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Coaches build strong teams

By Joan Richardson

Results, September 2004

Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2004. All rights reserved.

"The responsibilities of the coach are daunting: to convince a group of teachers both to engage in an adult learning process and then to adopt a teaching approach that likely challenges much of what they believe and have done, some quite effectively," said University of Massachusetts-Boston researcher Lisa Gonsalves. In addition to being knowledgeable and skilled about Readers' Workshop, coaches "must also be able to manage individuals and groups, pushing when appropriate and backing off when necessary."

Few school districts have made an investment in coaching that is as deep and wide as the commitment made by the Boston Public Schools.

Now in its ninth year of coaching, Boston has 83 literacy coaches involved in its Collaborative Coaching & Learning (CCL) process. With the exception of the exam schools and most pilot schools, each of Boston's 139 schools has a coach at least half time each week and some larger schools have a full-time coach. The district spends about $7 million annually to support the project and its budget even includes a line item specifically for the substitute teachers needed to release teachers to participate in CCL coaching.

"We wouldn't continue down this road if the successes weren't so mind-boggling. We have tons of anecdotal evidence that this is making a difference," said Cathleen Kral, instructional leader for literacy and director of literacy coaching. "It's very powerful. Teachers are meeting in the corridors, in the lunchroom, and talking about instruction. The whole culture seems to have shifted in some schools."

At the beginning of the 2003-04 school year, Supt. Thomas Payzant said the district chose this form of professional development because "it includes collaborative analysis of practice in the classroom, takes advantage of teacher expertise, and encourages the growth of a professional learning community."

Boston arrived at its team-based approach to coaching after a few years of trial and error. Initially, Boston began one-on-one coaching in 1996 as a way to guide change and to raise literacy knowledge. Coaches were dispatched into schools but largely left on their own to find teachers willing to work with them. Principals were generally supportive, but most schools had only one coach for one day each week. "It really wasn't very efficient," Kral said.

A leadership team of Boston educators interested in learning more about Readers' and Writers' Workshop visited several New York City schools that had worked closely with their creator, Lucy Calkins. They came away believing some elements of her professional development process could be adapted to Boston. "What we really liked about her staff development model is that it was based on a group of teachers learning together and that they had time for immediate feedback and time to try out ideas under the supervision of a staff developer," Kral said. "That got us started thinking and brainstorming about how we could expand our own coaching model."

Following an initial pilot in 26 schools and with substantial support from the Boston Plan for Excellence, by fall 2003, the district had evolved into its home-grown CCL model as its primary strategy for spreading literacy practices drawn from Readers' Workshop throughout the system. Elementary schools use Readers' and Writers' Workshop to teach authentic literacy practices; high schools adapt the same strategy to deepen adolescents' ability to interpret and understand more challenging texts.

Here's how CCL works in Boston:

A CCL cycle is eight weeks long. Each school identifies four to eight teachers to be in a coach-facilitated cohort during each CCL cycle; coaches typically have two to four cohorts going simultaneously. Teachers are usually grouped by grade level or by subject area. However, CCL teams at the high schools often are multi-disciplinary groups drawn together to work on literacy strategies. Boston's principals and headmasters are encouraged to join at least one CCL cycle both to demonstrate support and to learn more about the process.

The CCL cycle has three components: inquiry, demonstration or lab, and one-on-one coaching. The cycle begins with a one-hour inquiry period at the same time each week. Teachers initially use this time to study data and set their learning goals for the cycle. "They look at their students, themselves, and their collective knowledge in their given area," Kral said. After that work is done, the weekly inquiry time is used to share what they're learning from their assigned readings and to plan and refine lessons for the weekly demonstration.

Every week, each cohort of teachers observes a demonstration lesson drawn from their area of inquiry. The demo lesson always occurs in the classroom of one of the participating teachers. Typically, the coach does the first demo lesson; after that, any of the cohort's teachers may volunteer to demonstrate. (Although all teachers are required to participate in CCL, no teacher can be required to demonstrate in front of peers.) During the demo lesson, the focus is not on the teacher but on the lesson or strategy. Observing teachers are encouraged to focus on questions such as: How did students respond? What did students say or do to indicate they were learning? How can each of you apply this strategy in your classroom?

Debriefing is an integral piece of the lab site. "They come back and have time to pull it apart," Kral said. "This is always the most difficult part. Coaches are currently working to help teachers move beyond the culture of politeness so that debriefs can be more productive."

The final piece of the cycle is the one-on-one coaching with teachers in the cohort. Coaches schedule time to individually support the teachers in the cohorts as they try new strategies through workshop instruction.

All teachers in the cohort are expected to try the lessons in their own classrooms. Those experiences along with their observations of the demonstration lesson form the basis of their conversation during the debriefing period.

The cohort repeats this process every week during the eight weeks of the CCL cycle. Then new groups of teachers are tapped to begin a new CCL cycle.

The goal is to include every teacher in at least one CCL cycle during each school year. The district's hope is that the sustained experience with coaching will evolve into more collaborative work with peers after the cycle ends. In fact, Kral says, that happens often enough to keep the process in place. "The experience is so rewarding that often teachers will opt to continue the inquiry group themselves when the CCL cycle is over. They want to continue meeting and discussing instruction. This is a huge bonus from the professional development model we've adopted," she said.

Lead literacy coach Maryann Ouellette believes CCL works because it combines deep learning about content (Readers' and Writers' Workshop) with the individual contact in the schools where teachers work. "It's so different from going off-site and getting information, being enthusiastic about what you learn, and then getting back to the challenges of your own classroom. When that happens, it's easy to lose your enthusiasm in the face of day-to-day challenges so you end up falling right back into what you were doing previously," she said.

"With coaching, you not only get the opportunity for professional development but you have this person on site on a regular basis to help you implement and problem solve around the particular nuances of the population you're working with. The coach can be your cheerleader and your conscience," Ouellette said.

Ouelette also said "off-cycle" support for teachers is essential. Having common planning time for teachers in the cohort is ideal, she said, because it enables the same group of teachers to continue their conversations with each other.

Quincy Elementary School Principal Suzanne Lee believes principals have to lay the groundwork before coaching can be successful. "Make no mistake about it: there are a lot of positives but you do need to establish a certain school culture before this can take place. Unless teachers feel safe, they won't try it. When they feel safe, nobody's going to be negative about it. You need a core of teachers in any building who are willing to try this. Then you can build on to that core," she said.

Ouellette said she's a believer in the power of the strategy. "CCL can definitely entice teachers to become more collaborative. There are lots of collaborative souls locked away in their own classrooms. Once they're unlocked and brought together, they take their natural course," she said.

Extensive materials about Boston's CCL project are available on the Boston Plan for Excellence web site, www.bpe.org.