Current Initiatives

Learning While Leading Project
Education Innovation and Research Early Phase (EIR), December 2021 through December 2026
$4,000,000
Fiscal Agent: Regional Office of Education #17
CSEP Staffing: Erika Hunt, Lisa Hood, Pam Hillyard 

The Learning While Leading (LWL) Project is designed to prepare educators who already hold a principal license but are not serving in a school leadership role to enter principal and assistant principal positions in schools serving high-need students and in rural locations in Illinois. The incorporation of a partnership among 6 ROEs, located in each service area of the state, is allowing LWL to be designed as a local, regional, and state system for scale and sustainability,
including a learning trajectory to build systems of support in schools and districts focused on school improvement. Other key partners with LWL include the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Illinois Association of Illinois Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS), the Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools (AIRSS), and Advance Illinois.

LWL activities include:
• Pre-service training and coaching that supports aspiring leaders through a Learning Cycle process, working with teacher teams
• Induction and coaching support as a new principal or assistant principal
• Ongoing, job-embedded professional development in a peer network
• Placement in schools with high-need students or rural schools

Anticipated Outcomes:
• Improved school climate
• Improved student outcomes
• Increased percentage of principals and assistant principals serving a concentration of high-need students
• Improved principal and assistant principal retention rates
• Increased number of well-prepared aspiring leaders in the pipeline for schools with high-need students and rural schools

External evaluators at West Ed will explore changes to school culture and the program's impact on student achievement in math and ELA.

Erika Hunt serves as the Co-Director of the project, along with Lisa Skelly, ROE #17. Lisa Hood and Pam Hillyard direct the fidelity of implementation data collection and continuous improvement. 

Partners to Lead 2.0
Education Innovation and Research Early Phase (EIR), December 2021 through December 2026
$8,000,000
Fiscal Agent: Regional Office of Education #19
CSEP Staffing: Lisa Hood, Pam Hillyard 

The Partners to Lead 2.0 (PTL 2.0) Project is designed to strengthen principal leadership by providing research-based professional learning, coaching, and systems support that help school leaders improve teaching, learning, and student outcomes. Building on the success of the original Partners to Lead initiative, PTL 2.0 expands its impact to 130 schools serving approximately 70,000 students across rural, suburban, and urban communities throughout Illinois. Through a consortium of Regional Offices of Education, PTL 2.0 creates a coordinated local, regional, and state system of support focused on strengthening instructional leadership and sustaining school improvement efforts.

PTL 2.0 activities include:

• Research-based professional learning for principals and Instructional Leadership Teams centered on distributed leadership and continuous improvement cycles
• Individual, job-embedded coaching that strengthens principals' organizational leadership and instructional improvement practices
• Regional principal networks that provide peer collaboration and support around shared problems of practice
  District and state alignment efforts that build long-term capacity for scaling and sustaining effective leadership practices

Anticipated Outcomes:

• Improved school climate through stronger principal and teacher leadership
• Improved student achievement in English language arts and mathematics
• Increased leadership capacity to support schoolwide instructional improvement
• Stronger regional and state systems to sustain effective principal development and school improvement efforts
• Identification of key implementation practices that support successful scaling across Illinois schools

External evaluators at West Ed will explore changes to school culture and the program's impact on student achievement in math and ELA.

Lisa Hood and Pam Hillyard direct the fidelity of implementation data collection and continuous improvement. 

General Operating Support
W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation
$60,000 each year since 2017
Fiscal Agent: Center for the Study of Education Policy (CSEP)
CSEP Staffing: Erika Hunt, Lisa Hood, Pam Hillyard

The Stone Foundation General Operating Support award builds on the Foundation's longstanding investment in CSEP's work to strengthen educational leadership across Illinois. Previous Stone Foundation grants supported targeted initiatives, including launching the ROE Lead Hubs and advancing innovative leadership development projects. This new investment shifts from supporting a single project to strengthening CSEP's overall organizational capacity, allowing the Center to build strategic partnerships, launch strategic foresight work, respond to emerging policy opportunities, and develop innovative solutions that improve education systems statewide.

The Stone Foundation General Operating Support investment strengthens CSEP's capacity to advance education policy, leadership development, and systems transformation across Illinois. Unlike project-specific grants, this funding provides flexible support that enables CSEP leadership to build strategic partnerships, convene stakeholders, develop innovative solutions, and respond to emerging opportunities that improve education systems. 

Stone Foundation activities include:

• Supporting CSEP leadership to advance education policy, strengthen partnerships, and pursue innovative initiatives that are not fully supported through project-specific grants
• Convening state, university, school district, workforce, and nonprofit partners to strengthen educator workforce development and leadership pipelines
• Supporting collaboration and stakeholder engagement for the Illinois Leadership through Educator Apprenticeships (IL-LEAP) initiative and other statewide leadership efforts
• Expanding CSEP's capacity to secure additional grants and philanthropic investments that sustain long-term systems improvement

Anticipated Outcomes:

• Stronger statewide partnerships that bridge research, policy, and practice
• Increased innovation through strategic foresight initiatives 
• Expanded educator leadership and principal apprenticeship pathways across Illinois
• Greater organizational capacity to influence education policy and secure future investments
• Sustainable systems that improve educator workforce development and educational outcomes statewide

Erika Hunt, Lisa Hood, and Pam Hillyard provide leadership for the initiative, advancing policy development, strategic partnerships, continuous improvement, and innovative systems that strengthen educational leadership and workforce development throughout Illinois.

New Mexico Leadership Ecosystem Support
Through funding from Thornburg Foundation, LANL Foundation, Maddox Foundation, and New Mexico Professional Education Department
Fiscal Agent: Education Research and Development, LLC (EdRD)
CSEP Staffing: Erika Hunt and Lisa Hood

CSEP Co-Directors Dr. Erika Hunt and Dr. Lisa Hood have partnered with Education Research & Development (EdRD) and education leaders across New Mexico to help build a more coherent and sustainable educator leadership ecosystem. Their work began with a comprehensive statewide landscape analysis of school leadership that examined research, interviewed stakeholders, and identified policy opportunities to strengthen how principals are recruited, prepared, supported, and retained. The resulting report, School Leadership: Improved Student Outcomes Won't Happen Without Strong School Leadership – Recommendations for New Mexico, helped establish a shared vision for strengthening school leadership statewide and informed the passage of House Bill 157, which redesigned principal licensure and preparation in New Mexico. Hunt provided expert testimony that helped inform the passage of the legislation and has since supported its implementation by facilitating the approval of School Administrator Preparation Programs using New Mexico's new program approval criteria.

Building on the leadership work, Hunt and Hood have continued partnering with EdRD and state leaders to strengthen additional components of New Mexico's educator workforce ecosystem. Their work expanded to a statewide landscape analysis of educator professional learning, culminating in the report Strengthening the Teaching Profession in New Mexico through Professional Learning. Drawing on research, policy analysis, and the perspectives of more than 2,000 educators, the report offers recommendations for creating a more coherent, job-embedded, and statewide system of professional learning that supports teacher growth, strengthens instructional practice, and improves educator retention. Together, these efforts reflect a long-term strategy for building an interconnected educator workforce ecosystem that supports educators throughout their careers—from preparation to leadership.

Featured Reports
School Leadership: Improved Student Outcomes Won't Happen Without Strong School Leadership – Recommendations for New Mexico (2022)
Strengthening the Teaching Profession in New Mexico through Professional Learning (2026)