81
Volume:
2018
,
November

Coaching the Leadership Game

Submitted By:
Jessica Flaxman, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA

Impact Coaching: Scaling Instructional Leadership by Raymond L. Smith and Julie R. Smith
Corwin, January 1, 2018

It would be hard to pinpoint the moment when coaching principles began to migrate from the athletic field into the arenas of leadership and education, but it’s clear that coaching frameworks are regularly enhancing teacher and administrator performance in schools today. With support from instructional coaching guru Jim Knight, Drs. Raymond and Julie Smith offer this new and comprehensive playbook for educators looking to intensify their leadership game. Based on John Hattie’s work on impact in his Visible Learning suite, Ray and Julie Smith argue that, just as student learning is greatly impacted by teachers' pedagogical practices, so too is teacher development greatly impacted by administrators' leadership practices. Thus, just as Hattie’s work helps teachers to prioritize high-impact pedagogies in their classrooms, Impact Coaching helps leaders to prioritize the "Big Five High-Impact Instructional Leadership Practices" - namely, establishing a shared vision, mission, goals and expectations; strategic resourcing; ensuring teacher and staff effectiveness; leading and participating in teacher/leader learning and development; and providing an orderly, safe, and supportive environment. Impact Coaching is full of clearly stated and cleanly organized figures, tables, checklists and rubrics, making it an unusually useful leadership development resource.

Categories
Teaching Practice
Leadership Practice