The Summer Directors' Institute (SDI) is designed to provide you with the opportunity to network and exchange ideas and questions with other directors as you explore and imagine some aspect of your program in a new and innovative way.

All of this year's SDI sessions will connect to how leaders can use a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens to cultivate a culture of ownership in which all stakeholders have a voice and are accountable to each other for educator effectiveness and student success. 

Day 2 sessions build on the activities of Day 1:

Session 3: Meeting Enrollment Targets: Strategies that Promote Recruitment, Onboarding, and Persistence

During this session, you will hear about effective strategies that programs have used to meet their enrollment targets. We will explore specific strategies related to: program design, recruitment, technology (including onboarding tech boot camps), staff, and students. We will also discuss onboarding strategies that can help you promote persistence and retain students to reduce the number of new students you need to recruit.

MA Adult Literacy Hotline Coordinator Ruby Reyes will introduce the "We're Open" summer marketing campaign (free to ESE-funded programs) to help attract potential learners to your program and explain how you can join this statewide effort.

You will have ample opportunities in small group discussions to discuss these ideas, share additional strategies that you have used in your program, and being planning your next steps.

Session 4: Leadership Challenge and Opportunity: Creating Safe Spaces for Staff and Students to Return in the Fall

In response to requests from programs, this session is designed to help you plan for how the myriad of student and staff stresses and challenges during the pandemic will influence your program when you return in the fall. This session addresses the leadership challenges and opportunities for creating safe spaces for staff and students in your program that support a positive transition to a post-pandemic "new normal".

Presenter Stacy Seward will invite us to consider strategies for how to create safe spaces, respect each person's current reality, build trust and create common guidelines that foster meaningful communication, and support check-ins.

During small group discussions, you and colleagues will brainstorm ideas and begin drafting guidelines for how you will create safe spaces for staff and students to return in the fall.