NELW – Virtual
National Education Leaders Workshop
A virtual conference brought to you by K12 Coalition
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Event Overview
Join literacy leaders, policymakers, and instructional teams from across the K12 Coalition network for an afternoon built around three strands: Literacy, Policy, and Instructional Excellence. The conference features expert-led breakout sessions, a district spotlight, and a live panel discussion — all in service of stronger outcomes for every student.
About NELW
NELW (National Education Leaders Workshop) has brought K12 Coalition’s professional development directly to districts across the country, most recently with two-day, in-person gatherings customized to individual school systems. A recent NELW hosted with Jackson Public Schools drew more than 400 educators and staff for 41+ customized PD sessions over two days, with the district’s own leadership — including Superintendent Dr. Errick Greene — welcoming attendees. This virtual edition brings that same model of coalition-wide, practice-focused learning to a national audience in a single afternoon.
Who Should Attend
This conference is designed for K-12 literacy specialists, building and central office leaders, state and regional education agency staff, higher education partners, and teachers looking to strengthen instruction across their schools or districts. With three strands — Literacy, Policy, and Instructional Excellence — sessions are built to serve both classroom-level educators and the leaders shaping strategy at the district and state level.
Featured Speakers
Shauna Cotte
Vice President, Keys to Literacy
Dr. Jim Heal
Co-founder, Learning Science Partners
Meg Lee
Co-founder, Learning Science Partners
Pati Montgomery
Senior Education Officer, Keys to Literacy
Jillian Roche
Director of Curriculum, Lavinia Group
Jason Stricker
Chief Policy Officer, K12 Coalition
Andrea Thomas-Reynolds
Managing Director, K12 Coalition
Kim Wilkens
Co-founder and CEO, Roversa
Featured Sessions
Shauna Cotte
Vice President, Keys to Literacy
Jillian Roche
Director of Curriculum, Lavinia Group
The Essentials of Effective Writing: Connecting Research, Instruction, and HQIM
Is your writing instruction working as hard as your HQIM?
This dynamic webinar focuses on how research-based writing instruction and high-quality instructional materials work together to transform student writing! As districts implement the science of reading and adopt materials, writing instruction deserves the same intentional focus.
Grounded in the science of writing and The Writing Rope framework, you’ll discover the essential components of effective writing instruction and see them brought to life through examples from RedThread Literacy, a curriculum on Ohio’s approved list of core instructional materials. Presented in partnership between Keys to Literacy and Lavinia Group, this session unpacks the free guide, The Essentials of Effective Writing, and demonstrates how to use it to strengthen writing instruction across grade levels and content areas. You’ll explore practical strategies for explicit instruction in sentence construction, text structure, and the writing process, and learn how strong curriculum materials can support (not replace) skilled teaching. Whether you’re currently searching for HQIM, using RedThread, or implementing another curriculum, this webinar will provide practical takeaways to bring back to your school or district. Every participant walks away with the free guide, along with a bundle of supplemental sentence construction lessons you can implement tomorrow!
Shaune Cotte & Jillian Roche Speaker Bios
Shauna serves as Vice President and Senior Director of Professional Development at Keys to Literacy and is an integral member of the senior management team. With over 20 years of experience, Shauna has dedicated her career to advancing literacy achievement for all students. Her journey began as a classroom teacher and literacy interventionist, where she developed a deep commitment to fostering student success.
Jillian is excited to bring her passion for literacy education and instructional management expertise to Lavinia Group. She has a wide range of middle grade instructional experience, having taught ELA for grades 5-8 at two different middle schools in New York City. As a teacher at Girls Prep Bronx Middle School, her 8th graders were among the highest performing in the network, with 86% scoring proficient on the state ELA exam. She then moved into a school leadership role, where she oversaw the implementation of Lavinia Group’s Close Reading program and a guided reading block at her school. Through the implementation and instructional management of these programs, ELA proficiency scores rapidly grew by 20%. Most recently, she served as a school leader at a high school in Philadelphia where she helped facilitate the adaptation to virtual learning during the 20-21 school year. Jillian holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History from New York University as well as a master’s degree in education from Relay Graduate School of Education.
Jason Stricker
Chief Policy Officer, K12 Coalition
Strategy in an Era of Constraint
Declining enrollment. Tighter budgets. Rising costs. Persistent achievement gaps. School systems are being asked to do more while confronting increasingly difficult choices about where to invest and where to pull back.
In this session, explore K12 Coalition’s approach to strategic planning for an era when systems can’t afford to make everything a priority. Learn how leaders can use data, stakeholder voice, and root-cause analysis to confront difficult trade-offs, establish a focused set of priorities, and align limited resources with the outcomes that matter most for students.
Participants will leave with practical approaches for moving beyond an aspirational strategic plan toward a disciplined strategy, one that creates clarity, builds ownership, guides resource decisions, and drives execution when the choices are hardest.
Jason Stricker Speaker Bio
As Chief Policy Officer at K12 Coalition, Jason leads initiatives that connect education policy, leadership development, and strategic planning to drive systemic improvement in K–12 public education across the U.S.
Before joining K12 Coalition, Jason co-founded Insight Education Group, where he served as CEO for over 20 years. During that time, he built and led a nationally recognized education consulting firm dedicated to partnering with school systems to improve instructional quality, develop leadership capacity, and achieve sustainable student outcomes. Insight’s impact reached hundreds of districts and schools, ultimately leading to a strategic merger with K12 Coalition to expand our collective mission.
Dr. Jim Heal
Co-founder, Learning Science Partners
Meg Lee
Co-founder, Learning Science Partners
From Myths to Mental Models: An Introduction to Learning Science and Evidence-Informed Practice
Educators encounter a steady stream of claims about how students learn, but familiar or intuitively appealing ideas are not always supported by evidence. How can we distinguish research-informed guidance from persistent misconceptions, and how should evidence inform decisions made in complex educational settings? In this session, participants will examine several common myths and truths about learning and consider how research evidence, professional expertise, and contextual knowledge work together within evidence-informed practice. They will also be introduced to a simple Model of the Mind that illustrates the roles of attention, working memory, long-term memory, encoding, and retrieval in learning. Together, these ideas provide a grounded starting point for examining assumptions about learning and making more intentional educational decisions.
Jim Heal & Meg Lee Speaker Bios
Dr. Jim Heal is a leading advocate for bridging the worlds of research and practice in education. He served as Director of Practice at Harvard’s Research Schools International initiative and as Director of the Impact Academy at Deans for Impact, before Co-Founding Learning Science Partners. He is Professor of Evidence-Informed Educational Leadership at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, and has written three books on education: How Teaching Happens, Mental Models, and Instructional Illusions.
Meg Lee, Co-Founder of Learning Science Partners, is known for helping education systems translate learning science into coherent professional learning and instructional practice. After 30 years in U.S. public education, she now helps schools and systems worldwide connect research and practice with clarity and equity. She co-authored Mindsets for Parents.
Pati Montgomery
Senior Education Officer, Keys to Literacy
Literacy Leadership Starts at the Top: Preparing Instructional Leaders to Strengthen Schoolwide Literacy Outcomes
As states and districts continue to prioritize evidence-aligned literacy instruction and stronger outcomes for students, educator preparation programs must also examine how future principals and district leaders are being prepared to lead this work. In this session, participants will explore the critical role leadership preparation programs play in developing literacy-informed school leaders who understand effective instruction, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and the systems necessary to sustain meaningful literacy improvement.
Grounded in the principles outlined in It’s Possible: A Leadership Plan for Implementing Quality Reading Instruction and Ensuring Literacy for All, this session will examine the shifts needed within administrator preparation programs to strengthen literacy leadership competencies, support instructional coherence, and prepare leaders to build systems that improve outcomes for all learners. Participants will engage in reflection and dialogue around the leadership knowledge, structures, and implementation practices needed to support sustainable literacy success across schools and districts.
Pati Montgomery Speaker Bio
Ms. Montgomery has been recognized by the International Dyslexia Association, ARC, and ExcelEd for her outstanding leadership in the area of literacy. She is a national speaker in the area of leadership and literacy, specifically on the systems and structures that should be implemented in schools to increase literacy outcomes for students. She serves as an expert and advisor on several literacy panels for states and school districts. Pati is the lead author for the book, It’s Possible, A Leadership Plan for Implementing Quality Reading Instruction and Ensuring Literacy for All, as well as the lead author for A Principal’s Primer for Raising Reading Achievement, a Lexia LETRS for Administrators module (First Edition). She is currently in the position of Senior Education Officer at Keys to Literacy and founded Schools Cubed, a literacy leadership coaching firm that is now part of Keys to Literacy.
Kim Wilkens
Co-founder and CEO, Roversa
Beyond the Robot: Creating Meaningful Computer Science Experiences in
Any Classroom
As AI becomes an increasingly visible part of students’ lives, understanding computer science is more important than ever. Students need opportunities not only to use new technologies, but to understand, question, and create them. In this interactive session, Roversa Robotics co-founder and CEO Kim Wilkens shares lessons learned from working with teachers to integrate CS into elementary and middle school classrooms and the design decisions that led to Roversa. Using examples with and without robotics, participants will explore practical strategies for integrating CS across the curriculum through authentic problem-solving, experimentation, student choice, differentiation, and peer learning. Participants will leave with strategies they can apply to lessons they already teach, regardless of their CS experience or available technology.
Kim Wilkens Speaker Bio
Kim Wilkens, Ed.D., is co-founder and CEO of Roversa Robotics, an education technology company creating low-cost, hands-on robotics and AI learning experiences for K–12 classrooms. She is a longtime computer science education advocate, founding board member of Charlottesville Women in Tech, acting director of the Global Center for Equitable CS Education and former Education and Outreach Director at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development, where she led initiatives bridging research, practice, and innovation in K–12 CS education. Kim’s work centers on equitable CS learning, teacher professional
Registration Process
- All tickets cost $39
- Tickets are available for purchase using a credit card, purchase order, or check
- One week before the conference, you will receive an email with session links and access details.
What Your Registration Includes
- Full access to all recorded sessions from the live event
- Recording availability through December 31, 2026
- Certificate of participation
- Closed captioning on all recorded sessions
- On-demand viewing from any device
Questions/support
Email: info@keystoliteracy.com
Phone: 978-948-8511
