Your first time leading instruction.
The First-Time Instructional Leader cohort is the one NextGround experience being built first. Everything below describes what it is designed to cover. It isn't open yet.
Availability
Planned for January 2027
This is the first NextGround cohort. It isn't open yet, and there is no enrollment.
Time commitment
Plan for at least 2 hours per week
Asynchronous learning and practice, plus a small number of live sessions.
Expected pricing
Being finalized
Pricing is still being set and is not published yet. Waitlist members hear pricing first, along with any early or sponsored seats.
First time in instructional leadership, whatever the title.
The title on the door changes. The first year of leading other adults' practice looks remarkably similar.
Every lesson sits on one of five pillars.
People
Coaching adults, building trust, and leading peers who do not report to you.
Culture
Setting expectations, reading a building, and shaping the climate you inherit.
Systems
Schedules, cycles, documentation, and the routines that keep the work from collapsing on you.
Leadership
Decisions, feedback, hard conversations, and how you carry authority you are still growing into.
Advocacy
Speaking up for students, staff, and your own work with people above you.
Five stops, in order.
Stop 1
Understand the role
What an instructional leader is actually responsible for day to day, how the job is evaluated, and where first-timers most often struggle.
Stop 2
Build the core skills
Coaching conversations, adult learning, facilitation, feedback, and talking about data with people who may not want to hear it.
Stop 3
Practice the hard moments
Scenario work on resistance, someone who agrees and then changes nothing, and being handed data and asked what you notice.
Stop 4
Show your thinking
You finish with work you can point to: a support plan, a week map, reflections, and language that connects your experience to the role.
Stop 5
Prepare for the move
Resume and application support, interview practice for leadership questions, and preparation for the first 90 days in the seat.
This may fit you if
- It is your first time leading other adults' practice
- You already help the person next door, informally
- You like adult learning as much as you like working with students
- You want influence without leaving the building
This probably isn't your destination if
- You want a role with less people-facing conflict
- You're looking for an immediate pay jump above all else
- You want to step away from schools entirely. Look at the education-adjacent and beyond-education destinations instead
Guided by someone who has held the role.
Devin LewisFounder of NextGroundDevin has been a paraprofessional, teacher, instructional coach, and most recently Director of Teacher Evaluation for one of the largest school districts in Texas. He is building this cohort from the leadership work itself, not from a course outline.
Meet the practitionersWhat you'd walk away with
- A clear picture of what the role requires
- A better sense of whether it actually fits you
- Practice with the conversations leaders have
- Work you can show in an interview
- Language that connects your current experience to the role
Not sure this is the one? Keep looking.
The First-Time Instructional Leader cohort is the first experience being built. Other destinations are possibilities we're exploring, not products yet.