Principal Support: The Key Ingredient for Successful Instructional Coaching

I am convinced we can radically improve how well our students learn and perform if our schools become the kind of learning places(for students and adults) our students deserve. Impact Schools are ones where every aspect of professional learning is designed to have an unmistakable, positive impact on teaching and, hence, student learning.

In Impact Schools, principals and coaches collaborate to support and lead all aspects of professional learning. This partnership is essential, but at the same time, coaches and principals must structure their relationship carefully so that teachers do not misunderstand the coach’s role in schools. If teachers perceive coaches as evaluating or judging them, they may not be receptive to coaching. To ensure that the principal-coach relationships foster rather than hamper effective coaching, here are a few issues that a coach and principal should consider.

Top Down / Bottom Up

Instructional coaching is based on the partnership principles. When coaches take the partnership approach, we have found that teachers are more inclined to implement new teaching practices. But, a partnership approach that exclusively relies on bottom-up initiatives has limitations. Bottom-up, by itself, does not appear to be enough. The principal has to provide instructional leadership.

When the principal isn’t actively leading, teaching methods can be inconsistently applied, causing confusion and slow school improvement. A purely bottom-up approach can lead to teachers being out of sync with district and state guidelines, and often, those who need to change the most opt-out. On the other hand, a purely top-down approach can create resistance among teachers, making them less likely to engage meaningfully. Thus, telling teachers that they must work with an instructional coach actually makes it more difficult for instructional coaches to enroll teachers in instructional coaching

What is required is a balance of bottom-up and top-down strategies. Instructional coaches should continue to build bottom-up support by positioning themselves as equal partners collaborating with their fellow teachers based on the partnership principles. At the same time, the principal clearly is the instructional leader. Principals should align new teaching methods with school goals, limit interventions to the most effective ones, and promote school-wide implementation. Most importantly, perhaps, the principal and instructional coach work together to ensure that those who need help get it.

In practical terms, principals should observe classes, evaluate teachers, guide the school’s goals, and monitor progress. Meanwhile, instructional coaches provide intensive, respectful support that empowers teachers to implement the practices. In short, the principal focuses everyone’s attention on the target; the instructional coach makes it easy for teachers to get there.

Clarifying Roles

Principals can help coaches be more efficient by ensuring that everyone clearly understands the coach’s and principal’s distinct roles.

The work conducted by instructional coaches must focus on capacity building if it is to have a long-term impact. Coaches primarily support teachers as they implement practices. In addition, they may lead workshops, facilitate intensive learning teams, and perform other tasks that support and accelerate professional learning.

When coaches focus on capacity building, there are tasks that they do not do. Usually, coaches do not sub when teachers are away, do administrative work, or work directly with students except in the service of the larger goal of promoting teacher growth.

Leaders are often tempted to ask coaches to work directly with students instead of coaching; however, this is a quick fix that does not fully exploit a coach’s ability to make a lasting impact. When coaches work with students instead of with teachers, they only affect those children for that particular year. By contrast, when coaches help teachers reach their students, they help every student the teachers will teach for the rest of their lives.

When coaches and principals clarify the coach’s roles, the coach is better able to focus attention on helping teachers meet their goals. Clarifying a coach’s role also increases the likelihood that he or she will find the job rewarding. Clearer roles also make it easier for principals to conduct teacher evaluations because they provide a reference point that principals can use for observing coaches and talking with them about their progress.

Confidentiality

In most types of coaching, the practice of coaching occurs within confidential relationships. There are several reasons for this.

First, when coaches deal with what matters to teachers, they are privileged to see and hear information most others will not see and hear. To share that private information with others is a violation of a person’s privacy. Second, coaching is much more productive when collaborating teachers are open about their ideas, thoughts, and fears. For many teachers, knowing that coaching conversations are confidential makes it easier for them to talk about what really matters. Third, when we ensure that coaching is confidential, we increase the chances that teachers will choose to work with a coach.

All that to say, not everything a coach does, can, or should, be confidential. What is most important is that principals and coaches clearly delineate what they will and will not discuss, communicate that policy across the school, and act consistently with the policy.

Frequent Meetings

When a principal and coach are serious about achieving the goal of excellent instruction in every classroom, every day, for every student, they will find that they must meet frequently. This is important because the meetings provide:

• an opportunity for the principal and coach to discuss the progress of professional learning in the school
• an opportunity for the coach and principal to discuss, explore, problem-solve, and plan the general progress of professional learning within the school
• they keep the principal and coach on track
• they provide a chance for the coach and principal to discuss the teaching practices on the Target

Principal Support

Teachers are inclined to do what the principal emphasizes and to ignore what the principal ignores. For this reason, the principal must communicate support for the coach.

Such support can be communicated both literally, by the principal speaking up about the importance of the coach and the value the coach brings to the school, and symbolically, by the principal attending workshops led by the coach, by listening attentively when the coach talks in meetings, and by taking the time to encourage those who collaborate with the coach.

Coaches have repeatedly told me that the single most important support they need to be successful in their jobs is principal support. With it, they can lead change. Without it, they struggle to make an impact.

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To learn more about supporting coaches and your coaching program, consider attending our System Support: What Administrators Need to Know About Coaching workshop. Attend a virtual cohort or bring ICG to your district for a customized learning opportunity.