What is coaching?

Coaching is high-quality professional development.

Instructional coaching reflects the growing consensus about what constitutes high-quality professional development for teachers. It is job-embedded, addressing issues teachers face daily in their classrooms. It is ongoing, not a one-shot workshop. It is aligned to state standards, curriculum, and assessment; and its goal is twofold: improved instructional practice and improved student learning.

Coaching is an established professional practice.

Many professions ensure that their practitioners benefit from the wise counsel and hands-on assistance of experienced colleagues — in other words, coaches. Some professions require coaching as an essential part of mastering the requisite skills. In medicine, for example, internships and residencies provide required coaching for doctors new to the profession or specialty. In the legal profession, senior partners mentor junior associates. The education profession is now adopting coaching as a promising strategy for building teacher expertise, raising student achievement, and advancing school reform.

Coaching is one-on-one and small group professional development.

At its core, instructional coaching involves two people: the classroom teacher and the coach. Coaches work one-on-one and in small groups with teachers, providing guidance, training, and other resources as needed. Together, they focus on practical strategies for engaging students and improving their learning. Coaches also are often responsible for providing or arranging professional development activities for all teachers in a school or district.