Supporting Teacher Growth & Development

During the fall of 2020 the school had to modify how coaching cycles took place due to the pandemic and distance learning. The coaching cycles were similar in non-distance learning time but coaches would go into the classroom in person and sometimes in teams with other teachers who were working on similar goals. The school has also modified the rubric they normally use to a modified version called, the Distance Learning Best Practices Rubric, which is specific to what teachers and coaches are able to do during the pandemic. The teachers are formally observed by a choice of two coaches and depending on teaching experience will have a choice of observation cycles. All “new” teachers-that is first year at the school-complete 1 full cycle, which involves formal coaching for a 6-8 week s. Second semester they have the option of a focused cycle or a less intense informal coaching experience (explained more below). Teachers who are not new have the choice of formal or informal coaching for each semester. There is flexibility for each teacher in terms of the start and end date of cycles, length of cycles, focus or goal of cycle (informal and formal) and choice of partnering with coaches. All goals are student centered, even in informal coaching.

The intended school’s outcomes are for the “Student Centered Coaching Model” used at our site are; (1) Connect instructional coaching to student outcomes (2) Places student achievement as the focus for our collaboration (3) Vehicle for moving literacy forward (4) Addresses teacher feedback + student need. The more focused objectives for teachers and students include; (1) An opportunity to learn in a partnership (2) Guided by learning goals, based on the standards and our curriculum (3) Analyzing student evidence to guide our instruction (4) Another person in the room to look at student work, bounce ideas off of, and record student thinking (5) A way to move student achievement forward. The rubric and feedback forms created are informed using the school goals and “Reading Apprenticeship” schoolwide focus.

The effectiveness of the coaching varies by teacher and their coach partnering, however overall teachers like the direction coaching has moved over the past years. Because teacher coaching, observation, and instructional feedback are separated from our evaluation process, there is more trust in the cycles and coaches. Our coaching process centers student work and learnings, that way students can always base their effectiveness based on student growth.]

There are three processes for coaching available, (1) a formal focused coaching cycle (2) a formal full cycle (mostly for new teachers), and (3) informal coaching. Each process if outlined below as presented by the coaches and administration at our school.

Formal Full Cycle: To complete a formal cycle, teachers sign up on survey form sent out by coaches for which month to begin coaching. Next the teacher chooses coach, unit, month, focus and period for co-teaching/student work analysis, as needed, then the coach reaches out before the month to begin Coaching Cycle process. Finally, Coach and Teacher schedule recurring zoom meetings to complete the Coaching Cycle. The classroom component of these cycle also vary, for example teachers can choose from co-teaching, class visit (in person or via video), student work analysis and assessment data analysis.

This is our traditional type of cycle, and it normally lasts 6-8 weeks. Full cycles include the following components: (1) Set standards based goal (2) Develop learning objectives (3) Pre-assess (4) Co-plan and co-teach (5) Post-assess (6) Reflect.

Formal Focused Cycle: This type of cycle normally lasts 3-4 weeks. It contains elements of the full cycle but is modified/condensed to allow the teacher and coach to focus in on 1-2 components. However, it can take place over the span of a unit based on the focus. Focused cycles MUST include the following components: (1) Planning (2) Examination of evidence of student learning (3) Reflection

Some examples of focused cycles are the following: (1) Unit / lesson planning: A coach and teacher co-plan, class visits or student work analysis take place, reflection. (2) Assessment design: A coach and teacher meet to create the assessment (+ rubric) before the unit, examine assessment data at the end of the unit, reflection.

Informal Coaching: This refers to coaching that occurs outside of a cycle. This is normally in one meeting, but can happen over a period of time. Some examples of informal coaching are the following: Tech Platform support: Nearpod, Actively Learn, Zoom, Google Classroom, Padlet, etc (2) Logistical support: Taking attendance, Student Grouping (3) One-off planning session (4) Lesson Feedback (5) Gradebook setup and support (6) Organizational support: calendaring, digital folders, spreadsheets, etc (7) Advisory support (8) Resources and support with ECS priority: combating anti-Blackness (8) Resources and support with ECS priority: deepening RA practice

The forms used to conduct coaching are; (1) a survey form to propose cycle area of focus and cycle length (2) a pre conference form, (3) an observation form developed together based on the interests of the teachers, (4) a rubric with distance learning best practices, and (5) a post conference form. The observation form called “Noticing and Naming” is focused on what the students are doing. The coach only records what they notice and name the students doing during the activity of the students rather than the teachers. The post conference form is just replying to the “Notice and Name” observation form so that the discussion is always student focused. The post conference form includes questions for the teacher to first reflect on their teaching and learning from the cycle, there is also space for the coach to add reflections and feedback.

Challenges

I think there is definitely a time crunch with this teacher. She is very active running school clubs and other community based programs even during distance learning. I will try to minimize the times I have to meet with her and make sure that everything is setup and ready to record so that she does not have to meet multiple times. I also need to be clear about the students work samples we will look at and are strategy to approach the work so that we do not waste much time. She is also a very experienced teacher so I need to make sure that even though I am technically coaching, that I show her respect and not to talk to her like she is not an experienced teacher. I have to talk to her as a colleague and stick mostly to clarifying questions rather than guide a lot of the discussion. I am relying on the rapport I have with her for deep reflection.

I have explicitly asked her to choose learning goals and CSTP elements that really matter to her right now so that our process feels authentic. I plan to continue having explicit conversations about what is important to her in terms of the support she gives students and how she defines learning in her classroom. Because of her negative experience with coaching I must build trust in the process by helping her choose things to focus on that make her feel that this cycle is helping move her instruction forward, and try to make sure that this process does not feel like a static. Another strategy I want to use to build trust in the process and in me is by having informal conversations with her prior to some of the more directed questions. She is a reflective teacher and will want to talk about frameworks and pedagogy and so I should give her time to do that as well even if it does not make it into the CalAPA recordings.

Coaching, observation, and instructional feedback is a very structured component of our school system as explained in Part 1. Coaching has allowed many of our teachers to improve or develop their practice, which means that students benefit from better teaching. The way coaching is done at our school allows all teachers to have at least one thought partner per semester to purposefully reflect on their teaching and examine student growth. This is evidence of a continuous improvement mindset. It allows teachers to set meaningful goals which are chosen by the teacher themselves. It also allows teachers to ask for support in implementing certain strategies and can have the coach teach/model a lesson for them. All these opportunities to learn allow teachers to improve their practice and there is accountability to make sure their instructional strategies are improving student learning. The coaching cycle includes taking a deeper look at student work samples and seeing where students need extra support. This allows teachers to get to know their students better and to shift instruction based on their students need and assets each semester. Because of the coaches ongoing training they are able to provide resources that the teacher did not have access to and can aid with student learning. Continuous improvement is happening for all involved; students, teachers, and coaches.

This process has reminded me of the importance of reflection for all teacher development and is a practice for continuous growth in our practice. Teachers are only one part of the system that helps encourage student learning, and teachers need support and time to reflect on how to improve their instruction. Teachers also need time to look at student work and examine it in a way that tells them more about their teaching and their goals. As an equity driven leader I believe that coaching can help by increasing the quality of teachers and setting a culture of inquiry that applies to all parts of the school system. I think this is why documenting student engagement and learning is very important because it is the students’ progress/growth that should be at the forefront when engaging in this work. This is also why the coaching conversations must be a two-way conversation where the teacher feels just as informed and capable of noticing their own strengths and areas of growth, as well as asking their own questions.

Another aspect that makes our school’s coaching system strong is that it is not evaluative, but rather focused on teacher development which a continuous improvement mindset. Evaluation happens only by administration once a year. Our coaching cycle is solely based developing teachers. This takes the pressure off for teachers. They know that they will not be fired or ranked based on how they do in their coaching cycle. As Darling-Hammond summarizes, “of all the lessons for teacher evaluation and the current area perhaps this one is the most important: I would not adopt an individualistic, competitive approach to ranking and sorting teachers that undermines the growth of learning communities research shows that student gains are more pronounced were teachers have greater longevity and work as a team” (2014, p. 5). Coaching is most effective when it is collaborative and when both teachers and coaches believe in the process and center students’ learning and wellbeing.

One way that our school site can improve is to center equity in their coaching cycles; by “using this framework, teachers identify, name, and take action toward eliminating inequitable practices in classrooms” (Orange et. al, 2019, p.47). This means that the conversations also include questions around school groups who might not be served as well as other groups. In the case of my volunteer teacher they were interested in looking at English language learners and how they engaged with the technology platform they were using. I think that our school can be better at pushing teachers to examine how their practice is impacting certain populations differently. By continuously asking if certain populations are being left behind. This means that when looking at data you don’t generalize the results or patterns, but instead you can focus on the performance of specific student groups and make sure they are accessing the content and skills along with other students.

Another area our school can improve to make the coaching and the school more equitable is “to include teachers in developing the system and in the governance structure that supports the ongoing decision making processes. These conditions address not only evaluation instruments or procedures, but also the policy systems in which they operate and the school-based conditions that are needed to stimulate continuous learning and improvement” (Darling-Hammond, 2016, p. 13). This means any further improvement to our coaching system should include teacher voice, based on their reflection of how coaching has improved or not improve student learning and engagement.

Coaching Strengths and Areas of Growth

Based on the work I was able to do with my volunteer teacher, my areas of strength are relationship building and as suggested by my volunteer teacher, asking meaningful questions. I have evidence of meaningful questioning in our pre-conference and our post conference. During both of these sessions I asked the teacher to articulate what the connection was between her two CSTP goals, so that she could be explicit of how they would work together in her lesson plan. One had to do with technology making content and skills more accessible and the other one had to do with making the classroom more accessible to English Language Learners and students with other learning needs, therefore the connection could seem obvious, however, I think it was important for us to talk about how it was going to play out with the two technology platforms she was going to use. I also think it was important to ask her, “what does success look like for the students, how would she know if the technology was making the work more accessible?” I think these were the questions she found more meaningful since they were less logistical. In addition to asking meaningful questions there is evidence in the videos where I do not interrupt the teacher in her analysis but let her finish her thoughts. This way the teacher feels heard.

I am not sure how obvious it is in the video clips, but my relationship with this teacher made this whole process a lot easier and also more meaningful. Building relationships is one area of strength for me as a coach and equity driven teacher leader. We have grown as teachers together, planned together, worked on the same team for six years, and have been in each other’s classrooms often. Having this relationship made me understand what is important to her and it helped me tailor my questions, my ideas, and our findings towards things that I think she would find meaningful. We are also able to speak about students very lovingly because we trust each other as teachers who deeply care for and respect students. Knowing that we are not looking at students from a deficit framework makes talking about student engagement and student work samples a lot easier. I think relationship building is an important part of coaching as it helps build trust and allows the process to be more collaborative..

Based on volunteer teacher feedback, my second area of growth is making sure meetings are not rushed so that they feel reflective. In terms of areas of growth, I need to make sure that the meetings don’t feel rushed and that I do not overload meetings with questions but rather have less more collaboratively generated questions. This was evidence in the pre conference where I had to get through multiple questions in a short amount of time. This will be difficult because as we all know time is very precious in the teaching profession therefore making meetings longer might make teachers feel reluctant to have them again. With practice I feel I’ll know which are the right questions to ask and what are things that teachers can just fill out in the form prior to our meeting. Addressing the class logistics in a different format might help us spend more time with questions like those related to their goals and how they plan to measure success of that goal.

My other area of growth is having next steps ready for the teachers prior to our post observation meeting or at least having things I can pull from based on their reflection of their teaching. I feel like I could have made stronger suggestions regarding English Language Learners and students with other learning needs, rather than making suggestions that are more general. I was able to make one suggestion that was explicit to the population, but I thought the suggestion was too simplistic. According to Orange and her colleagues in their article Coaching for Equity, “As critiques of coaching models have pointed out, it is not enough to share best practices for teaching linguistically, culturally, and ethnically diverse students. There is a need to develop the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to think deeply about and work effectively with diverse student populations” (2019, p. 46). This means that we need to do more work, more research, and reflect more explicitly on the populations who are underserved such as our English Language Learners. Therefore I should have done more research on how to support English next time, I can improve this by suggesting readings or videos we could watch together or reaching out to our EL coordinator for ideas and insight. This way we can find a strategy collaboratively rather than centering myself as an expert.

Possible Improvements

Coaching, observation, and instructional feedback is a very structured component of our school system as explained in Part 1. Coaching has allowed many of our teachers to improve or develop their practice, which means that students benefit from better teaching. The way coaching is done at our school allows all teachers to have at least one thought partner per semester to purposefully reflect on their teaching and examine student growth. This is evidence of a continuous improvement mindset. It allows teachers to set meaningful goals which are chosen by the teacher themselves. It also allows teachers to ask for support in implementing certain strategies and can have the coach teach/model a lesson for them. All these opportunities to learn allow teachers to improve their practice and there is accountability to make sure their instructional strategies are improving student learning. The coaching cycle includes taking a deeper look at student work samples and seeing where students need extra support. This allows teachers to get to know their students better and to shift instruction based on their students need and assets each semester. Because of the coaches ongoing training they are able to provide resources that the teacher did not have access to and can aid with student learning. Continuous improvement is happening for all involved; students, teachers, and coaches.

This process has reminded me of the importance of reflection for all teacher development and is a practice for continuous growth in our practice. Teachers are only one part of the system that helps encourage student learning, and teachers need support and time to reflect on how to improve their instruction. Teachers also need time to look at student work and examine it in a way that tells them more about their teaching and their goals. As an equity driven leader I believe that coaching can help by increasing the quality of teachers and setting a culture of inquiry that applies to all parts of the school system. I think this is why documenting student engagement and learning is very important because it is the students’ progress/growth that should be at the forefront when engaging in this work. This is also why the coaching conversations must be a two-way conversation where the teacher feels just as informed and capable of noticing their own strengths and areas of growth, as well as asking their own questions.

Another aspect that makes our school’s coaching system strong is that it is not evaluative, but rather focused on teacher development which a continuous improvement mindset. Evaluation happens only by administration once a year. Our coaching cycle is solely based developing teachers. This takes the pressure off for teachers. They know that they will not be fired or ranked based on how they do in their coaching cycle. As Darling-Hammond summarizes, “of all the lessons for teacher evaluation and the current area perhaps this one is the most important: I would not adopt an individualistic, competitive approach to ranking and sorting teachers that undermines the growth of learning communities research shows that student gains are more pronounced were teachers have greater longevity and work as a team” (2014, p. 5). Coaching is most effective when it is collaborative and when both teachers and coaches believe in the process and center students’ learning and wellbeing.

One way that our school site can improve is to center equity in their coaching cycles; by “using this framework, teachers identify, name, and take action toward eliminating inequitable practices in classrooms” (Orange et. al, 2019, p.47). This means that the conversations also include questions around school groups who might not be served as well as other groups. In the case of my volunteer teacher they were interested in looking at English language learners and how they engaged with the technology platform they were using. I think that our school can be better at pushing teachers to examine how their practice is impacting certain populations differently. By continuously asking if certain populations are being left behind. This means that when looking at data you don’t generalize the results or patterns, but instead you can focus on the performance of specific student groups and make sure they are accessing the content and skills along with other students.

Another area our school can improve to make the coaching and the school more equitable is “to include teachers in developing the system and in the governance structure that supports the ongoing decision making processes. These conditions address not only evaluation instruments or procedures, but also the policy systems in which they operate and the school-based conditions that are needed to stimulate continuous learning and improvement” (Darling-Hammond, 2016, p. 13). This means any further improvement to our coaching system should include teacher voice, based on their reflection of how coaching has improved or not improve student learning and engagement.

Supporting Documents