Digging Deeper: Strengthening System Capacity Program
Designing and implementing a data-informed leadership learning strategy that builds capacity and advances equitable outcomes across schools and systems.
For more than a decade, ISL has partnered with education systems to analyze the impact of our programs and identify strategic next steps. The Digging Deeper Program provides tailored pathways for systems ready to extend and deepen their success.
- Next steps after ISL/ISSL Programs.
- Impact study
- First steps with ISL.
- Explore professional learning needs.
- Identify program options.
- Deliver the professional learning.
- Assess the impact.
The Digging Deeper Program has significantly strengthened and extended the learning from the International School Leadership Certificate in Lomma. Its highly contextualized design enabled us to explore leadership challenges that are specific to our municipality, while at the same time deepening core understandings from the main program.
- Roberto Citterio, Director of Education, Lomma, Sweden
Program Highlights
- Understand the professional learning needs of the system.
- Online Self-Assessment for leaders — complimentary for clients
- impact Study — Online Self-Assessment and in-depth collection of data with interviews and focus groups
- Identify program options that meet system needs.
- Mentoring/Coaching Program
- 1:1 Coaching
- Leading and Learning Program
- Education Study Tour
- Leadership Essentials Program
- System Learning Walk
- Workshops
- Delivered in-person or online.
- Delivered in English, supported by proven strategies that allow participants to collaborate comfortably in their first language, with key documents translated to ensure full accessibility.
- Experienced instructors who have led at school, system, and ministry levels – with deep expertise in professional leadership learning.
- Collaborative learning and inquiry, supported by structured protocols that build trust, shared vision, and system-wide coherence.
- Contextualized to local priorities, ensuring cultural, policy, and school-level relevance.
- Certificate awarded upon successful completion, if requested.
Digging Deeper Options
Understanding the Professional Learning Needs of the System
Impact Study: for ISL and ISSL Clients
Online Surveys
All school leaders will be invited to complete an online survey designed to explore the program’s impact, including which components were most valuable, what changes occurred in their practice, which competencies improved, what has been implemented, and what next steps are planned for their professional learning.
Onsite Interviews
Interviewing school leaders on a one-to-one basis is essential because it creates the space for authentic, reflective dialogue about their experiences, growth, and challenges.
Case Studies
Using a case study approach to examine the impact of principal training provides a rich, contextualized understanding that goes far beyond what aggregate survey data or individual interviews can reveal.
Data Analysis
In the analysis of survey, interview, and case study data, the ISL Inquiry Team will be guided by the inquiry framework. Using this inquiry-based approach allows for triangulation across data sources to ensure that findings are credible and reveal how the professional learning influenced leadership.
Recommendations
The ISL Team will set out recommendations for the consideration of the client.
Professional Learning Needs Study:
for new clients
The parameters of the study will be aligned with the Impact Study, understanding that the focus will be on the professional learning needs of the school leaders.
Program Options
Mentoring/Coaching Program
The ISL Team will assist clients in creating and piloting a mentoring/coaching program to meet local needs.
1:1 Online Coaching
The support of a coach may be offered to all or selected school or system leaders who are interested in improving their practice. It is online coaching, with 10, 1-hour sessions over a 12-month period.
Leading and Learning Program
This program provides colleagues, with varying strengths, the opportunity to learn together by following a very structure series of activities. It does require local leadership to establish and maintain the program. ISL provides a customized program and advises on the initial implementation.
Education Study Tour
Education study tours provide a very unique approach to professional learning. ISL will partner the client with a board of education in the province to facilitate the collaboration.
System Learning Walk
Learning Walks are a powerful, high-impact strategy for focusing collective attention on improving the quality of instruction across schools. The process involves identifying host schools, conducting pre-sessions to clarify the focus and success criteria, engaging in structured classroom visits, and facilitating reflective debrief sessions that connect observations to instructional priorities. Through this approach, leaders develop a shared understanding of effective teaching and learning, strengthen their capacity to provide feedback, and foster a culture of professional inquiry.
Workshops
- Leading an Equitable and Inclusive School
- Student Agency
- Understanding and Improving Cultural Intelligence
- Understanding and Improving Cultural Intelligence
- Student-Centred Learning
- Professional and Challenging Conversations
- Assessment for Learning
- Personal Qualities, Competencies and Problem Solving
- Leading Change
- Feedback
- Quality Teaching
- High Performing Teams
- Family and Community Engagement
- Leading the Special Education Program
- Leading Well-Being
- Wellness and Life Balance for Leaders
- Customized workshop
Online or Onsite
Flexibility in Timeframe
Driven by Inquiry Questions
Example of a Workshop: From Engagement to Agency
3-hour, onsite delivery for K-12 teachers, principals, and deputies
Inquiry Questions
- Why focus on student agency?
- What are the three dimensions of student engagement?
- What are the three levels of student agency?
- How are engagement and agency connected
- What is the level of student agency in the classrooms of your school? How engaged are your students? How do you know?
- What are the most important characteristics of classrooms that encourage and support student agency?
- How can you create the conditions and design lessons that increase engagement and agency?
Activity-based Strategies
Personal
Reflection
Elbow-partner
Discussion
Mentimeter
Sampling
Sharing
Research
Good practical advice
A lot of inspiration and tips on how to think
... is a great instructor — engaging, knowledgeable and warm!
A powerful testimonial worth reading
“The Digging Deeper Program has significantly strengthened and extended the learning from the International School Leadership Certificate in Lomma. Its highly contextualized design enabled us to explore leadership challenges that are specific to our municipality, while at the same time deepening core understandings from the main program.
A critical added value was the impact study, which provided a systematic assessment of changes in leadership practices across our schools. The study not only confirmed that leaders were applying the new knowledge, but it also guided our next steps in professional learning and created clear indicators of impact on instructional practices, student learning and well-being.
For us, Digging Deeper has been essential in sustaining the learning over time and ensuring that professional development leads to real improvements for students—our ultimate goat”