Is My Coaching Making a Difference Whatsoever?

Susanna has wondered why she agreed to make the switch from teacher to instructional coach. As a teacher, she had a clear sense of what she was there to accomplish. As a coach, she’s not so sure.

Her principal isn’t quite sure either. Kathy is in her second year on the job and is still working to gain trust among a cohort of teachers who are dedicated to their students but are somewhat reluctant to shift their practices in the direction the district is moving. Mostly she has been working to create a culture of learning and collaboration among the teachers—a process that is proving to be slow-going. The school has recently slipped on the state test and Kathy has many questions about how to ensure that the students’ needs are being met.

The district left it up to Kathy to figure out how to implement coaching in her school. At first she thought she would use the coach to help a few struggling teachers. But as she reflected, she was concerned that this approach might create resistance towards the very culture of collaboration she was trying to foster. Then she considered making coaching voluntary for any teachers who were interested, but she worried that this approach would fail to create a broad enough impact across the school. When she considered student-centered coaching, Kathy felt it had the best odds for impacting more students and would be better received by the teachers. Susana liked the idea too. She had spent her teaching career thinking about how to better meet the needs of her students, and this felt like something she could do as a coach.

They moved forward to design a coaching effort that had the following characteristics. It would be:

- Driven by a goal for student learning

- Organized into ongoing coaching cycles

- Anchored in student work

- Progress is measured through formative and summative assessments

- Led by the school leader

Instead of suggesting that Susana’s role is to help struggling teachers, Kathy set the expectation that every teacher has students with needs, so every teacher is a candidate for coaching. Teachers gradually began engaging in the process and found it to be beneficial to themselves and to their students. Word spread and coaching took root. Now Susana is happily doing the work she had hoped for when she left the comfy confines of her classroom—and she is making a difference.

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Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com