Leadership at the Intersection of Purpose, Possibility, and Tension
A superintendent’s reflection on leading through competing demands — purpose, possibility, and tension — and the conditions that let growth and humanity coexist.
Thinking About Becoming a Teacher in New York? Here’s the Realistic Path from Where You Are Now
CITE Programs for new teacher certification online. New York is in the middle of a sustained teacher shortage, and it isn’t evenly spread. Special education, bilingual education, TESOL (teachers of English to speakers of other languages), and early childhood are the areas where the demand is sharpest. That matters for you because districts are actively hiring, mentoring, and in some cases helping new hires finish certification while they teach. It also means the credentials you choose to earn now will still be in demand when you finish.
Designing Learning for Access, Choice, and Purpose: What Best Practice Looks Like Today
Best practice in schools today: designing learning so access, choice, and purpose are built in from the start — not layered on after the fact.
Five Years Out: What the Superintendency Taught Me About Leadership, Change, and Being Wrong
Five years after the superintendency, Don reflects on leadership under uncertainty, shared vision, inquiry, and why change from within still matters most.
Preparing NY’s Next Generation of School Leaders
CITE Professors: Senior Practitioners Preparing New York’s Next Generation of School Leaders One of the defining strengths of CITE’s programs is the caliber of the professors who lead them. Our faculty is composed entirely of senior‑level practitioners and recently retired, high‑performing educators from New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. These are not theorists removed […]
The Best Career Move You Haven’t Made Yet
A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE CLASSROOM The Best Career Move You Haven’t Made Yet Why Teaching — and CITE — Are the Right Choice, Right Now By Dr. Donald James | 30+ Years in Public Education | February 2026 I have been in public education for more than thirty years. Some of those years were spent […]
Leading with Purpose
Leading With Purpose: Why the New York Metro Area Needs Servant‑Minded School Leaders—and How CITE Is Building Them By Dr. Donald James After several decades serving as a school leader in the New York metro area, I’ve learned that the most effective administrators aren’t the ones with the loudest voices or the most polished slogans. […]
Podcast – Meisha Porter
Cite Executive Director Dr. Donald James speaks with Dr. Meisha Porter about her decision to take on the role of NYC Schools Chancellor in a difficult time, the opportunity we have to reinvent the systems in our schools, and what the pandemic taught us about the classroom and about leadership in moments of crisis. Dr. […]
