Coaching without a Coach

One of my favorite people in the coaching world is Elizabeth (Tiz) Powers, who works at George Washington University's Center for Equity and Excellence in Education and is an active member of Pennsylvania's Institute for Instructional Coaching (PIIC). Her most recent co-authored article in Educational Leadership (December 2011/January 2012, Vol 69, No. 4) entitled, "Coaching without a Coach" is SO timely! In this article, she and co-author, Christina Steinbacher-Reed question, "how can cash-strapped schools empower educators at all levels to engage in coaching?"

After embracing the coaching initiative, our district is one of many in the Lehigh Valley that is experiencing major funding cuts and has eliminated all coaching positions. As the administrator who took this initiative and ran with it, my heart and soul have been rocked to their core. Seven full-time site-based coaches either went back into the classroom, left the district, or changed their duties to serve in another teacher leadership capacity, such as Instructional Support Teacher (IST). 

How can we keep coaching "in the picture"? As Tiz and Christina share in their article, coaches who attended the International Literacy Coaching Summit and Widener University Reading Conference in spring 2011, came up with these possible practices:

• Provide professional development during faculty gatherings,
• Use release time to continue coaching on a limited basis,
• Refer colleagues to experts,
• Share data analysis,
• Initiate co-planning,
• Recruit colelagues to join a book study group,
• Develop and share instructional resources,
• Spearhead collaborative analysis of student work,
• Facilitate peer coaching groups,
• Demonstrate lessons and coteach
• Convince principals to schedule common planning time
• Help create sustainable practices
• Get creative with release time

As Tiz so eloquently coined, "Remember that a change in job title doesn't mean former coaches must stop coaching!"  Keep "coach" as a verb - something ALL educators can do together!