While coaches can have a positive impact on teachers’ practice and students’ learning, in many school districts teachers have the autonomy to decide whether and when to work with a coach. Coaches then must work to gain access to teachers’ classrooms. In a recent study of 28 content-focused coaches, researchers Jen Munson and Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides found that coaches used six types of strategies to gain access, typically coordinating multiple strategies tailored to the context. In this article, they describe these strategies and provide a reflection tool coaches can use to identify strategies they might use to increase their classroom access to support teaching and learning.
HarbourK.E.SaclaridesE.S. (2020). Mathematics coaches, specialists, and student achievement: Learning from the data. Phi Delta Kappan, 102 (3), 42–45.
2.
KraftM.A.BlazarD.HoganD. (2018). The effect of teacher coaching on instruction and achievement: A meta-analysis of the causal evidence. Review of Educational Research, 88 (4), 547–588.
3.
LiebermanA.Pointer MaceD.H. (2008). Teacher learning: The key to educational reform. Journal of Teacher Education, 59 (3), 226–234.
4.
MunsonJ.SaclaridesE.S. (in press). Conflict and cooperation: Micropolitical forces impacting coaches’ access. The Elementary School Journal.
5.
MunsonJ.SaclaridesE.S. (2022). Getting a foot in the door: Examining content-focused coaches’ strategies for gaining access to classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 123 (1).
6.
SaclaridesE.S.MunsonJ. (2022). An exploration of coaches’ coordination of micropolitical strategies to gain access to teachers’ classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 123 (1).
7.
WoulfinS.L.RigbyJ.G. (2017). Coaching for coherence: How instructional coaches lead change in the evaluation era. Educational Researcher, 46 (6), 323–328.
