Joellen Killion

When coaches focus on quality teaching, they get to the core of a teacher's work -- content knowledge, instructional practice, and meaningful assessment. Explore the coach's role in helping teachers to reach this standard. In addition to detailing key aspects of the standard, Killion shares an experience that showed her […]

Role: School leader By Joellen Killion , Cynthia Harrison  School-based coaches assume leadership roles in schools, whether formally or informally. As leaders, coaches work intentionally to make a positive difference in their schools. Leadership tasks for coaches include serving on school improvement teams, working informally with teachers to understand change […]

The teachers who serve as leaders in their schools are key to setting and reaching improvement goals for student learning. Teachers act as models and advocates in fulfilling the Leadership standard: Staff development that improves the learning of all students requires skillful school and district leaders who guide continuous instructional […]

Coaches and school leaders tend to be eager to embrace innovation. Yet the people they coach are at a wide range of levels of readiness for change. Teachers with more experience have different concerns than novice educators. At the same time, teachers, like students, learn in different ways. Read how […]

Role: Mentor By Joellen Killion , Cynthia Harrison The school-based coach often serves as a mentor to new teachers. In this role, coaches call upon their knowledge of instructional strategies, classroom management, and the culture of a specific school. They must also understand the stages of teacher development and adjust […]

The school-based coach often serves as a mentor to new teachers. In this role, coaches call upon their knowledge of instructional strategies, classroom management, and the culture of a specific school. They must also understand the stages of teacher development and adjust support to meet novice teachers' needs. Learn more […]

Coaches and school leaders tend to be eager to embrace innovation. Yet the people they coach are at a wide range of levels of readiness for change. Teachers with more experience have different concerns than novice educators. At the same time, teachers, like students, learn in different ways. Read how […]

Role: Data coach By Joellen Killion , Cynthia Harrison Instructional coaches have a relatively new role in assisting teachers to analyze student achievement, perception, demographic, and process data. Such a role includes many steps, from identifying what data to examine and how to display data meaningfully to helping teachers make […]

Instructional coaches have a relatively new role in assisting teachers to analyze student achievement, perception, demographic, and process data. Such a role includes many steps, from identifying what data to examine and how to display data meaningfully to helping teachers make instructional decisions based on the data. Facilitation skills are […]