Coaching for School Improvement: A Guide for Coaches and Their Supervisors An Overview and Brief Tour

Karen LabaIndistar® Summit September 2, 2010

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

Rating implementation Selecting priority Judging opportunity

Indistar® Step 5: Create School Plan Visualizing full implementation Evidence to monitor implementation Evidence to monitor impact

Indistar® Step 6: Monitor School Plan Standards for quality of evidence

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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

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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.

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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.