A Continuing Learning Community of Practice

Though coaches are quite knowledgeable in many areas, continuous school improvement is an area in which they may not have had training. Fortunately, coaches are eager learners and are skilled in reflective practiceand action research that are foundational components of coaching for school growth. In an effort to provide coaches with the knowledge and skills to facilitate and support continuous improvement, Coaching for Learning leadership will provide a year-long professional developmentand networking experience guided by the six (6) levers of the West Virginia Continuous Improvement Process.

Guided by the Coaching for Learningcurriculum/trainings, coaches will put their learning into practice at their respective schools (learning-by-doing).They, in turn,will support school teams with learning the structures, processes and attitudes necessary to make changes throughout the school aimed at increasing student learning. The coach is the person “on theground,” in the school on a day-to-day basis, and over time strategically introduces a collection of tools, processes and practices for teams and individual teachers to use.

Depending upon the current reality of the school(s) in which the coach is assigned, the coach may need to assist with the process of creating the foundational structures forcollaborative teaming. Over time, the coach will gradually decrease his/her participation in the team meetings once the process has been crystalized and capacity has been built.

Coaching for School Growth through the Continuous Improvement Process

A Snapshot of Coaching for School Growth:

Coaching for School Growth combines the complex skills of creating partnerships, establishing trusting relationships and facilitating instructional growth in the entire school organization. The respective roles of transformation coaches and instructional/academic coaches often overlap in the Coaching for School Growth model. Traditionally, academic coacheshave played a rather narrow role in schools, working primarily one-on-one-with another teacher. This work is important, and coaches can be instrumental in developing the skills of individual teachers. But, if foundational structures for collaboration are put in place, coaches’ work can have unmistakable impact in supporting the transformation of an entire school.

Coaching for School Growth is a “side-by-side” partnership approach where the coach facilitates collective dialogue and often works with the leadership team. Together they interpret school-wide student performance results to identify root causes and then collectively decide next steps [SMART goals] and how to measure them. Next, using data, the coach works with teacher collaborative teams to address the critical questions of teaching and learning [DuFour]by: 1) engagingteams in the improvement cycle (determine current reality, plan, do, monitor and adjust); 2) engaging teams in the learning-by-doing (collective inquiry) process; and 3)increasing the introduction of improvement strategies slowly but steadily.

The Process:

Through focused listening and looking at data, the coach identifies short and longer term “wins”andrecognizes the need to start realistically. The coach stays the course, working with simpler parts of the whole element(s). The collective efforts and learning of the teachers increase in scope and impact. Once the continuous improvement process has been embedded in the work of the school teams, student achievement increases and the school culture subtly changes, morphing into a continually improving learning community. The following cultural changes become inherent:

  1. Increases in staff efficacy, motivation, skill and sustainability
  1. Decreases in retraining and need for external coaching assistance

Where the coach begins depends on the leadership team’s determination of the school’scurrent reality:

  1. Promoting School-wide Growth—AddressingSchool Culture

The coach leads activities to discover underlying beliefs and attitudes that drive the decisions and behaviors that are the school’s culture (who they are). Hard data about such things as student achievement, together with the perceptive datacollected from teachers, students and parents, are used to compile the current reality of the school. The coach is careful not to try to tell the school who they are or where they are, but instead introduces the process and suggests activities with data whereby educators can discover and draw those conclusions themselves. It is also important for a coach to never tell a teacher or team what or who they should be, but instead the coach facilitates activities/scenarios that lead to conversations and a process of discovery.

  1. Promoting School-wide Growth—Working with the School Leadership Team

The coach helps a school that is in need of the foundational components create the necessary and logical structures to work and solve its own problems through a focused, research-based, agreed upon process. Initial work is accomplished through the school leadership team that:

  • studies the best working structure for teaming and creates collaborative teacher teams

(school-wide) –Every staff member is on a team

•manages the continuous improvement process and creates the plan – including re-allocation of resources—Plan is revisited often and revised as the data indicate

  • schedules data workshops to:
  • navigate the continuous (cyclic) improvement process using authentic data
  • discuss the process of addressing the critical questions of teaching and learning through the learning-by-doing approach (increasing in scope as staff experiences efficacy)
  • write school SMART goals
  1. Coaching Collaborative Teaming Processes

The coach supports teacher collaborative teams as they meet to discuss student achievement results and plan next collectiveaction(s) that might include:

  • shared agreement regarding protocols for addressing the critical questions of teaching and learning [adapted, DuFour]
  • shared agreement regarding the core instruction for a lesson or unit of instruction and student specific instructional strategies(targeted instruction)
  • shared formative assessment ideas—measure student learning on a frequent and timely basis
  • determining next steps—what to do about the results brought to the meeting—what action researchto do and bring back to next meeting
  1. Providing Technical Assistance to Individual Teachers (toward an identified goal)
  • instructional strategies (core; targeted; intensive, enrichment)
  • classroom management in terms of delivery of instruction
  • assistance with any aspect of addressing the critical questions of teaching and learning

Coaching for Learning Curriculum

(Guided by the 6 Levers of the West Virginia Continuous Improvement Process)

**While coaches’ manner of conducting themselves when relating to those with whom they are working has a more direct implication in the “Creating Community/How to Coach” realm, it is continuously threaded through the other levers as well.