Improving Instruction Through Implementation of the Partnership Instructional Coaching Model

Purpose: The No Child Left Behind Act sets a challenging goal of having all students, including students with disabilities, achieve proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2014. Schools and districts are held accountable for making adequate progress toward proficiency for all students and subgroups, and the performance of students with disabilities is often cited as a particular challenge for schools in achieving annual proficiency targets. Research has identified a number of teaching practices which may accelerate academic progress for students with disabilities, but professional development research has lagged behind in identifying methods for facilitating teachers' professional learning so they can adopt research-based practices on a widespread and ongoing basis. The researchers on this project will develop and evaluate a teacher training model called the Partnership Instructional Coaching model for improving instruction and achievement for students with disabilities. This model will incorporate a number of practices that have been demonstrated to promote professional learning in teachers, such as (a) one-to-one non-evaluative partnership relationships between a coach and teacher, (b) empirically proven teaching practices, (c) modeling by coaches in teachers classrooms, (d) observation of teachers by coaches in teachers' classrooms, (e) collaborative discussions about teaching practices, model lessons, teachers' lessons, and (f) ongoing support (modeling, observation, collaborative discussion) until teachers' use of new practices is fluent and habitual.

The following teacher-level measures will be used: (1) Instruments developed during project year one to measure teachers' attitudes toward and knowledge of evidence-based practices; (2) Surveys and observations to measure teachers' implementation of their designated models (e.g., assessment of Partnership Instructional Coaching).