What Happens During Language and Literacy Coaching? Coaches’ Reports of Their Interactions With Educators

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: This study investigated coaches’ interactions with educators in the context of a large-scale, state-implemented literacy professional development (PD). We examined log data and open-comment reports to understand what coaches found salient about their interactions with educators as well as how those reports aligned with the initial design of the PD. Coaches reported spending a large proportion of their interactions with educators completing administrative tasks. Our findings also indicate that coaches disproportionally targeted instructional content from the PD while also adding unrelated instructional content to their coaching. Although coaches reported focusing on relationship building, they reported using less efficacious coaching strategies (e.g., observation and discussion) more frequently than coaching strategies demonstrated to be more efficacious (e.g., modeling and coteaching). Practice or Policy: Our findings suggest an explanation for the mixed evidence around coaching, as coaches in the study seemed to move beyond the specifications of the PD in their coaching interactions. This work has implications for the design of PD for both improving coach training and allowing some flexibility to meet educators’ learning needs that may be secondary to the content of the PD. Findings also support the need for more nuanced mechanisms for investing in coaching and coaching outcomes.

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the contributions of other investigators and collaborators, including Laura Justice and individuals from the Early Childhood Quality Network such as Dennis Sykes, Sharon Sullivan, Kathryn Rider, and Melissa Ross, or the cooperation of the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning and School Readiness. We express deep appreciation for the early childhood agencies, administrators, educators, and professional development facilitators involved as well as the research staff members responsible for research activities.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant Nos. R305E100030 and R305B12008 to The Ohio State University. The opinions expressed are our own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Early Childhood Quality Network, or Ohio Department of Education.