Instructional Coaching: The Importance of Clarity for All Stakeholders

Instructional coaches have the potential to improve teaching practices that directly impact the quality of teaching that students receive. Thus, they are a valuable resource to schools that use them wisely. Unexamined, the work of an instructional coach may not add to program quality and therefore drain resources of budget and time. Research from literacy coaching and math coaching elucidates the challenges and hindrances obstructing coaches' effectiveness. While my school has been using instructional coaches in math and science since 2018, interviews with coaches, teachers, and administrators in our school show the realities of the challenges in our context and demonstrate that we lack a shared understanding of the role of instructional coaches. To address this problem, two interventions, creating a job description and disseminating it along with information about the history and purpose of the role, were implemented with the goal of creating clarity that would support the development of a shared understanding. Data collected before, during, and after the interventions show improved clarity and aligned understandings about the role of instructional coaches. Continued monitoring of the engagement of the faculty with the instructional coach will determine if the shared understanding leads to improved collaboration and the prudent use of resources. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]