How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of an Instructional Coach
The role of an instructional coach is to support the growth and development of teachers in the classroom. There are a variety of ways in which instructional coaches can provide support like leading professional development sessions, facilitating professional learning community meetings, implementing coaching cycles and more!
It’s important to know whether these support efforts are working or else there is no need for the instructional coaching role. Two important questions you might ask to determine if it’s working:
- Are teachers gaining proficiency in the classroom?
- Is that growth translating to an increase in student achievement?
Setting the Stage to Evaluate an Instructional Coach
- Hire a teacher leader with a track record of instructional excellence and leadership experience
- Establish expectations and duties for the instructional coaching role
- Provide training and onboarding of staff
Preparing to Evaluate an Instructional Coach
- Create a coaching evaluation rubric that fits your needs and initiatives (or maybe even a rubric for one portion of coaching, like an Observation Debrief Coach Performance Rubric)
- Roll out the rubric to the instructional coach
- Norm as an admin team by completing practice ratings by observing the instructional coach partnering with teachers in a variety of settings (ie. during a coaching debrief, PLC meetings or PD delivery)
Evaluate an Instructional Coach
- Observe the instructional coach in all duties (by each quarter/semester)
- Use the performance rubric to assign ratings
- Meet to discuss ratings (highlight strength and areas of improvement)
- Set goals for the next quarter/semester
Focus Areas to Evaluate an Instructional Coach
The following data points are suggestions for what to collect to show efficacy of the instructional coaching role:
- Student achievement (formal and informal scores)
- Student/parent survey results
- Teacher performance change by indicator on the rubric (quarterly)
- Coach growth on performance rubric
- Coach task completion by deadlines
- Meeting professionalism standards
… and more!
Grab the Evidence of Instructional Coaching Role Bundle with over 20 ways to showcase the effectiveness of the position- great for performance evaluation or proving funding needs.
Final Thoughts
No matter what system or evaluation rubric you utilize to determine the effectiveness of the instructional coach, be consistent and transparent. You can continue to develop your systems and rubrics over time as you implement them, paying close attention to the drawbacks and advantages.
As a final reminder, supporting the growth of the coach translates into the growth of the teacher which ultimately benefits the achievement of students.
Grab all the instructional coaching forms to support this role at your school site.
Go Be Great!
How do you evaluate instructional coaches?
About the author, Gretchen
I am a teacher trainer and coach. Working elbow to elbow with teachers and teacher leaders to ensure instructional proficiency and student achievement soar lights me up. We have a real need in our nation for strong educators to remain in the field. My blog, book, podcast, courses and instructional materials are geared towards empowering teachers (and those that lead them) to receive the support needed to grow and thrive today, tomorrow and always.
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