Literacy Coaching

• Promotes positive cultural change by creating conditions, behaviors, and practices that embed instructional change within broader efforts to improve school culture and climate.
• Fosters constructive and productive relationships between coaches and teachers by protecting confidentiality and ensuring that coaches have no involvement in the teacher evaluation process.
• Supports collective, interconnected leadership across a school system where large numbers of school personnel feel ownership and responsibility for leading improvement efforts in
  teaching and learning.

A growing body of research suggests that coaching is a promising element of effective, district-supported professional development in the following ways:

• Effective coaching encourages collaborative, reflective practice. Most studies show that coaching leads to improvements in instructional capacity. Teachers supported by a coach, tend to
  apply their learning more deeply, frequently, and consistently than teachers working alone.
  • Effective coaching encourages the use of data analysis to inform practice. Instead of working in isolation, teachers can work within guided teams to target specific practices that support issues, such as closing opportunity gaps, supporting teachers across career stages, and advocating for equity.
• Coaching can sustain professional learning and support implementation into practice. Coaching is an important element of a professional development system. To be most effective, coaching should be seen as an integrated part of a broader system. It must be explicitly linked to other professional learning opportunities and components of systemic improvement, such as small learning communities or district-wide frameworks. Because coaching takes place in classrooms, observation, learning, and experimentation occur in real situations with immediate feedback to promote effective implementation.

To establish a system that prioritizes ongoing, job embedded professional learning that teachers want and need, districts must commit energy and resources. According to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, “the best way to build a coaching system is by doing it—but doing it as a collective enterprise embedded in the larger district context, rather than as an isolated project.”

To that end, there are key considerations that district leaders should thoughtfully explore as they build or strengthen their district model. Embedded within this site are interrelated considerations, along with the foundational principles and essential questions, to guide dialogue and planning by district teams.