Building SEA Leadership Capacity in a New Era of Change

September 23, 2026

By Kate Wright, Director, State Policy and Impact, WestEd

This year marks a unique era of transition for midlevel directors at state education agencies (SEAs). The U.S. Department of Education is expanding waivers, flexibility, and state-level authority over how federal programs are designed and delivered. This shift requires greater SEA capacity for taking on an expanded role in implementing PK–12 programs. 

That capacity challenge is compounded by an unrelated but overlapping wave of change: 2026 is a major election year that could result in the conclusion of terms for dozens of sitting state chiefs. For many SEA directors, this means managing new federal flexibility while maintaining continuity through a change in agency leadership. 

These director-level leaders sit at the center of both policy implementation and organizational stability. They oversee critical programs; administer significant funding; and lead the staff who work directly with superintendents, principals, and educators. Many of them came into their roles from school or district positions in which the skills that made them successful look very different from the leadership demands of an SEA. Managing statewide teams, translating policy into practice, and sustaining programs through political and staff turnover call for a different kind of leadership altogether. 

This blog post examines what the U.S. Department of Education’s changes and widespread transitions among state chiefs mean for the directors responsible for sustaining this work. It highlights strategies—including lessons from Comprehensive Centers (CCs), federally funded centers that provide capacity-building services to state, regional, and local education agencies—for developing the unique state-level skills that state directors need for leading effectively and navigating this period of change. 

The Opportunity: Capacity Building Pays Off 

Investing in leadership development for director-level staff has real, measurable payoffs. It can improve the effectiveness of the programs those leaders oversee, raise the quality of services that SEAs deliver to schools and districts, and strengthen SEA staff retention at a moment when turnover is already a risk. 

​WestEd has seen this play out directly through the CC program and individualized partnerships with state teams. 

As part of the Southwest Comprehensive Center, WestEd supports the development of SEA leaders through the state-level leadership initiative, SEA Leading, Empowering, Advancing, Developing, Supporting (SEA-LEADS). The initiative helps leaders deliver strong and effective programs and services to the districts and schools they serve. Participants receive monthly training and peer coaching on skills like building teams, delegating, and leading through change.

The results from a prior cohort in the Region 15 CC were strong: 98 percent of participants reported that the learning was relevant to their work, and 96 percent said the tools they gained were meaningful and actionable in their agencies.  

Leaders have used what they learned to build more structured onboarding and coaching practices for their own teams, replacing what one participant described as trial-by-fire management with deliberate, ongoing support.  

As major transitions take root this year, intentional and ongoing capacity-building opportunities can support midlevel SEA directors in navigating complex changes. 

The Challenge: Designing Development That Fits SEA Realities 

Leadership development only works if it is built around the realities of how SEAs actually operate, which raises three central challenges. 

Time. Director-level roles are constantly pulled in competing directions, so development has to be flexible and meet leaders where they are rather than adding another rigid obligation to their calendars. 

Varying Levels of Experience. Most SEAs have a mix of tenured leaders and staff newly arrived from schools or districts, which calls for differentiated, cohort-based approaches rather than one-size-fits-all training. 

Coherence. For any leadership initiative to stick, SEA executive leadership needs to actively support it and connect it to the agency’s broader priorities rather than letting it operate as a stand-alone program. 

WestEd’s capacity-building expertise reflects how to address these challenges directly. The SEA-LEADS design was shaped by surveys and conversations with SEA leaders themselves, ensuring that training time was spent on the skills that agencies said they needed most.  

Sessions are built for cohorts of leaders facing similar demands across state lines, so that participants can learn alongside peers at a comparable stage of their careers. Program leaders have also emphasized securing engagement from top agency leadership as essential to sustaining the work over time, describing it as building authentic ownership at every level of the organization. 

How WestEd Can Help 

As federal flexibility expands and agency leadership shifts across the country, investing in the people responsible for carrying that work forward is not optional. It is what will determine whether states can turn new authority into better outcomes for students.  

WestEd offers direct pathways for SEAs looking to build this kind of capacity through SEA-LEADS, tailored executive coaching for SEA directors, and individualized partnerships with SEA teams. Contact Kate Wright to learn more about which pathway is right for your team.