Seven Factors Every Instructional Coaching Program Needs to Be Successful

Jim Knight’s newest book, The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching summarizes seven factors that have been identified over the past 20 years that must be in place for any coach to flourish.

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The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching

At its core, a partnership approach is about treating others the way you would like to be treated. We see coaching as dialogical. Instead of dictating exactly what someone should do to improve, we believe a respectful and collaborative dialogue paves the way to positive change. We work from seven Partnership Principles to guide all of the work we do: equality, choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis, and reciprocity.

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Creating Learning Partnerships

Since coaching is, above all, a series of conversations, coaches must be effective communicators. Coaches should employ effective coaching skills grounded in healthy beliefs about communication.

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Better Conversations

Leadership can be divided into two parts: leading yourself and leading others. To lead yourself, you must know your purpose and principles, how to use your time effectively, and how to take care of yourself. To lead others, you need a combination of ambition and humility—to be reliable and ambitious for change but at the same time responsive to teachers and their needs.

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Better Leaders

While every coaching situation presents unique challenges, an established process for guiding the coaching experience ensures that instructional coaches have all the tools they need to help teachers set and achieve their goals.

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The Impact Cycle

Data is important within a coaching program because it provides a way to set goals and monitor progress. Goals need to be measured frequently so that teachers can determine if what they are doing is working or if adjustments need to be made.

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Gathering Data

Instructional coaches share teaching strategies with teachers so they can meet the goals they set. For that reason, coaches need to have a deep understanding of high-impact teaching strategies.

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High-Impact Instruction
The Instructional Playbook

When coaches flourish, it is often because they work in settings where leaders are intentional and disciplined about providing the support that is required for coaching success to occur. The opposite is also true. Without support, coaches often struggle to have any impact at all.

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What Administrators Need to Know
Evaluating Instructional Coaching

We know that after the excitement of an event day wears off, there can be a bit of a “what next” feeling. In order to set up our partnership schools and districts to have the most success, we’ve created follow-up workshops for embedded coaching. Embedded coaching days provide on-the-spot professional learning with an ICG senior consultant, focused on the needs of each coach.