[Background music] Last summer, Chu, who is a teacher,
went to a training where he learned about some research-based practices
that he’s excited to use to help his students learn.
But now he’s back to his full daily routine.
There’s not too much support for implementing the new practices,
so it’s pretty much impossible to do so in a meaningful way,
considering all the other demands on Chu’s time.
That’s no surprise. Research has found
only about 5% of educators are able to implement new ideas
they learned at a training after they go back to their jobs
on their own, even when the training was high-quality.
So this is where Aaliyah comes in. She’s a coach.
When a true coach enters the picture, suddenly, instead of only 5%,
85 to 95% of teachers are able to successfully implement a new practice.
These findings have been replicated in multiple studies.
So what do we mean by coaching in this context?
It’s intentional, job-embedded professional learning designed
to help teachers and staff use an innovation or practice as intended.
It takes place after the training and happens while the participants
are engaged in their work.
Chu feels it helps to have a peer by your side –
someone who’s skilled in reflective conversations.
Someone with an open, self-reflective, and culturally responsive mindset.
Someone who knows you’ll run into internal and external barriers
to reaching the goals you’ve set and knows how to
help you make a plan to get past them.
Someone with dedicated time and skills to help you step back and analyze what
the data says about whether your efforts are making the impact you want.
Aaliyah helps Chu comes to answers on his own, keeping everything
confidential along the way. So Chu gets to practice the new skills he
learned in his training in an environment that’s safe and judgment-free.
You’re probably familiar with this kind of one-on-one instructional coaching.
But Aaliyah has a varied job in her district. She’s also coached the district leadership
team as they’ve looked at what data shows about reducing achievement gaps.
She coaches principals too. Once, she even got pulled in
to help a co-teaching pair with difficult conversations so they could
work together more productively. Not every coach has the skills
to coach in all of these situations, but there are some commonalities
to what all these kinds of coaching look like when coaching is working well.
One of the reasons Aaliyah is able to support Chu is that her administrators
understand and have made crystal-clear what effective coaching is.
Aaliyah’s job description is well-thought-out, and there’s been
common training in the district on what makes a coach a coach.
Now, Aaliyah has visited neighboring districts where staff haven’t had time to
comb through the research and develop their own clear definition of coaching.
As a result, these coaches aren’t really doing the same practice
that was proven in the research.
And so, despite the district’s investments of time and money,
they’re not getting most of the benefits of coaching.
This is why we put in the time to make a definition
that any coach or school can use.
We tapped Wisconsin practitioners and experts as well as the leading research.
Our eight-page document, The Coaching Competency
Practice Profile, breaks down effective coaching into several core competencies.
We spell out exactly what those competencies look like
when their components are being practiced really well
versus when they’re just emerging in a coach’s practice.
Versus when they’re not there at all.
Actual coaches in Wisconsin schools helped us field test and revise
this document to make sure it’s workable and helpful.
Whatever kind of coaching you’re doing, if you model
the components of these competencies as described, you are practicing coaching
with fidelity to what was evaluated in the research.
So the educators and students around you can enjoy the benefits.
We’re also providing other materials to help make the most of coaching,
including some focused on the roles administrators can play.
Now, not only can Aaliyah make sure she’s partnering with Chu to educate
his students to best effect, but all of us can be confident that,
when we do manage to invest in this new practice called coaching,
we know how to take the time to do it right.
Look for our materials at dpi.wi.gov/coaching.
[Silence]