DR. DESHEILA RUMPH

Leadership & Capacity Building

Supporting leaders and educators as they strengthen understanding, build practical capacity, use evidence, and develop systems that can move the work forward.

Building Capacity

Capacity Is More Than Training.

In my work, capacity building is not limited to providing information or facilitating a professional learning session. People also need clarity about the work, opportunities to apply what they are learning, access to useful resources, feedback, and support as they begin putting expectations into practice.

I have supported leaders and educators through coaching, professional learning, PLC structures, data conversations, observation, walkthroughs, planning, and implementation support. These experiences have reinforced for me that people often need different kinds of support at different points in the work.

Building capacity means helping people develop greater understanding, strengthen practice, use evidence more effectively, solve problems, and become increasingly able to carry the work forward within their own roles and settings.

Clarify

Help people understand the expectation, purpose, process, and what effective practice should look like.

Develop

Build the knowledge, skills, tools, and understanding needed to engage in the work with greater confidence.

Support

Provide coaching, resources, feedback, collaboration, and problem solving as implementation unfolds.

Strengthen

Use evidence, reflection, and continued learning to improve practice and reduce unnecessary dependence on outside support.

Capacity grows when people have both the understanding and the support needed to carry the work forward.

Support in Practice

How I Support Leaders and Educators

My support is shaped by the need, the evidence available, and the point at which people are in the work. Different challenges require different forms of support.

Coaching

Use focused support, reflection, feedback, and problem solving to strengthen implementation and help people work through specific needs.

PLC Support

Strengthen collaborative learning through data review, planning, instructional problem solving, shared expectations, and continued teacher development.

Data Conversations

Help leaders and educators examine evidence, identify patterns and gaps, ask deeper questions, and connect what they learn to next steps.

Walkthroughs and Observation

Use evidence from practice to understand implementation, identify strengths and support needs, and inform coaching and professional learning.

Professional Learning

Design learning around identified needs and connect new understanding to practical application, resources, planning, and implementation.

Implementation Monitoring

Examine whether the work is happening as intended, identify barriers, determine what support is needed, and use evidence to guide adjustments.

Support should respond to what people need now while helping them build greater capacity for what comes next.

Leadership in Practice

Evidence Creates an Opportunity to Ask Better Questions.

Across my work with leaders, data is not the end of the conversation. Assessment results, implementation evidence, observations, walkthroughs, and other information provide a starting point for understanding what is happening and determining what needs closer attention.

I use that evidence to help leaders move beyond identifying a result. We examine patterns, consider what may be contributing to them, look more closely at implementation, and determine what additional information or support may be needed before deciding what should happen next.

Examine

Look closely at the available evidence and what it is showing.

Question

Ask what the evidence explains, what it does not explain, and what else we need to understand.

Reflect

Consider implementation, practice, context, supports, and other factors that may be influencing the result.

Respond

Determine the next action, support, adjustment, or additional evidence needed to move the work forward.

The purpose of examining evidence is not simply to know what happened. It is to better understand what is happening and make a more informed decision about what should happen next.

Examples From My Work

Capacity Building in Practice

Across my work, capacity building has taken different forms depending on the problem being addressed. These examples show how I have combined learning, tools, evidence, structures, and continued support to help educators and leaders move from understanding into implementation.

Instructional Implementation

16-Day Small-Group Launch

I developed a structured launch process to help teachers who struggled with organizing and implementing small-group instruction. Rather than focusing only on mathematics content, the resource guides teachers through the rollout process while embedding organizational and instructional expectations. I have used this approach across multiple schools and in both mathematics and ELA.

Leadership Decision Making

Data Leadership

I developed learning experiences to help school leaders move beyond simply reviewing performance results. Leaders examine patterns, growth, instructional gaps, and what different data sources can and cannot tell them so they can use evidence to anticipate needs, identify timely interventions, and make stronger decisions.

Coaching & Teacher Development

PLC & Coaching Support

My support has included ongoing teacher development through PLCs, data-informed small-group planning, instructional walkthroughs, and targeted coaching cycles. Observation and implementation evidence help identify where additional learning, feedback, modeling, or support is needed.

Systems-Level Capacity

Continuous Improvement Support

My continuous improvement work connects planning with implementation and monitoring. Schools and leaders examine evidence at defined checkpoints, identify implementation or performance concerns, determine needed support or adjustments, and continue monitoring whether those responses are producing the intended change.

The structure may change with the need, but the purpose remains consistent: help people understand the work, develop the capacity to do it, and use evidence to strengthen what happens next.

Lessons From Practice

What the Work Has Taught Me About Building Capacity

Working alongside educators and leaders has strengthened my understanding that knowing what needs to change and having the capacity to make that change are not the same thing. The work has taught me to pay close attention to what people understand, what they are experiencing during implementation, and what may be getting in the way.

Clarity Matters

Before expecting consistent implementation, I have learned to ask whether people understand what they are being asked to do, why it matters, and what it should look like in practice.

Implementation Reveals the Real Need

Some needs do not become visible until people begin doing the work. Observation, walkthroughs, coaching conversations, data, and implementation evidence can reveal where additional support, resources, or learning are needed.

The Same Support Will Not Meet Every Need

Evidence helps me determine whether the next response should be professional learning, coaching, modeling, a resource, clearer expectations, additional practice, or a different level of support.

Support Requires Follow-Through

Providing support is not the final step. I want to know what happened after the support was provided, whether practice changed, what evidence is emerging, and whether another response is needed.

What I Have Come to Understand

Capacity building is not about doing the work for people. It is about understanding what is keeping them from doing the work well and providing the right support to help them move forward.

Building Capacity That Lasts

The Goal Is Greater Capacity, Not Greater Dependence.

Whether I am supporting a teacher, a school leader, a leadership team, or a larger improvement effort, I want the work to leave people better equipped to understand the challenge, use the tools and evidence available to them, and make informed decisions.

That means paying attention not only to what needs to improve, but also to the knowledge, structures, resources, feedback, and continued support people need to carry the work forward.