English Leadership Quarterly - Volume 39, Issue 3, 2017

The national conversation about schools now includes emphasis on the use of instructional coaching to develop instructional practices that positively impact student achievement. In this piece, the authors provide guidelines for setting up a successful coaching program in any school.The best way to convince building leaders to implement research-based professional learning is to share this research and be a powerful voice for what is proven to work for both teachers and students.

Some teachers believe that coaching for student impact involves acting upon meaningful formative assessments and challenging discourse between coaches and teachers to inform instructional decisions. Advocating for teachers and for the literacy needs of students remains critical because teachers’ and students’ voices are often silenced by high-stakes accountability policies. With the pressure to impact student achievement, literacy coaches can feel the weight of expectations, with the reform effort often framed as a means of fixing both teachers and students. One dominant narrative assumes teachers will adopt “best practice” literacy pedagogy through participation in coaching, and consequently student achievement will increase.But does it? This article shows that it can, by using student-led practices.

Relationships between literacy coaches and teachers can be successfully built through sharing interests, providing resources, and celebrating successes. But the most revolutionary way to have an impact as a coach is to engage in the pure and unadulterated act of listening. Ironically, people tend to talk a great deal more about listening than we actually engage in the practice of it. For an effective coaching relationship, the coach must be first and foremost a listener.

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