Have you heard this from school leaders? “We invested heavily in this new curricular program. Teachers were invited to give input during the decision-making process. Resources were purchased. Training was completed. Expectations were communicated. We all want greater consistency across classrooms and stronger outcomes for students. So why aren’t teachers implementing the program with fidelity?” […]

Donna Spangler, a past chair of district level coaches, describes the need for coaches to develop strategies to gather input that assesses the effectiveness of their coaching program. The collection of calendar and activity records tend to record activity; not impact. How does coaching enhance teacher professional growth, positive organizational change and most importantly student […]

Preparing for and facilitating data review meetings with groups of teachers is often found in instructional coaches’ job descriptions. Dr. Heather Hill, a researcher and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, suggests that we might want to reconsider the investment of the coaches’ and teachers’ time in these meetings. In a review of studies […]

This post initially appeared on Jim Knight’s Instructional Coaching site in August 2020. Throughout my career I have always been frustrated by school, district, or state requirements that are supposedly designed for progress or improvement but in actuality are a paper chase. Frequently on the list of such policies are Professional Growth Plans (PGPs). In […]

I have been working with several school organizations updating and examining their teacher professional growth plans. In each case leaders want to focus on maximizing the payoff in student success, growth or achievement from educator’s learning. They want the plan to provide for teacher autonomy while aligning efforts to school-wide goals. Each of these systems […]