The Art of Coaching Read online

  What is your vision of how you'd like to partner with a coach?

  How do teachers feel about getting a coach? How do you know what they feel?

  Speaking of Race

  In June 2011, in the Oakland Unified School District where I work, fewer than 50 percent of the African American and Latino boys who had enrolled in high school four years earlier graduated; almost 75 percent of Asian American and white males graduated. One in three African American boys in Oakland middle schools is suspended in a given year; this exceeds the suspension rate of white males by six times. In our schools that are 100 percent students of color, it's not uncommon to find that the majority of teachers are young white women from middle-class backgrounds. Oakland is not unique among urban districts in facing these issues. Rural and suburban schools grapple with some of the same challenges on a different scale, and with other issues that reflect their contexts. It's hard to work in schools these days without recognizing the patterns in outcomes that correlate to socioeconomic factors and reflect broader patterns of achievement and power.

  In order to talk about transformational coaching that works toward equitable schools, we're going to have to talk about race and class and gender and all those other issues that have divided people. There's no way around it. And yet we don't live in a society where these topics are discussed, we may have little experience engaging in this dialogue, and we may not know how. So what can coaches do?

  Let's start with three truths about this work, offered with the hope of bringing relief:

  This isn't going to be easy. Whether we're talking to people who share our particular cultural group or skin tones, or we're in mixed company, speaking about race, classism, patriarchy, homophobia, and the like is going to be uncomfortable.

  There is no “right way” to have these conversations. We're going to struggle to find the right words and get them out; we're going to blunder and stumble.

  We have to do it anyway. We need to gather skills, manage our own discomfort, and engage in conversations about race, class, privilege, and power because children need us to.

  This book will offer some ways to speak about race, but you'll also want to read other authors, attend workshops, and engage in other forms of learning. You'll find suggestions for these in the recommended resources in Appendix E.

  The Value of Coaching

  The fact that coaching has been taken up in so many personal and professional realms in the last couple of decades is another data set to consider as we make the case for coaching in our schools. Athletic coaches have long been recognized as those who play the determining role in a team's success—their disproportionately high salaries may reflect this appreciation (a value that is not reflected in the salaries of coaches working in schools). The business world has engaged coaches at all levels, and various companies attribute their successes to coaching. Life coaches have proliferated in recent years; clients who once went to therapy are now trying coaching as a self-help approach. Spiritual coaches are emerging from many traditions. Finally, experienced surgeons are discovering that coaching can improve their practice and they are recommending it to their ranks (Gawande, 2011).

  Coaching has proliferated because it is responsive to what we know about what adults need in order to be able to learn. Coaching is at its essence a nurturing structure, but it is also one where there is always a subtle push for change. It grants space for emotions, but doesn't linger in feelings; our intention is to address them, process them, and then move on. Coaches encourage us to explore our core values, behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being and compel us to venture into new behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being. It is this essential combination of safety, support, encouragement, and forward movement that makes coaching feel so satisfying, that allows us to make changes in what we do, and even to transform who we are.

  Coaching, however, is not a panacea for our education system. As Diane Ravitch cautions, “In education, there are no shortcuts, no utopias, and no silver bullets” (Ravitch, 2010, p. 3). But coaching is one piece—an essential piece—of the multilayered approach that will be necessary to transform schools. Teachers and leaders need high-quality professional development that takes many shapes and forms, and that development includes coaching, but they also need living wages, improved working conditions, and a whole lot more respect. Our schools need a tremendous influx of cash: decrepit, antiquated buildings need to be repaired, basic supplies dwindle every year, class sizes keep increasing, support staff is slashed out of the budget, and so on. Curriculum must be improved in order to meet the needs of all our students. Our schools cannot continue to exist or be treated as isolated entities in a community—those of us working with and in schools must support them to become more tightly connected to, in service of, and responsive to the communities in which they are located. And on the policy front, the necessary changes are too many to list. The transformation of our education system will need to happen on many levels from the macro to the micro, from policy changes and taxation reform to the interpersonal relationships between people in a school.

  But we must devote more time, money, and attention to improving the practice of the adults who work in schools. Coaching offers a model for professional development that can support teachers and principals in making immediate and long-term changes and becoming artful masters in our profession; these changes can lead to the transformation of our education system and the experiences and outcomes of the children it is meant to serve.

  Chapter 2

  What Is Coaching?

  Read this when:

  You're beginning a new coaching assignment; a clear definition will help you articulate your role and responsibilities, which in turn helps build trusting relationships

  You're a principal considering hiring a coach or establishing a coaching program

  You're looking for a coaching job and you want to find the best fit

  A Story about a Coach Who Didn't Know What She Was

  “What does she do?” they whispered behind my back during my first months as an English language arts coach.

  “Are you here to help us with Holt?” Ms. X asked me in the hallway. When I said no, that I wasn't there to enforce usage of the mandated curriculum, and that in fact I didn't like textbooks (a statement that I hoped would earn me points—who likes curriculum police?), she threw up her hands and turned away, shaking her head.

  The requests came: “Can you make some copies for me, put up a bulletin board, order books?” “Can you cover my class while I go to the bathroom?” “Can you find out why Dominique's mom won't return my calls?” “Can you get the principal to do something about these kids?”

  I met some of these requests. And then I tried to observe a few English teachers, model lessons, compile student data, and facilitate the English department's meetings. I designed and delivered some professional development (PD) sessions. But most of my efforts were met with resistance. I struggled to build trusting relationships, I didn't see changes in teacher practice, and I felt ineffective and frustrated most of the time.

  At first I wanted to blame the principal; he hadn't positioned me well, he hadn't defined my role, and he had thrown me into the most toxic department in a dysfunctional school. But it wasn't his fault—he was a new leader in a very difficult situation. And the school needed way more than a coach to solve its problems. It wasn't my fault that I was ineffective, either—I had good intentions and I knew a few things about instruction—but I had no training as a coach. I didn't know what to do or how to do it.

  Unfortunately, I know that my experience at this school was not unique. The majority of coaches I have met say that they feel that their job description is not clear. A coach's need to have a sense of the field of coaching and then define her own work is an essential starting place. This chapter puts forth some definitions of coaching and the model described in this book—transformational coaching. After becoming familiar with coaching models, I suggest that coaches construct a vision for themselves a
s a coach.

  Why We Need a Definition

  Administrators: this next section will be useful when you are deciding how to make the best use of coaching.

  The title coach has been loosely and widely applied in the field of education. New teachers are sometimes appointed a coach who might be a mentor and confidant, or simply someone who stops in every other week to fill out paperwork. Many mandated curricula initiatives deploy “coaches” to enforce implementation. Some schools have “data coaches” who gather and analyze data, prepare reports, meet with teachers to discuss the results, and suggest actions to take. Some districts assign coaches to underperforming veteran teachers as a step in the complicated process of firing a teacher. Central office administrators have also appointed “school improvement coaches” to schools that have failed to improve test scores. Finally, some teachers have experienced a coach who coplans lessons, observes instruction and offers feedback, models instructional strategies, gathers resources, and offers support with new curricula. There have been enough coaches passing through schools in recent decades that most educators have some idea about what a coach does. Coaches have a responsibility to understand this context and to provide a definition for what their work entails.

  A definition of coaching is also necessary to help us come to agreement about what coaching is not. Let me suggest a few things that coaching must never be used for:

  Coaching is not a way to enforce a program. Coaches should never be used as enforcers, reporters, or evaluators. This approach has many negative implications and demeans the field of coaching.

  Coaching is not a tool for fixing people. It is not something you should do with or to ineffective teachers. It is not a box to be checked so that a district can move toward disciplinary measures. Coaching should not be mandated, and teachers or principals should be able to opt out of coaching. Coaching (as a form of professional development) won't be effective if the client doesn't want to engage in it. We can't force people to learn.

  Coaching is not therapy. A coach does not pursue in-depth explorations of someone's psyche, childhood, or emotional issues. While these areas may arise in coaching—and, in fact, they frequently do—the role of a coach is not to dwell here. Sometimes a coach needs to delineate the lines between what she knows and can do and what a mental health expert knows and can do for a client. A coach needs to be very clear about the boundaries between coaching and therapy, and to remember that the focus of coaching is on learning and developing new skills and capacities.

  Coaching is not consulting. A coach is not necessarily an expert who trains others in a way of doing something; a coach helps build the capacity of others by facilitating their learning.

  Because coaching has been linked to enforcement of a program or disciplinary measures, and as such has disempowered educators, those of us who intend to practice it as a vehicle for transformation must be responsible for presenting a clear definition of what it is, who we are, what we do, and why we do it. We need to interrupt any stories that are not in alignment with what we're doing. Entering into a school or a coaching relationship with a clear definition that you can communicate will enable you to build much stronger relationships from the beginning.

  Because there are so many different ideas circulating about what a coach is, when you start working with a new client it's important to ask him about his past experiences with coaching (even if your own definition of the role is clear). You need to know what he thinks the role entails, how he defines coaching, and what he wants and expects from coaching. See Chapter Five for more questions to ask in an initial meeting with a new client.

  What Are the Different Coaching Models?

  New coaches tend to focus on the actions, behaviors, and outward indicators of coaching, such as questioning techniques, observations, and giving feedback—the doing of coaching. Below the surface of what we do is what we think and believe about what we're doing. Finally, below that layer of beliefs and thinking is a layer of being—who we're being when we're coaching. The art of coaching is doing, thinking, and being: doing a set of actions, holding a set of beliefs, and being in a way that results in those actions leading to change. These are the three things that can make coaching transformational.

  Let's first consider coaching models through two lenses: those that support only teachers and leaders in changing their behaviors, and those that support teachers and leaders in also considering changing their beliefs and ways of being. Directive coaching, which is also sometimes called instructive coaching, generally focuses on changing behaviors. When a coach suggests that a teacher circulate around the classroom while students are responding to a discussion prompt, her coaching is directive. Facilitative coaching can build on changes in behavior to support someone in developing ways of being or it can explore beliefs in order to change behaviors. When a coach asks a teacher to explain her decision making behind the delivery of a lesson, her coaching is facilitative. Finally, I'll describe transformational coaching, the model that I'm putting forth in this book and that I believe offers the greatest possibility for transforming our education system.

  Coaches are much more effective when they can name the approach they're taking at a particular time. Having that awareness allows us to make decisions and take actions that are aligned to a specific model. We can also determine when shifting into a different approach might be more effective.

  Directive (or Instructive) Coaching

  An Example of Directive Coaching

  Tania, a first-year teacher, collapsed into her chair when I entered her room. “I am completely overwhelmed,” she said, her head dropping into her open palms. “I don't know if I can do this.”

  “What's going on?” I asked. We were three weeks into the school year.

  Tania described a day that was typical, in many ways, for a novice teacher: struggles with classroom management and organization, lessons that were partially completed, a frustrated parent after school, and her own fatigue and insecurities. “I don't know what to do,” she said, after relaying these challenges. “Just tell me. Tell me what to do!”

  Although I am not inclined to be a directive coach, I recognized this as a moment in which I needed to do just that.

  “OK, Tania,” I said. “Let's start with a couple of high-leverage areas.” I decided I would identify these areas based on what I know about teaching—I could have guided her through a process to think about what she already knows, and arrive at what would probably have been the same areas that I settled on, but because of her emotional and physical fatigue, I decided to name them.

  “Let's deal with some organizational and classroom management strategies,” I said. I made various suggestions and then encouraged Tania to make decisions about what she felt she could do. I did not tell her what to do or what I had done as a teacher, but I did name two or three strategies that “many teachers find effective.”

  Tania was relieved at the end of our ninety-minute meeting. She had a solid plan for the next day on how she'd address behavior and organize materials for her lesson. “I think I can do this,” she said as we wrapped up. “I can implement this plan. I can get through tomorrow. And I can actually see how eventually I might just be able to do this teaching thing.” This comment was the evidence I needed to validate my decision to be instructive in my coaching.

  Directive (or instructive) coaching (the terms are used interchangeably in the literature) generally focuses on changing a client's behaviors. The coach shows up as an expert in a content or strategy and shares her expertise. She might provide resources, make suggestions, model lessons, and teach someone how to do something.

  This kind of coaching is frequently practiced by those who coach in a particular content, discipline, or instructional framework. For example, a district may adopt a new curriculum and provide coaches who will help teachers master the material. Or a school may take on a behavior management program and hire coaches who can support implementation. As the United States transitions to the Common Co
re State Standards, I anticipate many schools will hire coaches to support teachers in putting these standards into practice. In this model, the coach is seen as an expert who is responsible for teaching a set of skills or sharing a body of knowledge.

  Directive coaching strategies are relevant and necessary at times, as in the case Tania at the beginning of her first year of teaching. However, these strategies are also limited. Directive coaching alone is less likely to result in long-term changes of practice or internalization of learning. A coach may notice that she returns to visit a teacher she worked with, only to find that the teacher has given up using the strategies that she appeared to have adopted in coaching. “What happened?” the coach might bemoan.

  Such a scenario is often seen when a coach limits her coaching tools to directive strategies; the coaching did not expand the teacher's internal capacity to reflect, make decisions, or explore her ways of being. What was accomplished was a change in practice, for a limited time. For coaching to have deep, long lasting impact, it is imperative that a coach uses additional coaching strategies that support educators to explore, develop, and/or change their beliefs and ways of being.

  Facilitative Coaching

  An Example of Facilitative Coaching

  It was early March of Tania's first year teaching.

  “Today's lesson went so well!” she said as I walked in. “I wish you'd seen the first part. They were in teams and were totally engaged in analyzing the document I gave them. They asked each other great questions and challenged each other.”