A recent blog by Eric Sheninger highlighted the importance of providing coaching for school leaders at all levels. Sheninger describes the value of coaching for all professions and points to the need for administrator coaching, which is often overlooked. He cites the following from Marta W. Aldrich:

“When it comes to the impact of school-related factors on student learning, research shows that school leaders are second in importance only to teachers — but also can have a multiplier effect on the quality of teaching. Historically, however, professional development has been limited to periodic workshops and training that focus mostly on administrative, operational, and compliance issues. They rarely receive ongoing, embedded coaching and problem-solving support based on the instructional needs of specific schools.”

The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning from the Wallace Foundation identified five key principal responsibilities:

• Shaping a vision of academic success for all students, one based on high standards.
• Creating a climate hospitable to education in order that safety, a cooperative spirit, and
  other foundations of fruitful interaction prevail.
• Cultivating leadership in others so that teachers and other adults assume their parts in realizing the school vision.
• Improving instruction to enable teachers to teach at their best and students to learn to their utmost.
• Managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement

As I read that list, it strikes me how coaching others is a major element of being an effective principal. “How can a principal lead as an instructional coach when they have all of the other hats they have to wear, including evaluation?” is the question that led Kathy Perret, Shira Leibowitz, and Jessica Johnson to write their book, The Coach Approach to School Leadership. (Find a podcast with the authors here)

Several of my ongoing messages about coaching apply to the need for coaching opportunities for administrators.

• As one advances in their practice, coaching becomes of increasing importance. Similar to professional athletes or performing artists, coaching should increase as one’s performance level becomes more and more complex.
• Everyone deserves a coach. As John Dewey stated, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” Coaching creates valuable opportunities for reflection.
• Being coached is a critical learning component of developing one’s coaching skills. Teacher leaders, instructional coaches, and school leaders should be among the ‘most coached’ members of a school staff.
• Coaching creates opportunities to celebrate successes which build confidence and perseverance. Teachers working in isolation often miss these important shared moments. Administrators often work in greater isolation than teachers. Conversations with a coach create shared celebrations.

Across my 35-year history serving schools throughout the United States and internationally, I frequently experienced the value that administrators at system and building levels, along with teacher leaders and classroom instructors, found in the coaching moments that we had. Many of these coaching sessions with administrators occurred spontaneously in unexpected free moments. Much of my coaching role was questioning and listening that encouraged reflection.

Prior to quarantines, I had begun doing some virtual coaching, usually with international schools where distance, time, and costs limited “being there” options. I was somewhat surprised to get substantially positive responses back regarding the value of these virtual sessions. I now have two years of additional virtual experience, learning and being coached, which is encouraging me to increase my availability to provide virtual coaching that is highly personalized to meet educators’ needs within time and financial limits.

Here are some examples of current coaching sessions I am providing:

• A district-level Learning Design and Innovation Team- coaching team facilitators, team meetings, and individual team members.
• International School Heads of Departments and Teams- coaching at team meetings, middle-level leaders’ meetings, and one-on-one coaching sessions.
• Instructional Coaches and Their Administrators- coaching sessions with individual coaches and with coach-principal partners as they implement a new instructional coaching program.
• Teachers Implementing a New Professional Growth Plan Process- individual coaching sessions with teachers as they created a plan around a hypothesis for increased student success- follow up coaching sessions as plans are implemented, evidence gathered, and reflection begins. (Includes coaching for administrators supporting teachers’ implementation)

Contact me if you’d like to explore ways to increase coaching opportunities for school leaders at all levels. sbarkley@pls3rdlearning.com

“If the goal is to support our teachers better then commitments must be made to ramp up assistance to all school leaders, including central office. Investing time and resources in people, regardless of position, is the key to transforming school culture in a way that leads to better results.“

– Eric Sheninger

This past week I was involved in a few central office interviews and writing proposals concerning future trainings and consultations I might be providing. In each case the topic of educators learning and creating a culture of adult learning emerged. As most often happens, connected writing by others appeared.

Peter Senge defined learning organizations as:

…organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.

Paul Ash, in a blog for Learningforward , It’s Time to Create School Systems that Learn, (April 22,2013) wrote:

But the capacity of a school district to provide all students with a gold-standard education is directly proportional to the system’s ability to function as a learning unit — one that overcomes the limitations of the past and unleashes the collective power of educators to innovate and more effectively reach all students.

Ash along with John D’Auria has authored, School Systems that Learn: Improving Professional Practice, Overcoming Limitations, and Diffusing Innovation.

Ash suggests these roles for educators:

• Teachers see their roles not as conveyors of information but as architects of learning experiences for their students.
• Principals see themselves not as building managers but as leaders who shape and influence learning cultures for teachers.
• Central office leaders see their most significant work as supporting and inspiring the learning and efforts of principals.

Ash summarizes the challenge:

“One of the most vital components of a learning school system is the ability of its leaders to develop learning climates that foster continual experimentation with new strategies and ideas to improve student learning. While there are many factors that contribute to effective schools, creating a school system that learns is the most effective way to improve student learning.”

Senge identifies the difficulty, ”While all people have the capacity to learn, the structures in which they have to function are often not conducive to reflection and engagement. “Linda Darling-Hammond writing in a Washington Post blog,   reports these survey findings from teachers that illustrate how much many systems need to change:

Only 32% have a chance to frequently co-create or reflect with colleagues about how a lesson has worked.

 Only 21% are given time to frequently examine student work with colleagues.

 Only 14% frequently receive feedback from colleagues.

 And only 10% frequently have the opportunity to observe the teaching practice of a colleague.

Even worse, evidence suggests that time afforded to educators to collaborate and problem-solve is eroding quickly. As recently as 2009, a MetLife study indicated that 68% of educators had more than an hour per week to engage in structured collaboration with colleagues to improve student learning.  By 2012, only 48% had an hour or more per week for this essential work. In what professional field can practice improve if most practitioners don’t have even an hour a week to work together collaboratively?

A great example of experimenting to find time for adult learning was posted on ASCD Edge by Eric Sheninger from New Milford High School in NJ.  He cut all non-instructional duties in half to create a Professional Growth Period for teachers.  After a year of experience Sheninger has modified the plan to increase teacher autonomy in selecting how to invest their collaborative and learning time.

Our students need all of us in schools to be lead learners modeling skills and attitudes that will empower them for their future.