After several years of operating in crisis mode, many teachers are feeling exhausted and burned out. More than ever, they need to feel appreciated, valued, and respected to be resilient in the face of ongoing stress. One of the best ways to show appreciation for teachers is to value their professional growth and provide support to address their…

Efforts to tackle educator stress should balance self-care with demands for changes to the unjust systems that cause the stress. To illustrate how coaching can ensure that the steps educators take are equitable and include perspectives and voices of educators who have been historically marginalized, the author has created a composite story about…

Professional learning usually means growing an educators' knowledge base, abilities, and mindsets for the purpose of benefiting students. But Harford County Public Schools in Maryland has reframed it with a much broader scope. Professional learning is now called organizational development, reflecting the district's aim for everyone in all…

This article describes the power of using a brief video clip during one-on-one coaching conversations, which provides teachers intense personal attention about the work that matters to them the most, as even 30 seconds of video can highlight teachers' effective practices. This idea emerged as the most influential component of the…

Literacy is a fundamental skill for students in every academic subject area and, most importantly, for navigating the world outside of school. The Long Beach Network for School Improvement focuses on building educators' capacity to support student literacy skills in middle schools in Long Beach, California, with a particular focus on increasing…

In spring 2022, the continuous improvement team at the Bank Street Education Center (the Ed Center) set out to articulate what it means to "center equity" in their work with school districts and how to ensure that they do so consistently. They have identified a series of thinking routines that they use regularly to infuse…

In this article, the author describes their experience coaching teacher leaders as part of the NYC Continuous Learning Multilingual Learner Network, which is composed of 33 New York City middle schools working together to strengthen support and outcomes for Black and Latinx multilingual learners who experience the impact of poverty. Network…

A school is much more than a collection of individual classrooms. Fostering a collaborative and learning-oriented culture can improve teachers' and students' success. In model classrooms, teachers who have participated in professional learning open their classroom doors and agree to have others observe as they work to integrate the targeted new…

At the start of the 2020-21 school year, six months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of everyone, the author and the other instructional coaches in her district were temporarily reassigned to virtual teaching positions. In this article, the author shares what she learned about the kinds of support teachers need and how…

For teachers and coaches, co-teaching can be exciting, rewarding, and full of powerful learning. It offers teachers supported experiences to apply new knowledge in their own contexts, exemplifying active engagement in job-embedded professional learning. Co-teaching requires the coach and teacher to make continuous, intentional decisions about how…

The authors have researched, designed, and engaged in leadership coaching for many years, from many angles and across many district contexts. They have been struck by how rare it is to see a leadership coaching model that clearly aligns with and supports district priorities. To help change that pattern, the authors have distilled the lessons they…

Two years after the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to take a toll on educators' morale and well-being. The need to strengthen relationships between educators and students is growing. The MyTeachingPartner-Secondary (MTP-S) program, which is a strengths-based coaching program for middle and high school teachers, helps educators respond…

Although instructional coaches are deeply committed to continuous improvement, they rarely have access to professional learning themselves. Rarer still is differentiated professional learning that meets coaches where they are in their careers and their professional growth. Just as Florida's Orange County Public Schools accentuates the importance…

Data is so deeply woven into the fabric of people's lives that it is next to impossible to imagine what a data-free life would be like. But despite the centrality of data in everyone's personal lives, when people talk about data in schools, their comments are often negative. The authors of this article believe "data" should not be a…

It can be hard for leaders to find inspiration and joy when times are as stressful as they have been in the last two years. Coaching can help principals step back and rediscover their motivation or find new sources of inspiration. Coaching is a powerful approach to assist principals in being leaders of high-performing schools where students and…