At Lake Elementary in San Pablo, Principal Jeannie Williams is seeing math lessons coming alive in new ways. Students are collaborating, solving problems together, and starting to see themselves as mathematicians.
This shift is part of a district-wide effort in the West Contra Costa School District led by principals like Jeannie, who are redefining great teaching through the Chamberlin Education Foundation’s Instructional Leadership Community of Practice (ILCoP), a deep partnership in its seventh year focused on long-term improvement in teaching and learning.
Through the ILCoP, principals at 17 schools across the district are working with Instruction Partners, which supports school and district leaders to strengthen their instructional leadership, improve teacher practice, and ultimately ensure all students receive high-quality, rigorous instruction.
“The school leaders in the ILCoP, alongside their teams and Instruction Partners, are really shaping what great teaching looks like in WCCUSD,” said Eréndira Flores, Vice President of Programs at the Chamberlin Education Foundation. “By using the Instructional Practice Guide (IPG), they’re creating a shared vision for effective instruction across the district. It’s all about clarity and consistency – making sure everyone knows what excellent teaching means and how to make it happen.”
Applications for the CEF 2025–26 Instructional Leadership Community of Practice are now open and will close on May 30th. WCCUSD elementary school principals can click here to apply.
When Jeannie and her team recently met with Instruction Partners, what was supposed to be a wrap-up meeting for the year turned into a celebration. “Using the IPG, we grew and surpassed our goal,” Jeannie said. “So it really was a celebration for all those teachers who were open to being observed, and we saw such great things happening.”
“Now we’re talking about what we can work on next year,” she added. “It was exciting for me, and it was also super exciting for the teachers, as well.”
Jeannie said a huge shift in instruction happened when, with the support and recommendation from Lake’s Instruction Partners coach, groups of teachers visited Montalvin Elementary to observe their math classrooms. They saw math teachers who were walking around the classroom and engaging with students, rather than standing up front delivering a lesson. Teachers asked probing questions and offered real-time feedback, but it was the students who were doing the heavy lifting.
“Students were literally working on math problems the entire period, collaborating, working in groups and figuring things out for themselves. They were making sense of it,” Jeannie said. “That lit a fire under our teachers. (We were thinking) ‘OK, it’s not going to look like this exactly at Lake, but how can we bring back these practices?’“
Ethan Sorscher is a 5th grade teacher at Montalvin and has taught at the school for seven years. Ethan credits the work he’s done with Instruction Partners with helping integrate rigor, procedural fluency, and conceptional understanding in his teaching. Ethan has welcomed fellow teachers into his classroom, inspiring them through his practice.
Students in his math class use vertical whiteboards to break down and explain their thinking. They collaborate with one another. “They’re given opportunities to struggle with a task and make sense of it,” Ethan said. “Which is where the math learning actually happens.”
Students have made significant growth, he said, with increased mastery of grade-level standards. “They really see themselves as mathematicians in ways they didn’t before,” Ethan said.
While student success is the ultimate goal, Instruction Partners focuses on working with school leaders and their Instructional Leadership Teams to create and strengthen systems and structures that support high-quality instruction.
“What inspires me is seeing principals lean into the messy work of change,” said Nadra Williams, Managing Director of Instruction Partners. “It’s not just about adopting new tools, it’s their willingness to rethink schedules, model vulnerability, and stay the course when progress feels slow. That’s how you build systems that last.”
She noted that the schools that have made the biggest gains are those where school leaders and teachers agree on goals and work together. “When everyone owns the work, not just complies with it, that’s when instruction truly transforms,” Nadra said.
Priya Sembi is the principal at Michelle Obama School in Richmond. Though this is her first year leading Michelle Obama School, it’s not her first year working as a Principal in WCCUSD or with the ILCoP.
This year, Instruction Partners collaborated with Priya in developing a protocol to support ELA curriculum internalization.
Next year, Priya said she will build on this work by redesigning Michelle Obama School’s teacher planning time. She’ll use what teachers learned this year to help everyone work together more effectively on lesson planning.
Engaging with other principals in the ILCoP allows for collaboration time and to collectively leverage the work they’re doing with Instruction Partners to create district-wide systems change.
“Teachers (in WCCUSD) might be in different spaces as leaders, but there are opportunities to get more done by combining or consolidating across our system with collaboration,” Priya said.
A principal’s job encompasses so much, like managing logistics and facilities, organizing staffing, and addressing student discipline challenges. What excites Priya the most about being a part of the ILCop is the focus on instruction.
“Being a part of the community of practice really helps us center instruction in our practice, and it helps us stay focused on that being our beacon,” Priya said. “That’s our driver for why we do the work, and why we show up every day.”
