“Raise the Bar: Lead the World” is the U.S. Department of Education’s call to action to transform P-12 education and unite those working to advance educational equity and excellence (www.ed.gov/raisethebar). The Effective Educator Development (EED) Division of the U.S. Department of Education, in committing to lift of up educators, hosted a Fall 2023 Powered By Teach to Lead Summit in Denver, Colorado for school teams finding innovative ways to encourage, invest in, and support teachers across America by pursuing strategies to increase teacher collaboration, reduce teacher workload, attend to dimensions of teacher wellness, and enact inclusive practices to attract and retain high-quality teachers.  

Participating teams at the Fall 2023 Powered By Teach to Lead Summit represented 15 states across the country working to solve problems of practice aligned with:   

• Elevating and investing in growing and retaining a talented and diverse educator workforce, or
• Advancing and strengthening educator development opportunities and experiences  
  • To support a school culture of wellness and belonging 
  • That ensure diverse backgrounds and perspectives are visible components in the learning context, and
  • Safeguard students’ access to well-rounded perspectives that are inclusive, culturally responsive, and equitable.

The in-person convening brought 19 teams together to dive into the challenges facing their schools, staff, students, and families. With the support of “critical friends” from eight Regional Comprehensive Centers, the U.S. Department of Education, and other organizations committed to improving educational outcomes, teams were guided through a rigorous process to identify a problem of practice, explore root causes, and develop a theory of change that grounds their work in a logic model. As experts in small group facilitation, critical friends also supported teams through a peer consultancy and activities designed to help teams identify strategies that, when implemented, lead to outcomes reflecting desired changes in their schools and learning communities.

Critical friends and teams were encouraged to “trust the process” over the course of the event, and their commitment and hard work paid off by Day 3. Teams were excited to share their project pitches and visual displays during the Gallery Walk. The enthusiasm and energy for the work was evident as participants circulated around the room, making connections, sharing insights, and celebrating the collective commitment to improving conditions in the field. Teams left the event prepared to take next steps in operationalizing their plans and were encouraged to leverage the connections they made and seek out additional opportunities to expand their work at future events.