CEO Jeremy Angoff will share that journey: the decisions made, the turning points, and the lessons learned. Through discussion, Q&A, and reflection, participants will apply this case study to their own schools, leave with a better understanding of their institution's operational readiness and a clearer sense of how sound operations serve students.
Schools have moved fast on AI intent, with policies, vision statements, and pilots. Less has been done to measure impact or understand how students are experiencing AI: 81% of teachers say their school has an AI policy, but only 4-8% describe it as clear, and most students don't know what it is (Frontier, 2025; Challenge Success).
This session opens with a panel of students from Boston College High and Notre Dame Academy. Leaders will hear how AI shows up in students' experience of school, including access gaps, fairness, where AI deepens learning versus shortcuts thinking, and how AI is reshaping motivation and trust. Participants pair the panel with research from Harvard's Center for Digital Thriving, Stanford's Challenge Success, and Brookings, and close by identifying one move to take back.
Many schools speak powerfully about preparing students with transferable skills that matter in college and beyond, yet turning these aspirations into measurable outcomes remains a challenge. How can we move beyond rhetoric to evidence? How can we be accountable, internally and externally, for the skills we claim to cultivate?
Our panel of leaders from public, independent and international schools will share how we emphasize the transferable skills necessary for student success using skills-based portfolios. We will discuss how we define and operationalize durable skills in the life of the school. Whether using tools like the MTC Learning Record or some other method, we aspire to track growth, document evidence, and communicate progress to students, families, and colleges. Participants will discuss the challenges and opportunities of this work with one another and with the panelists.
Mary Anne Moran is Co-Principal of Nipmuc Regional High School. She began her career as an elementary educator and quickly made her way to the secondary level. She has been a member of the Nipmuc community for the last 22 years transitioning to the role of assistant principal 13 years... Read More →
John Clements is Co-Principal of Nipmuc Regional High School. He began his career at Nipmuc 26 years ago as an English teacher and has been an administrator at Nipmuc for 21 years, the past 14 as principal. John is a believer in the capacity of students, teachers, and school communities... Read More →
This interactive session demonstrates how leaders can move from strategic intent to measurable impact by aligning systems, stakeholder voice, and professional learning. Facilitators will share how focus groups with students, faculty, and community members informed the creation of a strategic plan and Vision of the Graduate. Participants will examine how this work led to a three-year, cohort based professional learning pathway model providing sustained learning led by internal educators and external partners, including Throughline Learning. Pathways included Reaching and Teaching All Learners, Building Thinking Classrooms, Integrating Technology, Social Emotional Learning, and Paraprofessional Training. Through reflection, discussion, and planning activities, attendees will design structures for inclusive strategic planning and aligned professional learning within their own schools.
In the dynamic landscape of education, the use of data has become increasingly vital in shaping effective strategies to support student engagement and well-being.
Participants will embark on a journey of discovery, learning how the student engagement and well-being team at Millbrook School has both harnessed the power of existing data and innovated new streams of data to gain a deeper understanding of their students’ needs and challenges, ultimately paving the way for the development of more targeted interventions and personalized support via collaboration with UPenn's Master of Applied Positive Psychology program.
Attendees will explore various techniques for mining and analyzing data to identify patterns, trends, and correlations related to student engagement and well-being at Millbrook and in their own school community.
LCSW; Director of Affective Education, Millbrook School
Billy Thom, LMSW, is a twelve year veteran of education practicing as a basketball coach, teacher, private and school-based licensed social worker, and public speaker. Working at Davidson College and Millbrook School over the past twelve years, Billy has coached in the NCAA tournament... Read More →
How can school leaders transform the intent of global citizenship into tangible learner impact? In this interactive session, leaders from Brewster demonstrate how to align institutional vision with daily practice by leveraging cross-campus networks and local environments to deepen student agency. Presenters will showcase how they move beyond traditional student exchanges and share strategies on transforming abstract global concepts into impactful opportunities rooted in local communities. Participants will engage in collaborative activities to analyze their own school’s regional and institutional assets and attendees will leave with a practical framework for auditing partnerships, strategies to shift from measuring experiential "inputs" to learning "impacts," and a toolkit for purposeful, community-connected learning opportunities that directly align with the NEASC Framework.
At Cardinal Spellman High School, leaders launched a House System to strengthen belonging, mentorship, leadership, and student engagement. In this interactive session, participants will explore how relationship-centered structures can transform school culture and support high-quality learning for all students. Presenters will share the design process, Year 1 implementation strategies, early outcomes, challenges, and lessons learned. Attendees will engage in collaborative reflection protocols, analyze student voice and engagement data, and participate in small-group design activities to envision scalable community structures for their own schools. The session highlights alignment with the NEASC Framework for High-Quality Learning through student agency, purposeful relationships, leadership development, and coherence between mission, culture, and instructional practice.
In this hands-on session, participants will rethink assessment by redesigning it from the learner’s perspective. You’ll prototype learner-created ways of demonstrating understanding and experience what it’s like to choose how you show what you know. Through interactive activities, you’ll generate new assessment formats, receive high-quality peer feedback, and explore practical methods for making assessment more empowering, engaging, and aligned with learners’ goals. You’ll leave with concrete ideas to transform how learning is evidenced in your community.
This session will explore an innovative postgraduate readiness model designed to equip students to succeed in college, careers, and life through rigorous academic courses and experiential learning. Participants will learn how postgraduate students engage in developmentally appropriate coursework that elevates reading comprehension, promotes effective study habits, strengthen academic writing, introduces advanced-level research using APA citation, and teaches students how to publicly defend their research. Additionally, participants will learn of a current model that integrates experiential learning through student management of a school store. Strong focus on operations management, customer service, inventory, budgeting, showing how students can connect what is learned in the classroom to future career paths.
This session transforms abstract values into a student-driven graduation requirement. We share how Ridgefield High School operationalized its Core Values into a non-evaluative checklist of specific attributes and skills to guide authentic reflection rather than using a rigid, graded rubric. Participants will explore our delivery model, from structured advisory lessons to embedding value-aligned language across academic classrooms. Through interactive activities, participants will practice unpacking these frameworks. Two workshop pathways allow attendees to either brainstorm daily instructional materials that naturally generate portfolio-ready student artifacts or draft unique sets of skills to operationalize their own Core Values. We conclude by showing how our scaffolded Google Forms data collection balances longitudinal tracking with meaningful self-reflection for students.
No more useless school improvement plans! Develop a document you will actually use to get the results you are striving for! Through the use of the Simsbury Public Schools' example, participants will learn about our one-page leadership plans for school improvement: alignment to district goals, development, messaging, execution and accountability. Learn how to take challenging leadership work into an actionable plan that is useful, relevant, and moves the student learning mark.
I am the very proud Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Simsbury Public Schools. I am passionate about systems, structures, and thoughts regarding how to bring these practices to scale at all levels of our organization.
School leaders face a core question: how do you move from broad AI policy intent to measurable classroom impact, without exposing students to unsafe direct AI use and without relying on 1:1 screens and increased screen time? In this interactive workshop, participants experience the Walled Garden model — a paper-first, teacher-guided framework where instructors mediate all AI interaction while students plan, write, and create offline. We open with a "Real or AI?" warm-up, then walk participants through a hands-on character-creation activity the way a K-12 student would experience it, generating images, video, and a playable game artifact. Participants review student work, discuss how to communicate the model to parents and faculty, and leave with a ready-to-use lesson plan. Bring a laptop or tablet; one device per small group is sufficient.
Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs) are only as effective as the leaders who run them- and leaders are only as effective as the self-awareness and trust they bring to the work. Rooted in Brené Brown’s principle that “who we are is how we lead,” this interactive session explores the intersection of inner leadership work and practical team systems.
Participants will examine how vulnerability, trust, and values clarity within a leadership team directly shape the quality of instructional decision-making — and the learning experiences students receive. Through structured reflection, a team diagnostic tool, and small group discussion, participants will explore what it means to lead with both courage and coherence.
Participants leave with a personal leadership reflection, a team trust assessment, and a concrete next step for their ILT.
Lindsie Boykin is the founder of Leaders Need Systems, LLC (LNS), a leadership development organization supporting leaders to “transform intentions into impact”. Systems are critical for school leaders because they transform good intentions into consistent, sustainable, and scalable... Read More →
In this session, participants will learn about Brooks School's journey to opening the Academic Commons in the Fall 2026. From the physical building construction to program expansion, we will discuss how we centered student learning, belonging and support. We have reimagined our learning center, library, and information and educational technology departments to become a new Academic Commons to benefit all students. This new version of a commons provides resources to allow every student to go further than they thought possible. This project has not been just about enhancing facilities; it has been about providing our students with the tools they need to excel in an increasingly complex academic world. By creating a dynamic Academic Commons, we have ensured that every student, regardless of their starting point, has the support and resources to reach their fullest potential.
This interactive workshop explores how emotionally intelligent leadership can strengthen school climate, staff morale, student engagement, and family trust. Grounded in research from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the presenter's experience in working with thousands of school leaders over two decades, this session will offer practical strategies for leading through conflict, change, and day-to-day school life with greater emotional awareness and clarity. Designed for school leaders, this session offers concrete tools for embedding emotional intelligence into everyday leadership practices so well-being becomes part of the culture.
This session explores how schools can shift from viewing inclusion as an initiative to embedding it as a core schoolwide identity. Participants will examine how the belief that all students are general education students can shape instructional planning, staffing, and scheduling. The session highlights systems changes that reduce pull-out services and increase push-in supports within inclusive classrooms. Presenters will share strategies for using an equity-based lens and how language and mindset shifts influence practice. Participants will move from asking, “Is inclusion working?” to “How can we redesign support to make inclusion successful?” Attendees will leave with practical strategies to strengthen inclusive design, collaboration, and shared responsibility for all learners.
Many learning communities invest significant time and energy into parent engagement through events, committees, volunteering, and communication structures. Yet leaders are increasingly asking a deeper question: What impact are these efforts actually having on learners? Grounded in the NEASC Framework for High-Quality Learning, this interactive unplugged session explores how schools can move beyond participation and attendance toward family partnerships that strengthen belonging, coherence, and learner impact. Participants will engage in reflection, collaborative dialogue, and the redesign of a real family engagement structure through the lenses of voice, agency, and high-quality learning. Leaders will leave with practical next steps they can bring back to their own learning communities.
This Session provides independent school leaders tools to recognize and resolve fundamental paradoxal realities of leadership. It articulates seven "lively paradoxes" and opens discussion of practical approaches to resolving them. These will include "Paradox of Leadership": Leadership requires confidence only gained by leading; "Paradox of Trustees": Trustees support the head but depend on the head for support; "Paradox of Mission": Missions, essential to accreditation, are usually incapable of measurement; "Paradox of Finance": schools expand to the limit of resources and resources are always insufficient; "Paradox of Technology" Technology creates educational possibilities while presenting enormous challenge; "Paradox of Professional Development": Adults must evolve; many adults resist change. "Paradox of Schedule": The daily and annual schedule never resolves demands.
Former Director for NEASC Commission on Independent Schools; Former NEASC Board President; Former Head of School for Tabor Academy, Former Head of School at Tabor Academy
Wednesday November 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EST TBA
Students in my classroom have increasingly responded to offers of teacher help with a surprising phrase: “I’m okay--I already figured it out.” In classrooms shaped by generative AI, what happens when students no longer depend on teachers for immediate answers, feedback, or drafting support? This unplugged session invites educational leaders to rethink the role of the teacher in high-quality learning environments. Through reflective protocols, small-group discussion, and collaborative design work, participants will explore what remains deeply human in teaching: relationship-building, ethical guidance, discernment, meaning-making, and the creation of intellectually vibrant communities. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for leading thoughtful conversations about AI and instructional relevance--not as a story of teachers being replaced, but of teaching itself being redefined.
English Teacher & NEASC Accreditation Chair, Ridgefield High School
After a decade as an officer in the United States Navy, Matt transitioned into education, earning a master’s degree in Education from Harvard University before beginning his teaching career in the International Department of Beijing National Day School (北京十一学校), a 5,000-student... Read More →
Wednesday November 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EST TBA
In an era of rapid educational change, the role of the principal has evolved from operational manager to visionary strategist and instructional leader. This workshop explores the critical intersection of district support and school-site leadership, providing Superintendents with a framework to empower their principals as drivers of student success.
Participants will gain:
* Strategies to support new/inexperienced school principals; * Evaluative models to support professional growth and promote student achievement; * Leadership activities that build collaboration and wise decision making.
Join us to move beyond the day-to-day logistics of school administration and discover how to cultivate a leadership pipeline that produces high-performing, culturally responsive, and results-oriented school environments.
Barbara Sargent is the proud Superintendent of Schools for the Hermon School Department in Maine. A former New Jersey educator and leader, Barbara is widely published in areas of best leadership practices and women’s leadership. Her AASA Schools of Thought blogs provide practical guidance on driving student achievement, supporting school leaders, and navigating a long and successful career... Read More →
Wednesday November 18, 2026 11:10am - 12:10pm EST TBA
School leaders will be challenged to view restorative justice not as a disciplinary add-on, but as a whole-school framework that builds the human infrastructure for high-quality learning. Drawing on experience as Head of Student Wellbeing and Restorative Justice, I will explore the gap between restorative intent and impact—what it looks like in practice and why it persists, even in values-driven schools.
Participants will examine how restorative systems, when aligned with school culture and core values, become measurable drivers of belonging, safety, and engagement. Activities include an “intent to impact” reflection, case study analysis in groups, and discussion of common challenges. A student testimony provides an unfiltered perspective on impact. Participants leave with an audit framework and leadership questions to support equitable, lasting restorative outcomes.
Director of Student Wellbeing, Halcyon London International School
I work with schools and organisations to build healthier cultures, strengthen wellbeing, and respond to conflict and harm in ways that are both human and effective.My work focuses on Restorative Practice, wellbeing strategy, safeguarding-informed leadership, and culture change. I... Read More →
Wednesday November 18, 2026 11:10am - 12:10pm EST TBA
School leaders often focus on improving instruction through new initiatives and accountability measures, yet implementation frequently becomes fragmented across classrooms. This interactive session reframes implementation through the conditions educators experience while carrying out reform. Drawing on research conducted in a large urban district under state takeover, participants will examine how leadership decisions shape teacher motivation, classroom experience, and student engagement. Through reflection, discussion, and use of the ARC Motivational Equalizer self-assessment tool, participants will explore how autonomy, competence, and relatedness influence whether implementation moves toward compliance or sustained commitment.
This interactive session transforms the intent of student voice into impactful shared governance. Participants analyze power structures and identify opportunities for students to serve as co-designers of the learning environment.We demonstrate how to move beyond tokenism toward inclusive Equity Advisory Boards. Attendees engage in a live Fishbowl discussion facilitated by student co-presenters, modeling real-time collaboration. We will employ breakout Design Labs where leaders draft a 90-day action plan for student-led initiatives.Participants leave with a Voice-to-Value toolkit featuring protocols for student-led faculty meetings and feedback loops aligned with NEASC Standards 1 and 2 (Student Agency). By the end of the hour, leaders will possess the practical framework necessary to elevate student perspective from a peripheral input to a driving force for school-wide transformation.
Educationally-based school athletics are an important part of a school's program. The NEASC Athletic Program Review process provides schools with an opportunity to ensure that their programs are serving the best interest of students. In this session you will hear from an athletic administrator, school and district level leaders, and the leader of a state athletic association about the impact the NEASC Athletic Program Review process has had in the school.
