CAS Annual Conference 2025

Achieving academic excellence requires leaders to foster a culture of trust, inclusion, and belonging. Teachers thrive when they feel safe to take instructional risks and innovate, while students excel when high expectations are paired with appropriate support.
Leaders must navigate staffing challenges, financial constraints, and daily demands while staying steadfast in their vision and mission. This requires intentional practices such as clear communication, data-driven feedback, and a relentless focus on content standards, all while prioritizing teacher empowerment.
In this session, a veteran Principal who achieved Blue Ribbon status and a new Principal striving for the same distinction will share proven strategies and fresh perspectives on building trust, fostering belonging, and driving excellence. Participants will gain actionable insights and develop personalized plans to implement trust-building initiatives, empowering teachers and creating meaningful learning outcomes for students, even amid the complex realities school leaders face.

Are you addressing chronic absence with a cohesive, all-hands-on-deck approach? This workshop focuses on building a district-wide attendance team with all voices at the table, ensuring school attendance teams meet with fidelity, and breaking down silos to avoid duplicating efforts. Participants will reflect on creating a culture that prioritizes attendance and engagement, shifting mindsets, improving systems and structures, and implementing smarter, more effective practices. Through collaborative discussions, problem-solving, and shared insights, attendees will leave equipped with powerful agenda templates and actionable strategies including reflection activities, incentives, and high impact tiered interventions using a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Participants will learn about one such high impact intervention – CSDE’s relational home visit model, the Learner Engagement & Attendance Program (LEAP), proven to lead to a 15 percentage point increase in attendance for students who received a LEAP home visit. 

Learn to access and analyze school accountability and assessment information to extrapolate meaningful information and utilize insights to accurately inform school improvement efforts.
When Canton Middle School received notice of having an area of focus on the state accountability index, they accepted the invitation to join the Commissioner's Network and embrace the work of school improvement.  Join school staff as they share their learning journey and insights into the accountability index and state assessments, and how they cracked "the code" of the metrics and used that information to drive growth through strategic practices.  Join them to learn the necessary change processes to support any school in learning to serve each and every student even better.

This workshop will explore the five elements of hip-hop and ways to implement these in your school and classrooms to create a more positive and welcoming climate and culture. We will explore the history of hip-hop, as well as the current movement to improve a sense of belonging through approaching students with a recognition of their culture by creating a bridge with your own. Participants will walk away with ideas and tools to incorporate culturally relevant opportunities in their school culture and classroom activities. Concepts will be based on elements from James "Fresh Professor" Miles' presentation group, https://www.edvengersedu.com/home, and book, "Gotta Stay Fresh".

In schools and districts across Connecticut and throughout the country, the idea of a vision of a graduate (VoG), is becoming a new and important way to measure and celebrate student progress. Schools and districts with a VoG are focused on preparing graduates for a future that will require them to have not only content knowledge and understanding but also transferable skills and dispositions that will allow them to be flexible and adaptable in the rapidly changing world. The VoG encourages schools and districts to shift what is central to education as we know it and re-design systems to highlight the strengths and abilities of all learners. It can be a powerful force to dismantle inequities. Join NEASC staff to discuss the creation and implementation of a school or district VoG. You will come away with ideas and resources (including the newly released NEASC VoG Handbook) that will help you move this work forward in your school or district.