What is Student-Centered Coaching?

Student-centered coaching is in place in over one hundred K-12 schools across the U.S. It’s about a teacher and coach working together to set specific targets for students that are rooted in the standards and curriculum, and then working collaboratively to ensure that the targets are met. Rather than focusing on the acquisition of a few simple skills, impact is measured based on student evidence and formative assessment data. The coach and teacher collaborate to close the gap that Wiliam and Black (1996) refer to when they write, “In order to serve a formative function, an assessment must yield evidence that, with appropriate construct-referenced interpretations, indicates the existence of a gap between actual and desired levels of performance, and suggests actions that are in fact successful in closing the gap.”

Traditionally, coaching has often centered exclusively on the actions taken by the teacher—making the assumption that if we improve the teaching, then student learning will improve as well. There is some logic to this approach, but an unintended outcome is we’ve spent so much time thinking about what teachers should be doing that we’ve lost touch with the most important people in our schools . . . the students.