What comes to mind when you hear the word coach? Perhaps your favorite sports team? Over the past decade, the coaching concept has expanded beyond the athletic field and become fundamental to the success of companies and organizations.
Coaching has been an integral component of NYCLA’s approach to developing effective school leadership for many years. In 2008, we launched two forms of coaching services — assistance in building new and strengthening existing coaching programs, and direct coaching for principals and other school leaders. Since then, we have helped over 20 clients across the country develop and improve coaching programs.
Coaching Program Consultancy for Districts and Organizations
Clients throughout the country have called upon NYCLA to collaborate with them to build more robust and effective coaching services. We’ve helped build our clients’ capacity to grow and enhance coaching programs through program design, coach recruitment, coach training, and ongoing program assessment.
As an example of this, NYCLA partnered with the Austin Independent School District to support the launch of a coaching support program for new principals. Part of this initiative included NYCLA assisting program leadership with the recruitment and selection of their coaches and providing both in-person and online coach training.
An Austin coach who participated in the May 2014 training reflected that NYCLA’s coaches offered invaluable feedback and brought big ideas into focus through probing questions and relevant real-life examples. “This opportunity has brought renewed excitement to our program and a commitment to honing our skills and growing as coaches,” she reflects.
This fall, with the generous support of the Wallace Foundation, we will publish a guide to our coaching model to help programs consider how they can more effectively leverage coaching to support and strengthen school leaders.
In addition, we are offering a 1.5-day training for school leadership coaches nationwide on August 11-12 in New York City. Coaches from more than 20 states have attended this training in the past and vastly improved their practice as a result. To learn more about this training or to register coaches to attend, contact our National Consulting team at contactus@leadershipacademy.org.
Direct Coaching for School Leaders
Each year, NYCLA conducts surveys to measure the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of our direct coaching work. The feedback from principals in New York City speaks for itself.
In a recent survey of New York City Department of Education principals coached by NYCLA, 93% of the 280 respondents agreed that the coaching they received this year led to improvements in classroom instruction in their school. In addition, more than 95% of survey respondents agreed that their coach guided them in using school data to inform instructional practice and pushed their thinking, even when it was uncomfortable for them.
One principal reflects, “As a result of our ongoing walkthroughs and instructional conversations, including feedback, I have seen the quality of writing has significantly improved.” Another coachee shared, “I am now able to prioritize the feedback I provide my teachers so that they receive it in small nuggets and grow progressively.”
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NYCLA understands that effective programs must be responsive to the local context and needs of the schools, districts and clients it serves. As a result, our consultants are dedicated to providing customizable services that achieve tangible results for leaders and ultimately for their students.
For more information on:
- face-to-face and online resources for building and strengthening coaching programs, CLICK HERE.
- direct coaching services offered in NYC, CLICK HERE.