Supercharge school improvement with instructional coaches!
How can coaches seamlessly integrate themselves into the fabric of a school and help teachers improve their practice from day one? This unique companion provides an inside look at the day-to-day work of an instructional coach and offers field-tested activities, materials, and data collection forms for coaches and instructional leadership teams. The authors address common challenges, including:
- Observing classrooms and providing formative feedback
- Reaching out to the hesitant or resistant teacher
- Adapting data and analysis into usable information for the team
- Recruiting, training, and supporting new instructional coaches
Dr. Dean T. Spaulding is currently an assistant professor at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, where he teaches educational research and program evaluation. Dr. Spaulding is the chair of the Teaching Evaluation SIG for the American Evaluation Association. He also has been a professional evaluator/researcher for ten years and has in-depth experience serving as evaluator on multiple state and federally funded projects. More specifically, he has conducted evaluation for programs focusing on K-12 settings, the use of technology in the classroom, as well as working in the area of teaching and learning with at-risk youth populations. At the government/state agency level, Dr. Spaulding has conducted research and provided programmatic feedback for New York State Department of Education, New York Sate Department of Public Health, and the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH). In addition, Dr. Spaulding has had experience serving as external evaluator on technology-related projects such as state and federal technology catalyst grants PT3: Preparing Tomorrow′s Teachers to Use Technology, and several Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grants. He is currently working on a US Education Department project with Syracuse University using technology and electronic portfolios as agents of changes in developing technology-rich school districts (UT3). Much of what he has learned in the area of research and teaching research comes from serving as co-principal investigator for eight years studying student-centered, inquiry-based high-school science programs for the National Science Foundations.
Dr. Spaulding also is one of the authors of Methods in Educational Research: From Theory to Practice, 2006, Jossey-Bass Wiley, San Francisco, and the author of Program Evaluation in Practice: Core Concepts and Examples for discussion and Analysis (2008), Jossey-Bass Wiley. Dr. Spaulding′ news book Action Research for School Leaders (Pearson) is due out in January 2012.
Gail Smith, a native of Brooklyn New York received her BA and MS at State University College at Oneonta, NY. She received her MS Ed Admin at the University at Albany, State University of NY. Her thirty six year career at an upstate New York urban school district included positions as teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and deputy superintendent of schools. In 1988, Gail was one of five finalists for New York State Teacher of the Year. After retiring, she worked for two years as an administrator at two different schools on Native American reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. She returned to her home district in July 2008 to work as a consultant and mentor for their Instructional Leadership/Instructional Coaches project. She also is the proud mother of three children. This is her first of many future publications.
