Roles and Responsibilities: What does an Instructional Coach do?
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 at 03:33PM Two people recently have asked me to say more about the role and responsibilities of Instructional Coaches, so I thought I would jot down a few ideas here: Please remember that this is a blog, not a journal article, so these are just random thoughts, not systematic carefully worked out stuff—
My first thought is that an instructional coach’s only job is to improve instruction. So, when we think about whether or not a coach should be doing a particular task, there is a simple question to ask:
If the coach does this task or takes on this responsibility, will it improve instruction?
Using this simple question as a filter, we can sort out some of the stuff coaches are sometimes asked to do:
YES: Some things coaches should do:
As we point out in our institutes, and as I describe in my Principal Leadership article (May, 2005), our instructional coaches perform specific tasks:
(a) enrollment, getting people on board with a program
(b) collaboration, identifying and learning research-based interventions
© modeling, providing model lessons for students
(d) observing teachers & providing feedback
(e) debriefing
(f) ongoing collaboration
These are things that all instructional coaches who learn our model are going to do.
MAYBE: Some things coach’s might do
Gather and analyze data—coaches might do this unless their role as a coach becomes buried under data. If a coach is spending more than 15% of time on testing and data, something’s wrong
Lead teams—coaches could do this in a professional development capacity, that is leading teams until the teams are ready to take over and lead themselves
Participate in meetings—some meetings are essential, some are a waste of time, and coaches need to collaborate with their supervisors to ensure that they do not have to go to the time wasters. Essential meetings are ones with school principals, at least once every two weeks and preferably once a week.
External meetings—only the essential ones should be attended, but sometimes coaches have to show up to have a say in big decisions or to make sure that decision makers know what they’re doing
Making copies: we say that this is a yes, so long as the copies are going to help a teacher implement a new program
NO: Stuff coaches shouldn’t do
Providing services to kids. In other words, coaches might work with kids during a model lesson, but they should not be providing student services when they could be providing teacher services. This is not to denigrate the rewarding important work of working with students, and all the good coaches I've met love to teach. However, if a coach is spending a lot of time teaching, then who is providing the professional development? Not the coach, that's for sure.
As a general rule, at least 75% of the time, a coach should be providing services directly to teachers.
Bus duty,
Cafeteria time
Substitute teaching
Extra office duties
And any other task that takes coaches away from the real job of improving instruction
Having said all of this, every school has it’s unique needs, so you or your school or district may wish to define a coach’s role differently. The most important issue is that you define your role, and then you communicate it to those who evaluate and make decisions about the work you do.
Next time, I’ll talk a bit about how coaches should go about negotiating a contract with their principals
Reader Comments (3)
Liz
Jim
http://www.ustruereligion.com/ Jeans
http://www.frherveleger.com/ Dress
http://www.frlacoste.com/ Lacoste
http://www.ralphlaurens.co.uk/ Ralph
http://www.beatsbydrehome.com/ Beats