As part of CIE's leadership development program, we worked with cohorts of principals around issues related to instructional leadership. The program is designed with monthly meetings, each one of which centers on a particular topic such as teacher observations or looking at student work. The structure of each meeting is to first introduce background research and specific methodology and then to break principals into smaller groups. Once in the small groups, principals process the information and plan how to use it in their buildings. Each cohort of about 25 principals receives intensive support for one year and sustained support for an additional 2 years.