The Educational Partners LLC
With Superior Solutions LLC
Your Partners in Educational Excellence!
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Products:
Professional Coaching:
Part 1: An Overview (PDF)
Part 2: Instructional Coaching (PDF)
Part 3: Principal Coaching (PFD)
Part 4: The Impact of Professional Coaching
Part 5: Reference Page (PDF)
Services:
Central Office and Principal Coaching
Literacy and Title One Coaching
Overview of Services:
As an associate member of the Michigan Association of School Boards, TEP's coaching team recognizes the crucial role school boards provide in transforming "teacher-centered" schools into "learner-centered" schools. We realize that you face complex issues as you search for data-driven research-based solutions. Knowing that, we have formed a school board coaching team that includes school board members, instructional leaders, and content area coaches, who have been recognized by the Federal Department of Education. Calling upon this combined expertise our team can assist you and your district as you engage in the “eight essential...areas that focus and guide schools boards in their efforts to improve student achievement…vision, standards, assessment, accountability, alignment, climate, collaborative relationships, and continuous improvement” (National School Boards Association).
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Central Office and Principal Coaching:
TEP’s principal coaches are skilled instructional leaders who have established cultures conducive to teaching and learning in their own highly-diverse schools and have worked with their school communities to establish and maintain high levels of student achievement throughout their principalships. They bring this experience with them as coaches. However, as Cognitive CoachesSM, they never lose sight of the fact that it is their mission to focus on your goals and to help you meet these goals in a way that strengthens your instructional leadership and results in increased student achievement in your school. Page Menu Contact Us
District/Building Leadership Team Coaching:
TEP has put together a Leadership Coaching team to help your leadership
team meet its goals. Our team consists of one of our highly qualified
Principal Coaches and one of our highly qualified Capacity Coaches, who
both are certified
Cognitive CoachesSM
and
Group Cognitive CoachesSM.
Working in tandem, they coach the principal and leadership team.
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Comprehensive School Improvement Coaching:
Besides being certified Cognitive CoachesSM and Group Cognitive CoachesSM, TEP's Capacity Coaches are experienced Comprehensive School Improvement or Turn-Around Coaches who have a proven track record of success in working with schools like yours across the nation.
Professional Learning Community Coaching:
Research shows that Professional Learning Communities are not only a means to improve student achievement and increase student learning, but they are also the most effective way to engage the staff in professional development themselves. However, effective PLCs don’t just happen. “Research (also) emphasizes that coaching is a prerequisite for the implementation of new skills or strategies” (Showers, Joyce, & Bennett, 1987 in DuFour & Berkey 1995) like those that are part of effective PLCs where teachers are being asked to change long standing instructional practices. TEP’s team of Group Cognitive CoachesSM are highly experienced in this type of coaching. Our team can help you create a high performing, results-oriented, learner-centered school.
Page Menu Contact UsWhen we think of Content Coaches, we think of content experts who know the latest research in their content area, understand the State Standards, Benchmarks, and Grade Level Content Expectations, are well versed in research-based strategies, understand and utilize formative and summative assessments, are inquiry-based data-driven decision makers, and have a record of successful student learning as proof of the validity of their recommendations, but TEP’s Content Area Coaches are more than content experts. They are skilled Cognitive CoachesSM and Group Cognitive CoachesSM, who are experienced in working with individual teachers and Professional Learning Communities to help their clients, both individually and collectively, develop their own content expertise.
Page Menu Contact UsLiteracy/Title One/Special Education/ELL Coaching:
Many districts are using in-house Literacy Coaches and their Title One and Special Education teachers to serve as lead teachers who are responsible for providing professional development for their colleagues. As they model in classrooms, team teach, and provide feedback to others, they also need to be constantly increasing their own skill level so that they are more than one step ahead of those who they are coaching. Therefore it is imperative that they have ongoing professional development themselves. Professional Coaching is a perfect choice for them.
"Nine Proven Characteristics of Effective Schools" (Michigan Association of School Boards. Building Blocks for High Performing Schools)
“Clear and Shared Focus: From the board of education down to the students everyone is focused and committed to a shared vision and agreed upon goals based on common beliefs and values. At the root of these values is the belief that all students can learn.
High Standards and Expectations for all Students: Teachers and staff believe that all students can learn and meet high standards. Although it's recognized that some students have certain barriers to overcome, the barriers are not seen as insurmountable. Students are offered an ambitious and rigorous course of study.
Effective School Leadership: Effective instructional and administrative leadership promotes excellence, quality and professional growth and steadfastly supports people, programs, services and activities that lead to the accomplishment of district goals.
High levels of Collaboration and Communication: High performing schools encompass a community of learners. There is strong teamwork among teachers across all grades and with other staff. All members of the learning community, including students, parents and members of the community work together to create a supportive learning environment and to actively solve problems and create solutions.
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Aligned with Standards: High performing schools have aligned curriculum with the state standards which staff implements using research-based teaching and learning strategies. Staff understands the role of classroom and state assessments, what the assessments measure and how student work is evaluated.
Frequent Monitoring
of Teaching and Learning:
Teaching is
adjusted based on frequent monitoring of student progress and needs.
Assessment results are used to improve student performance and improve
instructional programs.
Focused Professional Development: Professional development is based on needs assessment and sustained over time. Deliberate decisions are made to support professional development that is aligned with the school district vision and goals.
Supportive Learning Environment: The school has a safe, civil, healthy and intellectually stimulating and personalized learning environment. Students feel respected and connected with the staff and are engaged in learning.
High Level of Parent & Community Involvement: Parents and community members understand and support the basic mission of the school and have an important role in achieving that mission"
(Michigan Association of School Boards
Article Online: Building Blocks for High Performing Schools).
In all of the above areas, TEP's coaches and consultants can help you create a more learner-centered school where the whole school community is working together to insure that all students are learning.
To learn more about our products and services...
“Research emphasizes that coaching is a prerequisite for the implementation of new skills or strategies” (Showers, Joyce, & Bennett, 1987 in DuFour & Berkey 1995).
Thus “providing teachers with ongoing support after the initial training is critical to the success of any innovation” (DuFour & Berkey 1995). This is especially true with the formation of Professional Learning Communities or any other initiative where teachers are being asked to change long-standing instructional practices.
Principals need to be aware of this and act as instructional leaders to provided the needed support to "assist teachers in improving their classroom performance; leaders can look to others, either inside or outside the physical building, but...leader(s) must be certain that help is available” (Hord 1997 b) as they go through this change process.
The same is true for administrators. The role of instructional leader is new to most principals. This is especially true for new or novice principals, so “the national principals’ organizations…have called for induction programs for novice principals that include processes like mentoring and coaching”…(and this kind of support should not be limited to novice principals.) It is clear that experienced principals also need ongoing support and professional development, and that a coach or mentor can be a key element of this process” (ERS, 2000 qdt. in Bloom, Castagna & Warren 2003). In fact, perhaps all principals “need an external coach as a source of confidential and expert support around the wide-ranging, problematic and often deeply personal issues that they must deal with from their first days on the job” (Bloom, Castagna & Warren 2003) and continue to deal with throughout their careers as they develop their own highly effective instructional leadership styles that help motivate their schools to become highly productive learning-centered communities where everyone is focused on student achievement, so the whole school community, teachers and administrators, and students, benefits from ongoing professional coaching.
(Jessup, Sally. (2007). The Impact of Professional Coaching. The Educational Partners LLC. Online)
© 2007 The Educational Partners LLC