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Instructional Coaches are Helping to Close the Achievement Gap |
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 you ask any Cluster-Based Instructional Coach: “What’s your motto?” the answer will be the same today as it was when the program began. “The bottom line: reading, math, and closing the gap within a culture of collaboration.” Instructional coaches achieve their bottom line by actively assuming many different roles throughout the course of a day. In Taking the Lead: New Roles for School-Based Teachers and Coaches by Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison, ten specific roles are identified, seven of which are highlighted below:
- Data Coach: Compiles classroom, school-wide, or county data in user-friendly, clearly structured formats to help teachers more easily interpret the results. Facilitates conversations to develop an action plan and assists teachers in learning how to compile and manipulate the data on their own for additional instructional benefit. This data-analysis heightens awareness of existing achievement gaps.
- Curriculum Specialist: Provides teachers with support as they implement the adopted curriculum. Plans staff development sessions to deepen teachers’ content knowledge, facilitates curriculum mapping and dissection of the standards, and utilizes the pacing guides to focus on the standards being learned and assessed.
- Instructional Specialist: Assists teachers with planning and pacing of units, the development of differentiated lessons, and the selection of best practices to meet the needs of their students.
- Learning Facilitator: Develops staff members’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors through a variety of professional development topics and techniques.
- Change Agent: Acts as a catalyst for change by asking questions to heighten teachers’ awareness of their decision making for students’ learning.
- Resource Provider: Assists in finding resources to support planning, often providing access to resources with which teachers may not have been familiar.
- Classroom Supporter: Models lessons or best practices for teachers. Co-teaches or informally observes a lesson and provides feedback for a teacher’s professional growth.
Instructional coaches challenge the status quo and push teachers, leaders, and themselves to improve student achievement. By wearing these many hats every day, instructional coaches provide opportunities for the school to explore enhancements and innovations to current practice. Working to implement and see results from more effective practices positively impacts achievement gaps. In addition, building capacity within the teachers and teams creates a culture of teacher leaders who are comfortable with data analysis, collaboration, and facilitating professional development.
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—Amy Beck, Instructional Coach, Kings Glen ES
—Theresa Johnson, Instructional Coach, Fort Belvoir ES
—Kristen Rucinski, Instructional Coach, Lorton Station ES
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