Posted on April 3, 2024April 10, 2024 by Imagine Learning Corporate

April 3, 2024 6:17 pm

Navigating the Biden Administration’s Education Agenda

The president’s “Improving Student Achievement Agenda” aims to enhance education through focused efforts on absenteeism, tutoring, and extended learning. Here are three suggestions for how to align your district with those priorities, offering tangible paths to enrich student experiences and achievements.

It’s no secret that declining student achievement is a pressing issue facing educators and students, and, really, the entire nation. Everyone from the Washington Post to the next-door neighbor with a struggling student at home is talking about our literacy and mathematics crisis. National movements, like the science of reading, and individual states and districts are desperately attempting to provide a solution.

Recently, the Biden administration threw its hat in the ring to try and help. EdWeek reports, “U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden announced… the administration’s new ‘Improving Student Achievement Agenda’ at a White House event with governors and state education leaders.”

This initiative targets three issues impeding student achievement: addressing absenteeism, enhancing tutoring, and extending learning opportunities after school and over the summer. Although no new funding grant or opportunity exists, the administration is asking districts to align their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) spending accordingly.

School administrators are now tasked with a significant responsibility: leveraging these funds to not only meet federal directives but also to truly enrich their students’ educational experiences. Here’s an overview of the three-pronged approach the Biden administration has put forth — and a few ideas for how Imagine Learning can help.

Addressing Absenteeism Through Engagement

Between 25% and 30% of students were chronically absent in 2023, down only slightly from the previous year. Absenteeism is a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution. It requires a multifaceted approach, particularly focusing on family engagement and support.

Implementing programs that excite and engage students can also help. Studies show that 96% of Career and Technical Education (CTE) students graduate from high school and that high-risk students enrolled in a CTE program are eight to ten times less likely to drop out in grades 11–12.

Imagine Learning provides eDynamic learning elective courses and CTE pathways to more than 80,000 students nationwide. These courses offer students flexible learning online or in a hybrid model, giving students agency and an alternative path to graduation. By empowering students with choices that fit their unique circumstances and learning styles, educators can foster ownership and motivation toward their education.

Providing High-Dosage Tutoring Online

The Biden administration’s push for tutoring reflects the critical role it plays in student achievement. High-dosage tutoring, in particular, has been identified as a powerful tool in addressing learning gaps. Finding the staff to provide those much-needed one-on-one or small-group hours is a difficult task, especially given the nationwide teacher shortage.

Imagine School Services is the human branch of our company, providing real-life, caring, high-quality online educators. Students enrolled in Imagine Edgenuity’s online courses can access on-demand, one-on-one tutoring. This dual support system ensures students receive the focused help they need within the course and the option for individualized attention, making it a comprehensive solution to bolster academic success. We also offer Small Group Targeted Instruction. Schools identify students with similar educational needs and skill gaps, and we provide focused instruction for students online with a qualified interventionist. It’s an innovative solution for students in understaffed regions.

Extending Learning with Research-Proven, Personalized Tools

Extended learning opportunities, including over the summer, are essential for mitigating learning loss and preparing students for future success. There’s just no way to close large learning gaps without extending the hours students spend, well, learning. Our “Summer of Yes” initiative exemplifies how summer and extended learning programs can be designed to be both enriching and remedial, providing students with the skills they need to excel in the upcoming school year.

The key to effectively using ESSA funds for extended learning is selecting evidence-based programs aligned with the Biden administration’s educational priorities. Imagine Learning’s offerings are grounded in research and proven to support student achievement, making them an excellent choice for administrators. In particular, our suite of supplemental digital programs allows students to access personalized instruction anywhere, anytime: after school, at home, over the summer, and on vacation. The best part? They’re proven to work.

1.8x

Imagine Language & Literacy students at three districts across Texas achieved 1.8x greater growth on a standardized assessment compared to non-participating peers.

68.9%

of Imagine MyPath students in Stratford Independent School District exceeded yearly growth expectations on the MAP Growth™ reading and math assessments during the 2020–2021 school year.

108Q

Overall average annual Quantile growth for Imagine Math students in a 2021–2022 national analysis.

As education continues to adapt to new challenges and opportunities, administrators play a crucial role in shaping the future of learning. By thoughtfully leveraging ESSA funds in line with the Biden administration’s educational initiative, schools can provide students with the support, engagement, and opportunities they need to succeed. Through strategic investment in programs that address absenteeism, enhance tutoring, and extend learning opportunities, administrators can ensure that their schools not only meet the expectations set forth by the Biden administration but also set a new standard for educational excellence.

Imagine Learning is dedicated to partnering with educators in this journey, offering scalable, research-backed solutions that address the immediate needs of today’s students while laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s achievements.

Posted on June 12, 2023October 19, 2023 by Imagine Learning Corporate

June 12, 2023 3:38 pm

The Science of Reading: It’s personal. It’s political. It matters.

From living room couches and teachers’ lounges to the front pages of major newspapers, everyone is talking about the Science of Reading. What is it? And why does it matter?

“Your child is at risk of not reading on grade level by the end of kindergarten.”

My family and I were devastated after our very first parent-teacher conference back in early 2020. Two years in a high-quality preschool in a well-to-do suburb, reading aloud every night, alphabet games and puzzles — all this and our kid still struggled to remember every letter and sound, let alone smush them together to make words.

Then came the tears. Books sent home in his backpack that he couldn’t read. Words like “fall” with an L-controlled vowel and “birthday” with two syllables and a digraph. He hadn’t been taught those patterns yet. One day he came home telling me he had a special “picture power” and began guessing words based on illustrations in his books. That’s when I started asking questions.

A decade earlier, I became a first-grade teacher at a Title I school in a different town, in a different state, during the Reading First era. I graduated from my credential program in 2008, when George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act provided funding for reading academic coaches to model best practices and in-service training based on the National Reading Panel’s meta-study findings.

I was taught about the big five: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. I learned that word walls should be replaced with sound walls and that we prompt students to look at all the letters from left to right and sound it out every time. No exceptions. I regularly administered a phonics and decoding screener that identified discrete skills the students had mastered — and which patterns, such as ‘oo’ or ‘a_e’ that they didn’t know yet. My students had weekly fluency passages to practice with, and I listened to them read it every Friday afternoon. We built oral language and vocabulary with read-alouds. We applied our weekly phonics skills to spelling words.

All this in 2008, before the “science of reading” was even a thing.

Back to 2020. Frustrated and confused, I decided one night to attend my district’s board meeting where there was to be a presentation on the reading curriculum. That’s the first time in my life that I heard the term: balanced literacy.

I googled on my phone as the presenter carried on. I was horrified. Three-cuing — asking kids to guess the words based on pictures and context clues — was a keystone of the curriculum they were using. My son wasn’t receiving the systematic, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics that he needed — that most children need — to connect speech to print. Students in 3rd–5th grade were being denied access to complex, grade-level texts because teachers were told to match students with ‘just right’ texts instead. None of these practices were based in research. And they were harmful.

But that night at the board meeting I also learned that I wasn’t alone. There were other parents, just as outraged as I, sitting next to me. There were parents of students with dyslexia who were forced to bus their children to private, specialized, schools just so they could learn to read. There were parents, like me, who took it upon themselves to order “Bob Books” and teach their kids to read on their own.

This was in January of 2020 and we all know what happened just a few short months later.

“There were parents of students with dyslexia who were forced to bus their children to private, specialized, schools just so they could learn to read.“

Zoom school was the new normal, and parents across the country gained insight into how their children were being taught: guess the covered word, look at the first letter and guess, look at the picture and guess… guess until you get it right! Does it look right? Does it sound right? They took to YouTube and Twitter to share what they saw, wondering if anyone else was as concerned as they were?

It turns out over 68% of teachers were using this flawed approach. Despite the National Reading Panel’s findings two decades prior, several publishers and most credentialing programs clung to an outdated theory about how our brains best learn to read.

Parent and child practice sounding out words

Pandemic parents started Googling how to teach their kids to read. They began reading books like Overcoming Dyslexia and the National Reading Panel’s report. The term ‘science of reading’ took over the internet — a colloquial term for a wide body of neurological and empirical research showing us how brains learn to read.

Then came a podcast series that really put the literacy world on its head: Sold a Story. A journalist named Emily Hanford did a deep dive into the history of this flawed belief system about the way students learn to read, and how those beliefs took hold across America. She also discussed how much damage those beliefs, and curriculum that adheres to those beliefs, is still doing today.

Teachers listened to the podcast, texted their colleagues, and discussions were sparked in teachers’ lounges everywhere. Justifiably angry parents took to the podiums at board of education meetings. They ran for open seats. They petitioned their representatives in state legislators.

31 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted legislation related to the science of reading. Some require teachers to receive special training in the science of reading, some ban methods such as three cuing, and others require the adoption of new teaching materials aligned to the science of reading.

The science of reading is now a national movement.

My child, now in 3rd grade, is reading on grade level. It took a lot of expensive tutoring and extra support at home to get him there. But most of these stories don’t have a happy ending. Students in privileged neighborhoods get private tutoring while the majority of bright, intelligent students continue to struggle.

Research shows 95% of students can be taught to read by the end of first grade. Yet, recent NAEP scores show only 33% of 4th graders can read on grade level. And it has devastating effects on their future. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in incarcerated or on welfare.

Some folks are still resisting change. They find the ‘science of reading’ movement to be adversarial. To that I say, why yes — yes it is. It’s an emotionally charged issue because students deserve the right to read. There are many factors that play into a student’s ability to read and it’s a monumental challenge to address them all, but research-based materials and professional development in the science of reading for our teachers is a good place to start.

Students across the country are counting on us to do better.

About the Author – Carolyn Snell

Carolyn Snell started her career in education teaching first grade in San Bernardino, California. A passion for the way technology and stellar curricula can transform classrooms led her to various jobs in edtech, including at the Orange County Department of Education. Her knack for quippy copy landed her a dream job marketing StudySync—an industry leading ELA digital curriculum. Now, as the Senior Content Marketing Manager for Imagine Learning, Carolyn revels in the opportunity to promote innovative products and ideas that are transforming the educational space for teachers and students.

The Science of Reading Applied

Imagine Learning’s solutions make it easier for teachers to apply the research.

Learn How

Posted on May 22, 2023October 11, 2023 by Imagine Learning Corporate

May 22, 2023 11:18 am

Creating a Framework for Impact

Today’s schools are measuring success by more than test scores and graduation rates. That’s why Imagine Learning built an Impact Framework: to collaboratively set goals and chart student progress as partners in success.

There are as many ways to make an impact in education as there are students in school. By ‘zooming out’ from only measuring impact the traditional ways – retention, test scores, graduation rates – educators can explore how comprehensive their impact is and could be.

Some days, seeing a student show empathy toward another classmate is evidence of a well-implemented social and emotional learning program. On other days, you can hear the impact of comprehension lessons as you listen to a small group literature discussion. A school’s growth can look like: more languages being heard on campus, math and science bowl awards in the trophy case, connecting courses to career paths, and the student-led pursuit of ‘what’s next.’

The success of a school or district’s impact is often all in how it’s measured.

How can we help?

More educators – from the classroom teacher to the superintendent – are adding metrics like student agency and engagement to how they track positive impact. With that in mind, Imagine Learning set out to determine how we could help chart success as we work closely with them.

Elizabeth Lehnertz, Vice President of Marketing, explains: “We really want to work in partnership with our customers to set a growth trajectory. Growth is the ultimate outcome for our products, but the road to get there isn’t something that happens overnight. That’s why we’ve been thinking about the metrics that lead up to growth.”

After discussion and consideration, the Imagine Learning team identified the metrics of its Impact Framework, as well as questions to consider and examples at each step:

Engagement
Progress
Achievement
Growth

Each metric builds on the one before it, so setting goals according to each one provides a strategic road map to growth. Lehnertz states, “The use of these performative metrics can vary by the [Imagine Learning] product you’re using and by the year of implementation, which is why we’re interested in working collaboratively with our customers to set goals that will drive growth.”

“Each metric builds on the one before it, so setting goals according to each one provides a strategic road map to growth.”

Are students engaged?

It all starts with engagement. Students who aren’t engaged are significantly less likely to achieve the measurements of success outlined by their school and district. For Imagine Learning, questions around student engagement include ‘Are administrators monitoring and encouraging program use?’ ‘When are students actively working?’ ‘Are the students spending enough time in the program?’

Assessing things like logins, active time, the number of student users, and students’ use of motivation features helps measure engagement and inform the next steps in the educator/Imagine Learning partnership.

Are students progressing?

Determining student progress requires assessing the number of activities and lessons completed and checking students’ pacing and grade level progression. It also means asking if teachers ensure students have content to work on and examining how teachers monitor progress. By considering these questions, we can target areas of the program’s implementation that need more connection between our customer success team and partners. When we can ensure teachers are able to use the program at its fullest capacity, everyone is better positioned for progress.

Are students achieving?

This is where scores take their turn as key examples of a metric:

Grades
Activity Score
Lesson Score
Quiz Score
Pass Rate

When focusing on student achievement, we examine whether students are mastering the content and where they struggle. Looking at whether teachers are providing challenges or support based on individual and small group needs also helps. The more in-depth our understanding of teachers’ and students’ experiences, the better we can provide support and develop programs that equip customers for success.

Are students growing?

Finally, the big question. Pulling insight from what we learn about students’ engagement, progress, and achievement, we look at demonstrations of growth on benchmarks and pre- and post-quiz growth. We also explore how our partners’ students’ growth compares to the expected growth rate to determine our programs’ impact.

Look back to look forward

Thanks to the Impact Framework functioning as a roadmap, we can look back through the metrics to troubleshoot any development gaps and generate solutions. As Lehnertz explains: “We’ve identified these metrics – engagement, progress, achievement – as ways to lead to growth. We’ve been looking across our products and across the stages of implementation to really work with our customers to identify goals for each. We then use those goals as a formative way to adjust the implementation and the approach, ultimately leading to growth.”

Combined with the often-immeasurable, personal impacts educators are making every day, the potential is nothing short of exciting.

Elizabeth Lehnertz

Vice President, Marketing

Elizabeth brings over 25 years of experience in education, first as a classroom teacher in Texas before moving into educational publishing and technology. She has held leadership roles in product marketing, product management, and corporate marketing at Pearson, Renaissance Learning, and McGraw-Hill.

With the passion to improve education for teachers, students, and families alike, Elizabeth brings the insight and experience to build and lead industry-leading teams to solve complex problems in a dynamic market.

About the Author — Kallie Markle

Kallie Markle lives in Northern California with her family of humans, house plants, and dogs. The humans take up the least amount of space. Before joining the education world, she wrote her way through national parks, concerts, tourism, and brewing.

Posted on August 5, 2022October 11, 2023 by

August 5, 2022 8:00 am

How Admins Can Care for Teachers

Teachers face heavier workloads and low morale due to shortages and peers leaving, so we’ve compiled strategies for administrators challenged with caring for staff who have remained in the classroom.

We’ve all had that coworker who makes a tough job easier — a ‘foxhole buddy,’ if you will. You know that no matter what the day throws at you, at least they’ll understand. When they move on to other opportunities, you’re often left feeling abandoned and searching for new methods for getting through hard days.

With so many educators opting out these days, the remaining teachers face that awful ‘left behind’ feeling. Peer relationships are a big part of the educator experience, and when that social fabric is torn, individual and community morale takes a big hit. Leigh McLean, an assistant research professor at the Center for Research in Education & Social Policy at the University of Delaware, has found that having colleagues whom teachers can turn to for help boosts mental health, so it follows that when teammates depart (especially when due to burnout), it can weaken the wellness of those who are left.

Administrators are already tasked with filling vacancies and addressing staff-to-student ratios. While that’s essential to serving students, caring for their teachers’ frames of mind is also at the top of the ‘must’ list. So, what are some strategies for meeting this challenge?

Time Well Spent

I asked a retired principal who also taught for many years what she thought administrators could do to support the teachers who have stayed on the job. She considered for a moment, then said, “They should spend time with them, one-on-one if possible or in small groups by grade.”

While it may sound overly simple, she stressed that with administrators being pulled in so many directions, giving someone your time is a significant indicator of their value to you. Further, by spending time with individuals or small groups of teachers, administrators will gain better insight into their mindsets and struggles than they would in an all-staff meeting environment. “They’ll open up more,” she said, “it’s easier to be honest when you know someone is focused on you.”

One assistant principal explained that their success with supporting teachers came “not because we imposed what we imagined would serve them, but because we listened when they told us what they needed.” A healthy rapport and more clarity about teachers’ challenges will better position administrators to offer the necessary support.

“If teachers and students have access to counseling and other mental health support, that’s a heavy burden taken off their principals’ backs.”

Madeline Will and Denisa R. Superville

Time Well Spent

In an EdWeek special report, researchers found that despite stress being a major cause of educator exodus, “only a third of district and school leaders said they have made counselors or mental health services available to staff since the start of the pandemic or added to the mental health services already offered.”

That those services prevent burnout is reason enough to include them in a school community’s system, but the benefits extend beyond teachers: “Having structural supports for teacher mental health will ultimately benefit everyone in the school building, including school leaders. If teachers and students have access to counseling and other mental health support, that’s a heavy burden taken off their principals’ backs,” writes EdWeek’s Madeline Will and Denisa R. Superville

One tactic to implement such services is to use some of the school or district’s federal COVID-19 relief funds to establish programs for educators’ mental health. If professional counselors are hard to come by, administrators can take stock of the resources they have, improve systems to make employees aware of them, and ensure they’re available.

Peer-support programs can also help when professional counseling isn’t available. David Shapiro, the program manager for Health Links at CHWE, says educators can learn “how to be an ally or ‘askable’ adult for their colleague to get the support they need.” Turning to peer support when the problem is an exodus of peers may seem uncreative, but it can be a powerful response to peoples’ instinct to withdraw in times of stress.

A Little Flexibility Goes a Long Way

Here are a few more tactics for demonstrating support for teachers:

Look closely at traditional seasonal events and limit the obligation of the teachers — be prepared to get creative or to cut what isn’t contributing to the school community’s well-being. Just because something is a tradition doesn’t mean it’s effective.
Reallocate support staff to data collection tasks to better free up teachers for the more enjoyable aspects of teaching
Beware the temptation to overtry — don’t keep throwing new practices and theories at already stretched-thin teachers

No matter what, be patient with yourself and your colleagues. Everyone is adjusting to changes and challenges, and no single solution will be a cure-all. With time and intentional relationship-building, you can develop a system that inspires a sustainable love of learning for students and educators alike.

About the Author — Kallie Markle

Posted on June 14, 2022October 11, 2023 by

June 14, 2022 8:00 am

How to Create Meaningful Professional Development for Adult Learners

Give teachers what they really want: the opportunity to be active participants in their own learning.

It’s Thursday afternoon, and my students are having trouble concentrating. Their excitement for a 3-day weekend is palpable, but I’m… not off the hook just yet. Tomorrow is one of those dotted-line days on the academic calendar — a student-free, professional development Friday. Now, while a day of no classroom management is nice, I can’t quite share in my students’ excitement for a true day off.

That is because I know what’s coming: a full day of prescribed professional development. I’m already planning the snacks I will eat and the grading I will sneakily get done.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

It isn’t that teachers don’t want professional development, in fact I’d venture to say most educators would describe themselves as lifelong learners. This isn’t what administrators seek out, either, when they carefully plan PD days. Their intentions are good. For any career, continued education should be involved — especially for something as dynamic and important as education.

So what DOES get teachers excited for professional development?

In my attempt to answer this question, I had an ah-ha moment. I learned that ped, the root meaning “child,” combined with gogy, the root meaning “to lead” (or teach), is where we get the word pedagogy, or “teaching children.”

Andra is the root meaning adult, so (I’m sure you’ve arrived here already), andragogy is the concept of teaching adults. So, if administrators are trying to apply good “pedagogy” in professional development, that in itself is the misstep. American educator, Malcolm Knowles, coined the term “andragogy” in 1968. His four principles of adult learning give us some insight into how to tailor professional development to educators.

a group of educators sitting around a table

1. Adults want to be part of the planning process — and the evaluation.

Administrators were teachers once (and some still are actively involved in the classroom), so it is likely that they know what professional development would be beneficial to their teachers — especially because they have a bigger picture of their entire faculty. However, giving them exactly what they need does not always result in teacher buy-in. This is because, as adults, we value and expect independence. Telling an adult what they need to learn is a surefire way to close them off to any new information.

Pre-training surveys are one way to solicit teacher input, but depending on school size, it might be too difficult to try to please everyone. A more realistic strategy might be to enlist department chairs or team leaders to meet with their teams and agree upon one training opportunity they would like. This takes care of the planning piece, but what about evaluation? For that agreed-upon training idea, administrators might also ask for departments to decide how they expect to implement or “show” the knowledge from their professional development day. Though this will still result in a number of different ideas (read on for thoughts about whole-staff vs. grouped PD), getting the teachers involved with the planning process will ensure that they know you have their interest at heart.

2. Tapping into learner experience is essential.

For our students, activating prior knowledge is usually part of the introduction to a lesson. For adults, it’s often overlooked in the interest of getting rid of the fluff and jumping right into the topic. But where our students may only have a handful of years of experience to look back on, adult learners have a lifetime’s worth of valuable, experiential knowledge.

Utilizing this doesn’t mean asking a question and calling on everyone who raises their hand — we all know you may never get to the content. But something as simple as asking tables to discuss topical experiences for 10 minutes, or even just thinking about it individually, can help increase investment. Not to mention when you want their participation later, they will have already activated their knowledge on the topic.

3. Adults are drawn to learning things directly relevant to them, both personally and professionally.

In this day and age, if you’re looking for insight into what you are interested in learning about, take a look at your Google searches. Here’s my last search: “can a baby eat too many bananas?” This is directly relevant to my personal life as a mom of a voracious 10-month-old. (For those curious, Google wasn’t helpful here, but my pediatrician friend was — let them eat bananas!)

Now, this isn’t to say that PD should be on “Pinterest classroom library ideas.” What I’m here to tell you is that if you already incorporated the previous tips by involving teachers in the planning process and tapping into their experience, you can feel safe that the topic is relevant to at least a subset of teachers. That is where the tip for this principle comes in — no PD day is going to be relevant to all teachers. For that reason, consider forgoing the full day of togetherness and utilizing breakout groups instead. These can change throughout the day or stay the same, but meaningful groupings could be by department, grade level, or whatever unique way your teachers work together. That way, rather than knowing the kindergarten teachers are tuning out while discussing upper elementary student engagement strategies, you can ensure that everyone is getting what they need.

4. Problems, rather than subjects, take center stage.

Continuing with the idea that Google searches reveal what we want to learn, I didn’t search my banana question in the hopes that I would learn registered-dietician-level information about the nutritional makeup of bananas and how they interact with an infant’s digestive system. I had a problem that I wanted to solve — did I need to tone down my son’s banana intake?

The same applies to professional development. Lead with the problem you are seeking to solve, and ensure teachers leave with something they can use to solve it. So rather than starting the day speaking generally about student engagement in the upper elementary classroom, start with the challenge teachers are facing — they are struggling to maintain student attention during direct instruction. While you may not promise a solution, you can promise that teachers will leave with strategies they can implement the next day.

———

As educators and administrators in the K–12 world, we are experts in teaching students, but that doesn’t necessarily transfer to teaching teachers. By including them in the process, drawing on their expertise, and giving them the information they want and need, administrators can feel more confident that their idea of the mentally stimulating day of PD matches up with teacher expectations.

About the Author — Ally Jones

Ally Jones is a California credentialed educator who specialized in teaching English language learners at the secondary level. Outside of education, she is passionate about fitness, literature, and taking care of the planet for her son’s generation.

Posted on January 7, 2022October 12, 2023 by

January 7, 2022 8:00 am

The Coaching Relationship

Fostering growth, confidence, and success in the people you are hoping to influence with evidence-based coaching strategies.

America loves a good coaching story. Before Ted Lasso and Roy Kent captured our hearts, we idolized Denzel Washington’s portrayal of Coach Boone in Remember the Titans and Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own. The story that someone believes in our potential and can help us become better versions of ourselves is one we desperately want to believe in (and pay for repeatedly at the virtual box office).

Perhaps that’s why districts across the nation have popularized the “academic coach” position. Often hired by districts to help support core subjects like reading or math, academic or instructional coaches function as side-line cheerleaders. Sans the evaluatory power of an administrator, the coach position is designed to be a nonthreatening means to positive change in teacher mindset and classroom practices.

The good news for education leaders is that evidence shows a coaching model in schools CAN affect change in instructional practice, at least more so than traditional, cafeteria-style professional development. A recent meta-study and framework for high-quality professional development by The Council of Great City Schools indicates that “personalized coaching and support” is one of four essential features of an effective program.

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is more often helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

John Whitmore

Building Professional Relationships with Reluctant Teachers

Whether on the field or in the classroom, coaching is about unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It’s not about telling them. It’s not about even providing them with information and resources. Instead, it is about building a relationship that helps them unlock their own potential — to be the best they can be in whatever they are endeavoring.

I challenge you to think about a coach in your own life that has helped you unlock your own potential, whether in sports or professional life experience. If you reflect on that, you’ll recognize that what they did was help you be your best self by helping you do that MIND work on your own. Not just telling you, but having you go through the process of exploring, reflecting, and then identifying places you can move forward.

What are the functions of a coach?

If you are an academic coach, there are three main components to your job:

Guide and support teachers in being the best instructional leaders they can be in their classrooms.
Help build efficacy and leadership skills so that teachers aren’t always dependent on someone else to tell them how to approach a program or problem.
Cultivate effective systems for student learning.

Keep it Confidential and Nonjudgmental

As you build this relationship with the folks that you’re coaching, it is critical to maintain confidentiality and not be judgmental about wherever they are in their process.

There’s a continuum to growth and learning. Teachers often begin using a new curriculum or method in parts and pieces before moving to deep understanding and implementation. Meeting them where they are without judgment builds a positive coaching relationship foundation.

Additionally, one of the most important characteristics of a leader is trustworthiness. Earning trust starts with a confidential relationship. Each building and department are its own small community. Be aware of that and keep yourself in check. Reassure the people you are coaching that each conversation is between you and your coachee only, and they can be sure what is said will not be repeated down the hall.

The Coaching Journey

The stronger your partnership with your coachee, the more effective your coaching is going to be. You can do four things on this coaching journey that help build the relationship and establish that trust and rapport that is so important.

When you’re in conversation with your coachee, focus on listening. Be mindful and intentional when they are talking with you. Ask for details with questions like, “Could you tell me more…” and “Tell me what you mean by…” Asking for details and encouraging them to tell you their stories is a terrific way to establish trust and gain respect.

The second thing you can do to be more effective as a coach is to ask questions. This is the heart of the coaching conversation. The process of inquiry that you take your coachee on helps them begin to imagine what is possible. Ask questions that lead your coachee down that path of exploring and uncovering their potential such as, “What might happen if…” or “Would you like more information on…” Help them reflect and get to that place where they have those ‘aha’ moments, just like we want for our students. Asking the right questions can also help you get to their core need, understand their barriers to meeting that need, and discover the best way to support them.

Third, express empathy! Recognizing and validating teacher experiences (again, without judgment) is critical to a healthy coaching relationship. You can communicate the desire to understand by restating for clarification, saying things such as “Let me make sure I understand…” and “It sounds like…” It’s also important at that moment where they are sharing something difficult to be comfortable with silence. Empathy will help to make sure your coachee feels heard and respected.

The last step on the coaching journey is to take action. Help teachers to identify, design, and activate the changes they want to make. This can happen by brainstorming ideas in a co-creative process. Then, select an idea or two to move forward with. Develop a goal and create a plan. Instead of handing them a to-do list, though, be sure to make it a collaborative process. You can make suggestions such as, “Others have tried…” or “Tell me your next steps…” or even “What new ways of being are you willing to try?”

The four processes of listening, asking questions, providing empathy, and taking action do not happen in isolation. They are all happening at the same time as you have coaching conversations. Remember, at the end of the day, you can have all the knowledge and pedagogy as a coach, but if you don’t have the relationship, you cannot reach the teacher you are trying to influence.

The Coaching Relationship

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About the Author — Joan Romano

Educational Consultant, Leadership Coach

Joan was a teacher and district administrator for over 30 years. After retirement, she wanted to continue in education as a leadership coach. She works in districts throughout Southern California, coaching administrators and teachers in supporting programs and implementation. Her passion is to make sure we are providing the best for students and teachers in classrooms.

Posted on October 1, 2021October 12, 2023 by

October 1, 2021 8:00 am

Addressing the Future of a Pandemic Generation

Don’t panic about learning loss, optimize each students’ unique journey. Let’s start by acknowledging our collective humanity.

“Learning loss” has become a trending, catch-all phrase for the growing gap between grade-level expectations and actual student performance. The disparity worsened during the pandemic, exacerbating already existing inequities. Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students saw less growth than their peers.

This deficit mindset — focusing on what students lack — has been shown to only worsen outcomes.

Having spent my career in education, first as a teacher and now as a leader in digital learning, I’ve seen firsthand that educators can do incredible things with the right support. Instead of clamoring to “fix” learning loss — what if we focus on empowering teachers to optimize each student’s unique learning journey aided by powerful technology-enabled tools?

Start by Acknowledging our Collective Humanity

As we strive to improve each student’s academic outcomes, it’s important to acknowledge that we are humans first. Many students lost loved ones and most experienced social isolation.

A trauma-informed approach is needed as we welcome students and families back to school.

teacher and student bump elbows during pandemic

“Students this year will each be at a unique point in their learning journey — and that’s ok.”

Sari Factor

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process that guides students and teachers in the development of skills not covered by academic standards, such as understanding emotions and developing empathy.

Research shows that students who receive SEL instruction have improved life outcomes and outperform their peers academically by 11%.

Start the school year by focusing on student well-being — and academic success will follow.

Beware ‘Accelerated’ Learning

With so much talk about the need to catch up, it’s natural to search for shortcuts or methods to accelerate learning. But that’s not how learning works.

Learning is a journey to be navigated and, depending upon what a student knows and what she needs to learn, moving faster is rarely realistic or appropriate.

It’s like asking a driver to accelerate through a traffic jam. What we can do is leverage technology to find the optimal, individualized learning path for every student.

Focus on Each Student’s Unique Learning Journey

Students this year will each be at a unique point in their learning journey – and that’s ok. With the use of digital curriculum tools, educators can quickly and accurately understand where all of their students are and, critically, how to move each of them forward.

That starts with rethinking the way we use assessments. Rather than conducting assessments at the end of a term or school year, this moment all but demands that we create a culture of ongoing assessment and immediate feedback. When using high-quality digital learning tools, every keystroke tells a story about what a student knows.

Teachers receive valuable data to inform their instruction. As partners, digital learning providers need to make that data as clear and easy to interpret as possible.

Next, we need to implement personalized learning programs that focus on optimizing learning, not accelerating it. Many students are significantly behind, and we need to collaborate creatively to catch those students up.

One way is to be flexible in our content delivery. Where a student is and how far they need to go should influence the lesson she receives, and teachers should adapt content as needed to get a student on the right pathfor them. Adjusting or crafting new content for each student would be extremely time-consuming for teachers, if not impossible. By tapping into digital curricula, teachers can more easily tailor lessons for every individual, providing them better access to grade-level instruction.

Third, we should embrace flexible solutions that complement traditional classroom learning. These can take a lot of different forms — from adaptive software on a tablet to virtual on-demand tutoring — all focused on ensuring students have what they need to experience that breakthrough moment. Teachers play a vital role in deciding which instructional tools will work best for each student.

That’s why we believe our work starts with providing teachers with quality programs and the support they need to implement them effectively.

Many districts are also facing teacher shortages at a moment where we desperately need more teachers in classrooms. The ability to “port in” teachers from different locations could go a long way to help students progress in their learning this fall.

Districts should also continue to offer hybrid, in-person, and virtual learning options.

Most students are excited to return to in-person learning, but some thrived with online learning. Enrollment is down, particularly in the older grades. We need to preserve flexible programs that will entice teenagers — including the significant percentage who work and attend school simultaneously back to school.

This school year won’t be easy, but educators do hard things every day in service of students. If we’re going to improve learning outcomes, we need to collaborate across the full education support system — curricula, educators, and families.

Together, we should be clear-headed about the work ahead and committed to giving teachers the support and tools they need to optimize each students’ unique learning journey.

About the Author — Sari Factor

Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Imagine Learning

Sari began her career as a mathematics teacher but soon thought of much bigger ways to impact students. Recognizing that technology could greatly transform the way students learn, she made a career move into education technology and has been working to leverage technology to help students, teachers, schools, and districts ever since.

Sari joined Imagine Learning in 2011 and has held leadership positions at successful educational publishing and learning technology companies, including Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Everyday Learning Corporation. “I knew that I could fulfill my vision to combine technology with research on learning to make education truly student-centered.”

Posted on July 17, 2019October 16, 2023 by

July 17, 2019 8:00 am

Six Keys to Effective Professional Development

Engage your teachers and staff in effective professional development with these simple and research-backed tips.

As the library begins to fill up with your colleagues, you wonder, “Will we get out early today? What is this professional development about anyway? I’ve got too much to do in my classroom to focus on this.”

This may sound all too familiar to educators taking part in professional development. Naturally, one wonders how to make professional development effective for teachers, and the simple answer is by making sure to both engage teachers and allow time for reflection. But how we get there is a bit more detailed.

In a 2009 study, over 90% of teachers reported having participated in professional development that was not useful. Professional development, of course, is intended to benefit all the educators who participate in it, so what are the keys to effective professional development sessions for teachers?

Students in a classroom all raising their hands to answer a question

1. Administrative Support

Before any PD sessions occur, it is imperative that the district’s primary point of contact be available for a meeting or phone call with the PD specialist. This call may be the only opportunity for the parties to touch base about topics related to the agenda, the level of experience of the teachers participating, and logistics.

During the session, it is important for the overseeing administrator to be present and active. Often, questions or topics arise that are unique to a school district’s policy. While PD specialists can offer suggestions, ultimately the school’s or district’s administration must be present to make decisions or establish guidelines for their staff. A delay in decision-making can impact a teacher’s ability to deploy what they have learned right away.

Beyond the initial session, sustained administrative support is essential to a teacher’s success since implementation of some new practice, policy, or technology is a big challenge. Therefore, support from administration, other teachers, and PD specialists during PLC or instructional time can provide this important layer.

2. Teacher Buy-in

Teachers deserve PD that is relevant for them and their students. One way to achieve this is to have them play the role of and see the content through the lens of a student. As they learn new content and skills during the day, reflection can help guide them in understanding how their students can apply the new skill.

Another way to create buy-in is to elicit input about their learning objectives for the session. Having a greater stake in the desired outcomes can be very rewarding for a teacher who struggles to see the result.

3. Say–Show–Do

Central to any classroom is the concept of modeling. We first tell students what they will do, then carefully model the skill, and finally expect them to replicate the skill independently. This same concept should apply to PD sessions. Participants are more willing to apply a specific tool or skill once they have been presented with clear instructions and modeling on how to do that.

4. Collaboration Among Peers

Teaching is a collaborative profession, so isolating teachers during a PD session is counterintuitive to that. Finding opportunities for collaborative activities can keep participants engaged and tap into different ideas and perspectives around an idea or philosophy. Broadening teachers’ perspectives can, in turn, lead to increased engagement with their students.

5. Differentiation

Educators are expected to do this for their students in the classroom, so why wouldn’t we do the same thing for teacher professional development? There are a few ways to make this happen:

Having participants complete a survey ahead of time that gauges their level of expertise/experience is the first step to effective differentiation. Interpreting these results should guide the day’s agenda, and will hopefully enable the session leader to activate teacher interest by including topics that they would like to learn more about.
Teachers who have advanced skills or experience can guide a breakout session using their expertise to build their colleagues’ knowledge base. Additionally, teachers may be more willing to listen and engage with someone they already know.

6. Bringing Content to Life

Humor and fun are not just for the playground and classroom! Sharing humorous, real-world examples can be an effective way to engage participants and promote a safe and comfortable environment where meaningful professional development can take place. Bringing in humor and real life can also help keep teachers engaged and create memorable experiences.

When you’re planning out your PD sessions, keep these things in mind. PD should be beneficial for all educators, and students, too, so consider which way and when is best for your teachers to participate in PD. Incorporating these keys to effective professional development sessions is important to teachers’ personal growth and should be approached with careful consideration.

SOURCES

DARLING-HAMMOND, L., CHUNG WEI, R., ANDREE, A., RICHARDSON, N., & ORPHANOS, S. (2009). PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN THE LEARNING PROFESSION: A STATUS REPORT ON TEACHER DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD. DALLAS, TX: NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://STATIC1.SQUARESPACE.COM/STATIC/56B90CB101DBAE64FF707585/T/583C7FE720099E25D0B1BD24/1480359912004/NSDCSTUDY2009.PDF