The Road to Strategic Renewal: Navigating the Distance Between Mission, Strategy, and Impact at the Center for Educational Leadership

Abstract

With the 2017-2018 school year came the full implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The act replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), transferring decision-making authority away from the federal government and to state education departments. Under ESSA, state and local leaders must invest in “evidence-based interventions” to achieve the goals indicated in their accountability plans, goals centered on educational outcomes for students. This is the context that the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL), a professional learning provider serving school and district leaders across the country, exists within as it seeks to reinvent itself as a national thought leader. With over 17 years of experience as a self-sustaining nonprofit, CEL is trying to figure out how to best meet the needs of educational leaders in an ESSA-driven sector while reversing its recent trend of having operating expenses that exceed revenue. In order to remain both relevant and fiscally solvent, CEL must achieve this while housed within the shadows of a top tier research university, and in the midst of the forthcoming transition of its founding leader. This Capstone details my analysis of CEL as an organization, and my leadership of a series of exercises and tool designs that would serve as a catalyst for moving the organization as a whole towards thinking strategically about its future identity in the K-12 professional learning market. My final reflection offers important considerations for nonprofit leaders seeking to understand the value of intentionally renewing its strategic direction in times of change and uncertainty. There are also important lessons to be learned around the complexity of maintaining mission alignment when the need to generate revenue may seemingly pose a competing interest.