Karen Laba
Center on Innovation and Improvement
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 Purpose of the presentation
 Intended outcomes
 Brief overview
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.”
Yogi Berra
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Coaching for School Improvement: WHY?
 Local capacity limitations
 State capacity limitations
 Coherence
Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.
Vince Lombardi
PLUS: “ Sam said it was a good idea!”
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March 2011
ESSENTIAL Coaching Function:
Pressure and Support
“An outside school coach, properly prepared and sensitive to individual and whole-school concerns, can provide a balance of pressure and support to initiate and sustain meaningful school improvement.”
(Kostin and Haeger, 2006)
 “properly prepared”
 “sensitive . . .concerns”
 “provide a balance of pressure and support . . .
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 Locally defined responsibilities
 State expectations
 Other considerations
A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.
Ara Parseghian, Notre
Dame football coach
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March 2011
Coach’s Responsibilities:
State Expectations
 What is the work?
 Continuous improvement – school, LEA
 SIG implementation, monitoring
 Other . . .
 Varying Regulatory
Environments, State
Contexts !!
“Keep it simple. When you get too complex you forget the obvious.”
Al Maguire
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March 2011
 Some State sponsors of coaching for school improvement –


Virginia
Illinois


New Hampshire
Idaho


North Dakota
Vermont
 Coaching within/ beyond Indistar
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March 2011
 Essential competencies
 Personal/ interpersonal, professional
 Knowledge, skills


Performance Expectations
Advice on recruiting coaches
 Advice on contracting for coaching services
"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We."
Phil Jackson
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Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.
Casey Stengel
What are some examples of guidance offered by
Pacesetter (and other) states around the qualities and competencies of school improvement coaches?
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SEA Role: Communicating Expectations
Consider Doug Reeves’ advice:
“Effective coaching focuses on changing performance. Therefore, the first requirement of any coaching relationship is that the person receiving the coaching must agree that a change in performance will be useful. Throwing coaches at teachers and principals who have not first agreed that improved student performance is essential will be a waste of time and money.”
(Reeves, 2009, p. 75)
SEA Expectations = (a) tasks (EASY !!)
(b) purpose/ reason (HARD!!)
Task expectations – checklists (Guide, pp. 44, 51, 52)
Purpose expectations – How can the SEA communicate the need for “a change in performance”?
Typical – Federal and/or state accountability sanctions
Optimal – Inspire pursuit of excellence
“You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.”
Bob Nelson, Buffalo Bills,
Oakland Raiders .
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Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
Pat Riley, NBA Coach
What are some ways
SEAs are communicating expectations – for both school improvement tasks and the need for a change in performance?
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March 2011
*What Gets Monitored Gets Done*
Monitoring Compliance measures – checklists, self-reports
Indistar® coaching comments – quality, frequency
Monitoring Impact
Intended outcomes/ audience
Trustworthy measures
Instructional practices
Organizational structures
Professional learning
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What are some ways SEAs are monitoring coaching, both for compliance and for impact?
“Look for players with character and ability.
But remember, character comes first."
Joe Gibb, NFL Redskins
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March 2011
Coaching for School Improvement: A Guide for
Coaches and their Supervisors www.centerii.org
-- Coaching for School Improvement
-- Coaching with Indicators
-- Selecting and Supporting School Improvement Coaches
-- Monitoring Coaching
Indistar® Blog http://indistar.blogspot.com/
Share your stories, strategies and coaching successes and challenges
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Send comments, suggestions to Karen karenlaba@comcast.net
and/or Marilyn Murphy murphyma@temple.edu
“I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.”
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke basketball
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