Today we’re talking about how school leaders can make the decision to invest in hiring multiple instructional coaches. This is a highlight from one of my favorite episodes from a previous season featuring Samantha Olson Wyman and Stephanie Cifuentes.
What I love about this episode is that Sam and Stephanie share the ways they used data to determine the impact that coaches were making – and they found that everyone in the community was benefiting from instructional coaching.
As coaches and leaders we really have to be clear about the outcome of the work – and we must be able to articulate that to those who are making financial determinations about staffing (for more on this topic, make sure to check out the recent episode with Donna Spangler on Coaching for Impact, Not Activity; and a previous QuickTips about Measuring Your Impact as an Instructional Coach.
It can be hard to spend time and energy on collecting data about your practice and your impact – the actual work of collecting and analyzing the data is keeping you AWAY from doing the work. But actually communicating those outcomes will not only support you better prioritizing your own work, but it may make the case for adding new members to your team.
If you’re trying to build a coaching team, or, on the flip side, if you’re struggling to demonstrate the value of your coaching program right now, this clip is for you!
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Why hire multiple coaches?
Data is really important. We look at:
- how many teachers are engaging in coaching,
- teachers are citing coaching in exit interviews or staying interviews.
We have evidence and proof that faculty love the support of our coaches, and we use our instructional coaching program as a way to attract faculty.
As we consider growing in 6-12, and we look at the whole financial picture, including major additions to campus, impacts budget and how we continue to grow, within that we maintain non-negotiables, one of those is that student learning is paramount. There’s not a direct line between coaching and student learning (cause and effect is extremely difficult to measure) but you can take lots of evidence and say that this is impacting this. We can measure where we’re having an impact.
How do you address the financial implications?
As you consider tight budgets: where can you retool some of your staffing? In a 6-12 model you can do this a little easier than Pk-5, you can shift elective offerings, which can impact a lot for a coach. You might find that there are certain positions (not people) that are having the maximum impact, and reflect on where would coaching would have an impact.
Steve Barkley talks about class size as not being a silver bullet, instructional coaching has the biggest impact. If you’re looking at dropping class sizes by 2-3 students vs having another coach, you really need to weigh this out. We would rather stay with coaches, they’re invaluable.
Teachers love our instructional coaching team. They see them as an incredible team: they understand curriculum, resources, put theory into action. They are well sought out. They do so much for the teachers and our teachers know that. That helps spread their power.
Making Connections
I really appreciate how clearly Sam and Stephanie have explained that the data tracking that coaches do to determine the outcomes of their work is essential in determining staffing for that team. It often seems like something extra or something that we might not have time for, but actually this data is essential.
When Sam highlights that it’s certain people (or staffing) who have the biggest impact on student learning, it’s not enough to just say that, you have to be able to demonstrate it through data too. This is why really being intentional about collecting data (and sharing the outcomes) around your practice and your impact is absolutely essential.
As I mentioned in the intro, we have several other videos on this topic, including our recent interview with Donna Spangler on Coaching for Impact Not Activity, a QuickTips episode with Andrew Ranson on Data Dashboards, a QuickTip on Measuring Your Impact, and one of our very early episodes with Jordan Benedict on coaching data.
This is also why we focus on measuring your impact in every single one of our courses for coaches – because it’s essential no matter where you are in your coaching journey. Even new and aspiring coaches need to be aware of this facet of the job, because it’s very different from a classroom position. And even experienced coaches can really struggle to find the sweet spot between endless data collection, and data collection that really demonstrates an outcome.
If any of that sounds familiar, and you’re ready to dig deeper into being more intentional in your coaching practice – or if you’re new to instructional coaching and you’re curious about getting started, join us for one of our courses for coaches!
Watch the Video
Workshops for Instructional Coaches
To continue your learning, try one of our FREE workshops where you’ll be able to dig deeper into the concepts in this post, and get a peek at all of our courses for coaches.
We have workshops (and courses) to support coaches at every stage of their career: from educators curious about coaching, to new and aspiring coaches making the move from classroom to coach; to current coaches ready to be more intentional and strategic in their practice; to established coaches leveraging their coaching experience to lead.
You can them all on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops
If you’re curious right now, you have questions, please reach out. You can leave a comment below, join our #coachbetter Facebook group, or find us on social media at Eduro Learning and send me a DM. I’d love to support you on your coaching journey. See you next time!
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