Drawing on in-depth interviews with school and district leaders and data from a national survey, this session details findings from a new Wallace Foundation-funded study exploring principals’ on-the-job learning. It emphasizes principals’ numerous approaches to learning in areas of practice most linked to student learning. The session offers insights to policymakers, district leaders, and principals themselves about how to build more robust systems for principal professional learning.

Participants will:

• Learn how principals describe their opportunities to learn in key domains of practice, including engaging with teachers around instruction, building a productive climate, and managing strategically;
• Gain an understanding of which learning opportunities principals find most useful for their growth in different practice domains; and
• Leave with insights into how states and districts can build more robust systems for principal professional learning.

Explore the existential tensions AI poses for education—and discover a clear path forward. Ground your practice in three core principles: designing for student agency, listening to learners, and centering pedagogy to inform the strategic use of AI and other forms of technology. Examine real classroom pedagogies where student voice is centered and AI becomes one tool among many, then leave with a compass for navigating AI's rising tide while keeping human ingenuity and radical imagination at the heart of learning.

Participants will:

• Consider the implications of centering technology over pedagogy and articulate why student voice must anchor any school’s approach to AI;
• Explore three guiding principles for centering student voice and agency in this moment of rapid change;
• Examine real classroom examples of learning experiences that awaken student voice; and
• Identify one small, actionable shift to strengthen learner voice and agency in daily practice.