Improving the Implementation of a Model for Instructional Coaching and Testing its Effectiveness

Instructional coaching is one of the most well-known models for teacher professional development. In the model developed by Jim Knight, who leads the Instructional Coaching Group (ICG), instructional coaches partner with teachers to analyze current reality, set goals, identify and explain teaching strategies to hit the goals, and provide support until the goals are met.

This project is an example of AIR’s work to advance K-12 education through research-and-development partnerships with leading developers and service providers.

The first purpose of the project is to determine how ICG can best train, monitor, and support school districts’ coaches to help them follow their instructional coaching model successfully. For that purpose, AIR created partnerships with three school districts, where coaches now receive support from ICG while AIR gathers and analyzes data on the implementation of the coaching and the support coaches receive from ICG.

The project’s second purpose is to determine the impact of the coaching on student engagement and achievement. Together with ICG and several additional districts, AIR will launch a large-scale impact study, in which volunteering schools are randomly assigned to either receive or not receive support to implement Jim Knight’s coaching model.