Coaching for School
Improvement: A Guide for
Coaches and Their Supervisors
An Overview and Brief Tour
Karen Laba
Indistar® Summit
September 2, 2010
Agenda and Outcomes
Session Agenda:




Survey coaching use
Rationale for a coaching guide
Tour the draft guide
Try out one of the exercises in the guide
Session Outcomes: Participants will




Share current “level of implementation” of school
improvement coaches
Examine the contents of the draft guide
Assess a sample exercise
Respond to an invitation for feedback and input
2
Who uses ‘coaches’ ?



Raise your hand if your implementation of Indistar® makes use
of coaches.
How would you rate your “level of implementation” of coaches to
support school improvement within the Indistar® system?
 A. No development or implementation
 B. Limited development or implementation
 C. Full implementation
What evidence did you consider to come up with your rating?
(If you indicated “C,” please check in with me to share what you’ve learned
and how you evaluated your coaching functions.)

What gaps exist between your conception of full (and effective)
implementation and your current status?
3
Rationale for a “coaching guide”

Collect what’s best about current practice to
enhance the good outcomes from school
improvement processes





Definitions/ description of school improvement coach roles,
responsibilities, competencies and dispositions
Coach’s role across the stages of a continuous/ rapid
improvement cycle
Suggestions for coaches working within the Indistar® system
Strategies for supervisors responsible for selecting and
supporting coaches
Encourage sharing of best practices, lessons learned
in using coaches to support improvement teams
over time
4
Survey of the Coaching Guide
Section 1: What is a school improvement coach?
What does the coach do?









Continuous improvement cycle stages
Stage 0: establishing a school
improvement team
Stage 1: assess current status
Stage 2: develop a plan for change
Stage 3: implement the plan
Stage 4: monitor implementation
Stage 5: monitor impact
Stage 6: review new data
Stage 7: revise and refine the plan
5
Survey of the Coaching Guide
Section 2: Coaching with Indicators




What are indicators? Why indicators?
Using Indistar® within the school improvement
cycle
Providing formative feedback
Indistar® Step 4: Assess indicators




Indistar® Step 5: Create School Plan




Rating implementation
Selecting priority
Judging opportunity
Visualizing full implementation
Evidence to monitor implementation
Evidence to monitor impact
Indistar® Step 6: Monitor School Plan

Standards for quality of evidence
6
Survey of the Coaching Guide
Section 3: Selecting and Supporting School
Improvement Coaches





Defining requirements,
responsibilities, qualities
Event based interview process
Training options: Indistar® pioneer
states, resources
Buying time: the power of checklists
Engaging coaches in collaborative
problem solving
7
Sample ‘Pause and Reflect’
Purpose: Build a repertoire of coaching comments
that encourage teams to think critically about
their work.
Setting: You are assigned as a coach for a school
improvement team using Indistar®.
1.
Read the examples of school plans taken from
Indistar® on pages 34-35 of the draft guide.
2.
Read the question stems in Appendix B (p 53).
3.
Construct a coaching comment for one of these
examples that would encourage the team to
define tasks to lead to their desired outcome.
4.
Share your example with others in your group/
at your table.
8
Request for Feedback and Input



Comments?
Feedback request in folders.
Return by usps or email to
Pam Sheley
Next Steps:
Revise draft.
Post completed guide on website.
9