Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
It’s difficult to find reliable data about the number of educators employed as instructional coaches. Part of the challenge is that coaches have a wide variety of job titles and responsibilities. Learning Forward members list more than 125 coaching-related job titles, and coaches have so many diverse responsibilities that defining a coach’s role is a necessary first step for any coaching program (Killion et al., 2020). Coaches’ responsibilities have only increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of new instructional modes, teacher absences, and other challenges, coaches now find themselves serving as classroom substitutes, bus duty monitors, helpers for student behavior issues, and more. All of this additional work is occurring during a time of unrelenting stress and trauma. One study
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References
Diliberti, M.K. & Schwartz, H.L. (2022). District leaders’ concerns about mental health and political polarization in schools. RAND Corporation.
Helmke, S. (2021). Show yourself that what you do makes a difference. The Learning Professional, 42(4), 13-14.
Killion, J., Bryan, C., & Clifton, H. (2020). Coaching matters (2nd ed.). Learning Forward.
McMahon, S.D., Anderman, E.M., Astor, R.A., Espelage, D.L., Martinez, A., Reddy, L.A., & Worrell, F.C. (2022). Violence against educators and school personnel: Crisis during COVID. American Psychological Association.
Suzanne Bouffard is senior vice president of communications and publications at Learning Forward. She is the editor of The Learning Professional, Learning Forward’s flagship publication. She also contributes to the Learning Forward blog and webinars. With a background in child development, she has a passion for making research and best practices accessible to educators, policymakers, and families. She has written for many national publications including The New York Times and the Atlantic, and previously worked as a writer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Duke University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She loves working with authors to help them develop their ideas and voices for publication.
Categories: Coaching
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