States across the US continue to reexamine instructional priorities with legislation around the science of reading or state standards. We know that instruction is one piece of the puzzle, and we previously discussed how assessments play a crucial role alongside curriculum and instruction. But how can leaders help create the infrastructure to ensure assessments, curriculum, and instruction work together?
Sometimes, it may feel like a lot of these decisions are out of leaders' control. As they try to accomplish their goals for their schools, districts, and systems, they often face one or multiple barriers as a result. Often, they fall into one or more of these buckets:
As overwhelming as these barriers may seem, they also hold the potential to unlock new opportunities for impactful leadership. The key to overcoming these barriers lies not just in addressing them but in reframing them as opportunities to create a more focused, connected, and resilient leadership model.
The first step toward having actionable insights that lead to successful student outcomes is ensuring that three critical elements are in place:
- Readiness Conditions that make sure educators are prepared for the transformational change needed to improve student outcomes.
- Effective Tools across curriculum, instruction, and assessment that help ensure a high-quality learning environment.
- A Reliable Coach at the center of strategies to ensure successful outcomes in curriculum implementation, assessment alignment, and foundational literacy.
These components work together to provide a foundation for not only tackling barriers but also transforming them into opportunities for growth. With a reliable coach, leaders can turn those barriers into opportunities.
- Prioritization: Navigating numerous initiatives can be overwhelming, but it also presents an opportunity to sharpen focus and identify the most impactful actions that lead to successful student outcomes. This is a chance to hone in on what truly matters.
- Connection: Leadership can sometimes feel isolating, especially when faced with significant challenges. Having a coach can give leaders the opportunity to build a meaningful connection with a trusted thought partner who can provide support, share insights, and collaborate on solutions. Embracing this opportunity can transform feelings of loneliness into moments of powerful collaboration and shared purpose.
- Cultural Transformation: A coach pushes leaders to see things differently, and identify new approaches. A coach can be a bridge of objectivity that unites leaders and teachers, helping leaders align on common goals, establish more effective two-way communication, and break down silos. It’s a chance to inspire a culture of innovation and openness.
- Professional Growth: When leaders have an outside perspective on instructional leadership, leaders can receive tailored professional growth opportunities. A job-embedded coach helps craft a personal learning path that not only fills this gap but also empowers leaders to lead with confidence and expertise in instructional leadership.
By embracing these opportunities, leaders can cultivate a culture of success—one that directly improves student outcomes and builds a more supportive, collaborative educational environment. Our team of coaches have experienced many of these growth opportunities. Here’s how we help leaders grow:
- Ensure readiness conditions are in place–we get to know the school or district. If these conditions are missing, we help put them in place.
- Create a coherent strategy that creates conditions of equity–with an integrated system of tools and trainings, we help create an actionable and sustainable strategy for student achievement.
- Build a strong ecosystem for every person–we help build a culture where everyone understands the how and why of equitable education, and everyone knows how to make it happen.
- Gather the tools & resources for success–we craft a learning plan that is practical and meets the needs of the leader, with resources along the way to meet goals.
- This can be job-embedded coaching and/or professional development (which includes a coach to help implement insights!) to support effective assessment strategy and data usage, curriculum strategy and implementation, and/or literacy strategy and instruction.
- Gain actionable insights–together, we finetune practices for rigorous, standards-aligned instruction informed by data and student work. We help triangulate different data points to gain information that can immediately put into practice.
Together is the keyword. When leaders work with an ANet coach, they’re not alone. Together, we can turn the barriers into opportunities, ensure the right elements are in place, and help lead teams to create better infrastructure for student success.
Explore how a coach can help you at www.achievementnetwork.org/coaching.
This blog is part of our 2024 Coaching Week. Read more of the Coaching Week content:
- Coaching: A Key To Achieving Instructional Goals
- Coaches on Coaching Series
- The Power of Prioritization Webinar
- Video: Partners on Coaching
- Feature: Philadelphia Leaders Flourish with Job-Embedded Professional Development