In my position as a statewide coaching
coordinator, I’ve traveled the Driftless region of southwest Wisconsin, the
peninsula of Door County and each of the five principal urban centers. In
speaking with coaches across the state, there are unique successes and barriers
depending on the individual cultures and contexts of the buildings and
districts they serve. Some smaller
districts shared a coach between all buildings, a larger district wondered how
to provide coaches with individualized learning plans and another wondered how
to connect with other coaches given their somewhat isolated location. One
theme that continued to surface, however was that leadership was key to the
equation of successful systems of coaching.
A culture of coaching and growth mindset often hinged on the leadership
and their understanding, support and development of systems to sustain coaching
as an innovation. Based on stories of
success and barriers, as well as research from the National Implementation
Research Network, Wisconsin has developed a worksheet to help guide the process
of developing systems to support coaching.
In broad strokes, implementation science as
described by NIRN is the study of systems and supporting the execution of
research-based best practices. This three-part blog will examine coaching
from three different lenses of implementation science. The first part will situate coaching within
the implementation science formula. The second considers the drivers of
coaching as an innovation and the final post will dive into concrete
considerations for each of the four implementation stages. Coaching is one critical component of
implementing an innovation. In essence, it drives the work. With so much research pointing toward
coaching as a key component to the success of a program, it is no wonder that
districts and schools are hiring coaches in droves. Giving someone the title of coach; however,
does not translate into a magical unicorn, but often a this is all a coach will
get in terms of direction and guidance. In fact, my recent interactions
with coaches has revealed that many of them don’t even have a job
description. In these scenarios coaches
are hungry for professional development, a chance to network, and a wish that
they were observed based on coaching skills instead of teaching. We must remember that coaching is also an
innovation; and just like any innovation, it must be mindfully and
intentionally operationalized.
This diagram visually highlights the fact that
effective innovations, which are effectively implemented within a context ( In
the case of coaching, the enabling context may be considered the learning
culture. Is there a culture of growth mindset that will be open to partnering
with a coach to improve student outcomes?) that enables and supports the
effective innovations, leads to socially significant outcomes. In many current systems, we are using
coaching to support other effective innovations. One example would be the
installation of literacy coaches who are hired by schools and districts to
support best literacy practices. This is a sound practice, but we must
first look at coaching as an innovation in and of itself and not a driver. Subsequently, in seeing coaching as an innovation,
we may then work to build a system to support it--only then will coaching yield
the socially significant outcomes that it promises.
This concept is easier for me to understand when
we examine the mathematical equation using numbers. In this example let’s use
coaching as the effective innovation and assign it a 10, given that it is
research-based. If we don’t spend any effort planning how coaching will be
implemented, our effective implementation will be a 0. It doesn’t matter
how great the effective innovation is, it will not result in a socially
significant outcome (10 x 0 = 0)
Furthermore, continuing with the example, if you take coaching and
implementation has been well-planned--we’ll assign a 10--but there is no
leadership to support a culture of growth, the enabling context will be a 0.
Again, the results will not get to the promise of the research (10 x 10 x
0 = 0).
Once the team has a baseline understanding of the formula, especially the importance of effective implementation, they can turn their sites towards building the implementation infrastructure--known as drivers. Check out the 2nd post to get more details.
Adapted content and graphic credits to National Implementation Research Network (NIRN).
