Preview the SchoolSims Library of Simulations

SchoolSims offers simulation-based experiential learning for current and aspiring school leaders, teachers, and counselors across colleges and universities, school districts, independent schools, and educational support organizations. Our choose-your-own-adventure simulations feature 6-8 decision points, bridging theory and practice in real-world scenarios. Engage in critical decision-making, experience the impact of your choices, and connect learning with real-world applications.

Below, explore our full library and download our simulation overviews. Each overview includes objectives, key themes, learning outcomes, feedback opportunities, and alignment with professional standards—providing a comprehensive view of how our simulations can support your professional growth.

Simulation Library

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Creating Lesson Plans
~20 minutes

This is a mini-simulation designed for pre-service or newer teachers. In this simulation, a teacher is working to create a lesson plan. What considerations go into this process?


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Creating an Engaging Learning Environment
~20 minutes

In this mini-simulation designed for preservice or newer teachers, a teacher is about to start a lesson. Mr Xavier wants to discuss environmental sustainability with his class, and his goal is to get his students engaged and interested in this important topic. What options does he have to keep the class engaged and the conversation flowing?


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Student Refuses to Put Phone Down
~20 minutes

This is a mini-simulation designed for pre-service or newer teachers. In this simulation, Ms. Carter asks Sarah to put her phone away. When Sarah refuses, what options does Ms. Carter have and what are the consequences of each option?


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Student Refuses to Take Off Hat
~20 minutes

This is a mini-simulation designed for pre-service or newer teachers. In this simulation, Ms. Johnson asks Jake to take off his hat. When Jake refuses, what options does Ms. Johnson have and what are the consequences of each option?


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Student Perspective: Leadership Challenge – Vaping
~45 minutes

You are a high school student a few weeks into the first semester. You’ll need to consider a friend’s mental health and determine if and when you should intervene as a positive force.

Note that while this simulation is from the perspective of a student, it is designed to enable teachers and administrators an opportunity to reorient their point of view to engage with challenges faced by students.


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Student Perspective: Leadership Challenge – Cheating
~45 minutes

You are a high school student. The simulation focuses on your interactions with two of your close friends, Catarina and Joe. How will you address Joe’s request for “help” in before he takes a test he hasn’t studied for?

Note that while this simulation is from the perspective of a student, it is designed to enable teachers and administrators an opportunity to reorient their point of view to engage with challenges faced by students.


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Student Perspective: Leadership Challenge – Bullying
~45 minutes

As a high school student, you will navigate through situations both live and online, applying leadership practices along the way to facilitate positive outcomes. You find yourself being asked for advice from two friends about a bullying issue. At the same time, you encounter online bullying in a chatroom and need to determine how you will respond, if at all.

Note that while this simulation is from the perspective of a student, it is designed to enable teachers and administrators an opportunity to reorient their point of view to engage with challenges faced by students.


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Improving STEM Achievement
~45 minutes

At the start of the new school year, the district’s leadership team notes a drop in enrollment due to middle and high school students leaving to attend a more progressive district nearby. A state report shows that about half of the district’s college enrollees are dropping out or failing in their first year of post-secondary education. The report also shows that the students are poorly prepared in the STEM fields, given the number of remedial science and math classes they are required to take.


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Classroom Mental Health
~45 minutes

In a middle-school class that has students with a variety of orientations, you’ll need to address rumored self-harm, slurs in the classroom, and parent concerns while considering what level of support you’ll need.


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Advanced Program Dilemma
~45 minutes

This simulation addresses issues surrounding Advanced Program participation goals and criteria. It seems that current AP participant demographics at Spalding Middle School do not mirror those of the school or community population. In this simulation, you will deal with issues including equity, self-awareness, data analysis and interpretation, communication, advocacy, and time.


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Applying Effective Classroom Management
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you will play the role of a middle school teacher who must address classroom challenges by encouraging teamwork and partnerships and building interpersonal teacher-student communication. You’ll be able to reflect on how you apply social-emotional skills to your classroom management.


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Respect in the School Environment
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you play the role of a middle school teacher who must address the challenges of integrating a new student into your classroom after common behavior expectations have been formed. Several scenarios in this simulation will challenge you to build and draw on a culture of respect among students and between you as the teacher and the students in class. Key roles assigned to students are contested and questioned by their classmates.


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Planning for Student Achievement
~45 minutes

Assuming the role of the Counseling Chair at a medium-sized middle school (grades 6-8), your objective is to comprehend and implement processes that mitigate truancy. Throughout this simulation, various impacts resulting from absenteeism will be considered. This resource is an excellent starting point to grasp the complexities of absenteeism, foster discussions, weigh tradeoffs, and establish your own Network Improvement Communities.


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Star Athlete
~45 minutes

A star player on your school’s state championship basketball team is failing your English Composition class. His eligibility for the 2nd semester rests on your decisions regarding handling what turns into an ethical situation.


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Classroom Challenges: Learning Loss
~45 minutes

You are a first-year teacher learning how to effectively deal with learning loss and social-emotional impacts from prior years of virtual learning. You will deal with the student and parental needs and frustrations, leveraging available resources to help them meet grade-level expectations.


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Managing Classroom Disruptions
~45 minutes

You play the role of an English teacher striving to be effective despite a consistently disruptive student. The student has a reputation among all teachers as disruptive, but you’ve worked with him for some time now and have developed a fragile relationship based on a strong personal connection. You’re nervous about breaking this trust, but at the same time can’t allow his behavior to continue to impact/hijack the entire class negatively.


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Overcoming Resistance
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you are challenged to align programs with this vision enhancement as quickly as possible.


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Dealing with the Aftermath of a Disciplinary Event
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you are the Head of School at the Harkness Academy and are forced to navigate leadership decisions that impact board members, students, senior leadership, and others after a prominent student commits a post-prom prank. This simulation can help improve decision-making skills and judgment by allowing you to experience difficult decisions with imperfect options, which lead to consequences you must manage during this real-world scenario.


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Bias in the Hiring Process (GLS)
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you will play the role of the outgoing Superintendent at the Gunderson Community School District. The district is a 3-A system with 3500 students, 500 staff members, 4 Elementary schools, 1 Middle School, and 1 High School.

Due to your relatively short tenure as Superintendent, the Board wants a voice in the next high school principal hire. Now that the initial interviews have limited the field, they want to be involved.


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Parent-Teacher Conference
~45 minutes

The central issue of this sim is communication between a teacher and a parent about the performance of the student. The problem of practice is that parent-teacher conferences can end up being difficult conversations for the teacher if the teacher assumes the conversation is about the performance of the student while the parent wants it to be about the performance of the teacher.


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Data Driven Counseling
~45 minutes

In a school, resistant to change, you will lead a student performance improvement initiative. You must identify best sources for, then collect and disaggregate available data in an effort to identify areas/practices where improvement is most needed. You must identify strategies to deal with resistance and engage others in the change process while addressing leadership’s concerns regarding time and resources. Where both district and building leadership are most interested in seeing results, you will need to address both sets of needs with your strategy.


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Special Education: Annual Case Review
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you are confronted with a volatile parent situation brought on by past parent and teacher relations. The angry parent of a 5th grader presents you with a challenge to meet the needs of their special education student. Your understanding of the issues, federal requirements, and way of communicating with staff and parents will impact the success of your initiatives.


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Synergistic Leadership
~45 minutes

In this simulation, the Superintendent shares concerns relative to the declining performance of EL students at your school. He tells you he favors finding ways to improve the existing English Immersion Program, but that he would like to hear your perspective and recommendations in two weeks.


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Disruptive Teacher
~45 minutes

This simulation is based around a collaborative teaching team. There is one teacher on the team, newer to the school but a mid-career teacher, who is “not a team player.” The simulation begins with another teacher on the team coming to the school leader and expressing concern over the way the disruptive teacher is behaving. The school leader ultimately ends up at a team meeting and witnesses behavior that is inappropriate and over-the-top. The simulation goals relate to school culture and climate, conflict management, and responding to teacher concerns.


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Middle School Turnaround (Implementing Change)
~45 minutes

This simulation involves a new school leader taking over a failing middle school with an entrenched staff and little community support. As you seek to get a handle on the school’s finances, finger-pointing abounds. You will have to determine the best path to building accountability, commitment, and trust in turning this school around.


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Building Inclusive Classrooms: Positive Learning Environment
~45 minutes

Are you ready to face the challenge of continuing to build a positive classroom culture while working with an unengaged learner, and while addressing student behaviors outside of classroom norms? In this simulation, you are a 6th-grade teacher and notice one of your students arrive who is usually energetic and cheerful, but who seems down and disengaged today, and then disruptive. How will you engage him? After working through scenarios with him, on the next day, one of your students makes fun of another in a very public way. How will your address it?


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Building Inclusive Classrooms: Affirming Diverse Families
~45 Minutes

In this simulation, you have a reading project where your 3rd graders make 30-second commercials to encourage pairs to read their book. This week one of the posted commercials on the class website included the book And Tango Makes Three which focuses on 2 same-sex penguins and a baby given to them by a zookeeper. One parent was not happy about the topic.


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Facilitating Alignment (IEP)
~45 Minutes

You are the Team Chair for Special Education at Westley, a relatively new school in a growing district near a large metropolitan area. You have been a teacher, a school counselor and are now working with teachers who have tier 3 students. The recent shift to a virtual environment necessitated by the pandemic has had a significant impact on most students, but more especially on several of your special education students. A parent of one of your students wants hour-for-hour compensation for the time when her son was not receiving in-person services.


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Value-Based Leadership
~45 minutes

This simulation is a decision-making experience designed for the conscious application of the virtues guiding your vision and actions as a leader. It is not a test – you are not being evaluated. It is not a tutorial – this is not designed to teach specific applications, but rather provide an opportunity to make decisions and reflect on choices in light of how virtue may have been applied.


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Building Inclusive Classrooms: Defending Challenged Books
~45 minutes

In this simulation for aspiring and current teachers, a parent contacts you regarding a book report on ‘George’ by Alex Gino. One of the students in the class chose this book for their book report. You have been conducting a year-long focus on reading by having students put up book commercials.


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Small District Budget Crisis
~45 minutes

This simulation involves a new superintendent taking over a small school district that happens to be the primary employer in the community. When a budget shortfall is discovered, the superintendent must decide which resources to involve in the resolution while balancing transparency and strategy among key constituencies. Decide which conditions warrant more persistence versus flexibility while keeping the focus on students.


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New Teacher Evaluation
~45 minutes

This simulation involves an early-career elementary school teacher. The simulation begins following the school leader’s observation of the teacher teaching a literacy lesson. The teacher teaches directly from the teachers’ manual and the lesson has no higher-level skills or thinking embedded within it. At the same time, there has just been a new teacher evaluation rubric implemented in the district that is based on four performance levels. The school leader must meet with the teacher and coach improvement to instructional practice while also helping the teacher understand that the new rubric, though no longer saying her performance is “satisfactory,” the new rubric does not mean she is “unsatisfactory.”


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Academic Goal Setting
~45 minutes

This simulation is based around a veteran social studies teacher in a middle school. The teacher has set goals that are not aligned with the new school goals or the Common Core standards. As the school leader, you must decide what steps you will take to try and move this teacher toward alignment with the school goals, and outside his comfort zone.


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Emerging Challenges of Distributed Leadership  
~45 minutes

As a school leader in this simulation, you will face a variety of issues related to working in an environment requiring social distancing and coordination challenges while considering how your intentions, execution, and consistency are viewed by the school community.


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Managing Diversity in a Growing Community
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you are the administrator for a growing school district that is considering adding another elementary school. You will need to anticipate and address the impact this may have on financial and geographical segregation. How will you manage the dialogue with stakeholders across the district to elicit perspectives and optimize a solution?


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Virtually Leading a School Counseling Program
~45 minutes

The Pandemic has had a major impact on our schools and created an environment filled with challenges. In this simulation, you will face, prioritize, and deal with a variety of issues and challenges associated with transitioning to and working in a virtual environment. You will deal with trade-offs between academic rigor and engagement, as well as maintaining structures and systems while building and sustaining relationships, all while managing the satisfaction of a large number of stakeholders with very diverse needs.


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Middle School Budget Challenge
~45 minutes

This simulation involves a middle school principal responding to a request from the superintendent for a 15% budget cut in two weeks. The principal must determine the process for arriving at the cuts, who to involve in the process, and how to drive alignment around priorities. Of course, there are many conflicting perspectives to be managed, as well as a rumor mill working overtime. How will various stakeholder groups be managed to arrive at an optimal result?


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Special Education
~45 minutes

As the new principal of an elementary school, just before the school year begins, anxious parents of a kindergartner present you with a challenge: to meet the needs of their chronically ill child. In this simulation, you will seek to ensure student safety and security while promoting independence and appropriately utilizing school district resources. Your understanding of the issues and way of communicating with staff and parents will impact the success of your initiatives.


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Administrator: First Week On The Job
~45 minutes

In this simulation, your role is an administrator in the first week on the job. You will be faced with the need to manage various stakeholder groups, working to gain the trust and confidence of community members and district employees. You’ll have to balance strategic direction with the shifting demands of daily issues. And you’ll need to determine when to delegate and when to take ownership, and anticipating the broader impact of your actions.


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Girls Basketball Coach
~45 minutes

A parent at the high school where you are the school leader goes to a school board meeting to complain about the way the girls’ basketball coach is treating the players on the team. You must decide how you address the parent’s concern and the alleged behavior of the winningest coach in school history.


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Student in Crisis
~45 minutes

Suicide is a tough reality among our teens and, as such, an inevitable tragedy for our schools. This simulation focuses on supporting the school leader as he/she navigates a loss due to suicide. From the first moment of notification, through the nuances of sharing the news with your students, staff, and community, and into the days and weeks after the tragedy, this simulation helps define what considerations to make when crafting decisions that will impact your community on every level.


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End of School Year
~45 minutes

As a first-year principal of an elementary school wrapping up the school year, you are responsible for building and staffing a plan to improve academic achievement in the coming year. In this simulation, you will encounter stakeholders in the plan whose needs vary and must be considered fairly. As a tool for practicing school leadership and decision-making, you will first reflect on your own core values. Through the simulation, you will receive feedback on how your choices influence degrees of stress and buy-in at your school.


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Board Relations
~45 minutes

This simulation takes place in a suburban school district at the end of the school year. After the prom, two students trespass on the high school principal’s property. It turns out that one of the students is a board member’s child. The superintendent must navigate the relationship with the board member and board chair and also decide how to support or manage the principal’s reaction to the incident.


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Stakeholder Management
~45 minutes

This simulation involves a school leader at a struggling high school, seeking to build relationships and improve academic achievement while working with multiple stakeholder groups. Engaging with teachers and administrators, you’ll have the opportunity to confront behaviors that get in the way of academic achievement.


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Difficult Conversation: Race
~45 minutes

This simulation considers just how complex the issue of race is–in the classroom, in the community, and in the broader societal landscape. Playing the role of principal at a suburban, racially and socioeconomically diverse high school, you will address sensitive issues such as conversations about race with students, and how teaching professionals and district staff can support those conversations.


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Teacher Blog
~45 minutes

You are a principal in a school district committed to expanding the use of technology. You must deal with issues that arise between increasing communication and protecting privacy. You have received a district mandate, and your staff has received training. Now, is time to promote use of technology among many reticent teachers, while reigning in one renegade without squashing enthusiasm.


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School Safety
~45 minutes

In the face of a potential threat to students, you will work with others to respond decisively, while balancing conflicting considerations. How you measure the situation and choose to act will bear different consequences. In the process of this simulation, aspects of your leadership style may be revealed.


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Cyberbullying
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you are a middle school principal responding to challenges associated with advancing technology. You must identify and successfully deal with challenges associated with cyberbullying and its impact on school learning environment, students, faculty/staff, parents, and the community in general. You will become acquainted with and comfortable applying the growing body of law and court cases addressing cyberbullying and first amendment rights.


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Student Support (Transgender)
~45 minutes

As the principal of Fairlawn High School, you must address the needs of a family whose 16-year-old student is transitioning gender. You will have the opportunity to become acquainted with current laws and accommodation requirements associated with transgender students. You will also be provided a tool to assist in identifying/prioritize risks and developing mitigation strategies to ensure all student needs are met.


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Difficult Conversations With a Novice Teacher
~45 minutes

As the principal of an elementary school, concerns from staff have been raised regarding the clothing being worn by one of your novice teachers. Before you are able to address this issue, additional concerns surface about this novice teacher’s instruction. In this simulation, you will need to facilitate difficult conversations with this novice teacher to address these concerns.


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Comprehensive Role of School Counselors
~45 minutes

As a new assistant principal at Thornbush Middle School, you are tasked with improving the student’s experience by enabling a stronger, more meaningful relationship between them and the school counselors. Your understaffed counselors at Thornbush spend a majority of their time completing administrative tasks and are justifiably defensive. Further, you’re faced with apathy and resistance from seasoned teachers and staff. To successfully engage counselors in activities aimed at preventing rather than responding to problems, you’ll need to identify root causes, redistribute administrative tasks and lead change efforts despite growing resistance.


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Playground Mishaps
~45 minutes

Dealing with difficult parents can be one of the most challenging responsibilities for a school administrator, especially when it involves making difficult decisions. Teachers can complicate these difficult situations when the decisions he or she makes jeopardizes a student’s safety. Administrators must be diplomatic in the decision-making process, thinking every decision through without being rash, to find a solution that is in the best interest of the student.


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Navigating the Politics of Equity-Based Budgeting
~45 minutes

In this simulation, you will play the role of superintendent in a traditionally well-regarded district that is experiencing significant population shifts with a host of changing needs. Your challenge is to work with a variety of stakeholders to develop and pass a budget that will provide funding in an equitable manner. This will call for a different process than that which has been used in the past – it is a significant change that must be managed.


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Equity: Exploring Beneath the Surface
~45 minutes

As a principal supervisor, your goal is ensuring equitable learning opportunities for students of color, while also attending to your own and others’ biases while framing your message about equity. In essence: building policies and structures to serve equity, while acknowledging both material differences and political interests.


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Community Partnerships – Digital Readiness
~45 minutes

In this simulation, co-authored with the National Parent-Teacher Association, you will be addressing communication strategies as they relate to Community Partnerships, one of the seven gears within the Future Ready Framework. In the role of superintendent, you will work with your leadership team and community members to optimize the roll-out of technology to your district. In an era of connectivity and connectivity gaps, being strategic about how you meet families and the community where they become critical to the inclusive learning community you strive to create.


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Social Media: Integrity in Community
~45 minutes

This simulation involves a school leader finding a phone with messages describing an underage drinking party going on. As events unfold, you will need to collaborate with school and community constituents, responding to a diversity of interests. You will be challenged to act with integrity and fairness while promoting the success of all students in an ethical manner.


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Recognizing and Reporting Abuse and Neglect
~45 minutes

As a school leader, you must know the signs of child abuse and neglect, and know how to act sensitively, accurately, and legally toward all parties involved. When accusations are made, you need to act promptly and appropriately, as well. This simulation gives you practice recognizing and responding in a variety of situations and also provides you with an application tool for assessing and mitigating risk.


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Cultural Competency
~45 minutes

This simulation places you, a month into your new position as principal of Waterside School, in a district experiencing significant shifts in demographics, which in turn leads to challenges balancing needs and perspectives of long-time residents with those of newcomers. The district has a stated commitment to “Create High-Quality Learning Experiences that Meet the Needs of Each Child.” Your job is to uncover specific needs, and resolve discrepancies in the treatment of students, wherever they may exist.


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Finding and Leveraging Voice (ELL)
~45 minutes
In this simulation, you’ll take on the role of a school principal to find your voice in determining the best strategy for your ELL program. You’ll be able to leverage that voice in contributing to an ESSA plan in collaboration with local and state resources. How well can you actualize your strategy in the face of shifting demands.

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