Summer Leadership Summit Open for Registration
Join Us for the TALAS & Central TALAS Summer Leadership Summit
TALAS and Central TALAS invite you to the annual Summer Leadership Summit, a powerful two-day gathering of superintendents, senior district leaders, and educational partners dedicated to advancing Latino leadership across Texas.
“Fuerza in Our Roots, Poder in Our People” celebrates the cultural heritage, collective strength, and shared commitment that unite Latino educational leaders. This summit honors the power of our history, values, and purpose in driving student success and shaping the future of education.
June 22–23, 2026 | Concordia University
June 22, 2026
Lunch and two breakout sessions
Evening Inaugural President’s Dinner (additional cost) recognizing outstanding chapter leadership and L3 Cohort 12 participants
June 23, 2026
Breakfast and lunch
Three breakout sessions
Featured breakout with Miguel Cardona, former U.S. Secretary of Education
Closing keynote and book signing with author Robert Alfaro, Baloney, Baloney, Baloney!
Together, we will explore how our roots ground us, our people uplift us, and our unity empowers the future of education.
Early Bird registration is available through March 30, 2026.Don’t miss this inspiring and impactful leadership experience!
Cancellation & Refund Policy
All registration and sponsorship fees are non-refundable. If you are unable to attend, your registration or sponsorship fee will be considered a donation to TALAS. Upon request, a donation acknowledgment letter will be provided for your records.
3-2-1: On making adjustments, how to handle criticism, and the secret to improvement
“Improvement is being better than your past self.
It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. Do not compare against others, compare against your past self.
Keep the focus internal.”
II.
“You can take things seriously without taking them personally.
Our tendency is to turn any criticism or complaint into a personal attack. We reply to it, defend against it, build a counter-argument, lose sleep over it.
You don’t have to eat everything that is served to you. You can respond to criticism without digesting criticism. Take what’s useful, do your best to improve, and leave the rest.”
Are you the exhausted hero?
There’s a version of you that people rely on.
The one who steps in.
Figures it out.
Keeps things moving.
Handles what others drop.
You’ve built a reputation on it.
And for a long time, it worked.
Until it didn’t.
Let’s name the pattern you might be living in:
The Exhausted Hero.
Because if you don’t name it, it doesn’t go away.
Does Virtual Professional Development Tie Directly To Young Students’ Academic Outcomes?
A new, rigorous study is taking a look at a critical question for the K-12 industry: Can virtually-provided professional development for teachers move the academic needle for young students?
The exploration is especially timely as school districts across the country are under pressure to improve student outcomes at the same time that budget conditions constrict.
Virtual professional development is one solution that both vendors and school administrators may consider as a relatively low-cost way to increase support for teachers. Research across the field is starting to offer insight into whether it can ultimately improve learning in the classroom.
How to Set Up and Then Evaluate School Initiatives
When Principal Scott Palladino assigned a faculty committee to reexamine Wareham High School’s cell phone policy, he assumed they would arrive at a cut-and-dried policy proposal: a blanket, all-day ban. Palladino was prepared to enforce that initiative—he saw the logic in it and was well aware of staffers’ complaints about how phones were interrupting learning at the Massachusetts school.
The committee returned with a compromise in which phones weren’t outright banned but needed to be placed in classroom cubbies during instruction. The proposal, which mirrors many other school districts’ approach to cell phones, wasn’t what Palladino expected, but he chose to follow the recommendation. A former teacher himself, Palladino had asked the committee to make a tough call, and they had put in the requisite time, effort, and research. If he didn’t listen to them now, why would they listen to him in the future when he made his own policy recommendations?
How to excel in the role of chief people officer
Why do staff join your district and stay? The answers are among the highlights of a new “chief people officer” field guide compiled by 50 superintendents who are also members of the DA Leadership Institute.
At the March Superintendent’s Summit in South Carolina, they shared insights on morale, feedback and credibility to help their fellow K12 leaders excel as a chief people officer. “People do not join districts,” the superintendents agreed. “They join conditions.”
Teachers, administrators and other staff prioritize climate alongside compensation. Steady leadership and obvious support are two signals that a school system is a positive place to work.